Starlink, SpaceX’s satellite internet service, generated $1.4 billion in revenue last year, according to documents seen by The Wall Street Journal reveal. That’s up from $222 million in 2021, but $11 billion less than its original projections, according to the Diary.
Curiously, The Wall Street Journal‘s The report comes the same day that SpaceX executive Jonathan Hofeller said at a conference that it no longer incurs losses from producing Starlink satellite dishes. CNBC reports. According to documents consulted by The Wall Street Journal, Profitability was affected in 2022, but a report from the media last month said SpaceX managed to turn a profit in the first quarter of 2023.
In a 2015 investor presentation, the company founded by Elon Musk initially predicted that Starlink would make $12 billion and $7 billion in operating profits in 2022. SpaceX also projected that the division would have 20 million subscribers by the end of 2022, the company reveals. presentation. Instead, at the end of last year, Starlink only had more than 1 million active subscribers. In May 2023, the company reported that it had around 1.5 million users; however, CNBC reports Hofeller said he is now “well above” that mark.
In October 2022, Musk tweeted that Starlink was losing around $20 million a month to maintain its services before saying: “Although Starlink is still losing money and other companies are receiving billions of dollars from taxpayers, we will continue to fund the Ukrainian government for free “.
In a forthcoming book by Walter Isaacson, a extract of which was published by Washington Post, Isaacson quotes SpaceX President Gwynne Shotwell as saying that, before Musk’s change of gear, “the Pentagon had a $145 million check ready to hand to me, literally. Elon then succumbed to the nonsense of Twitter and the Pentagon haters who leaked the story.” However, Isaacson claims that government agencies have finally started paying for increased Starlink service in Ukraine.
