SANTA FE, N.M. — SpaceX Chief Executive Elon Musk again appeared to rule out any near-term plans for spinning out his company’s Starlink broadband satellite business and taking it public.
Musk, speaking in a Dec. 21 audio session on X, the social media site formerly known as Twitter and also owned by Musk, argued that it did not make sense to take Starlink public and that he had no difficulties raising money for it privately.
Musk has said for several years that he had no immediate plans for spinning off Starlink and conducting an initial public offering (IPO) of shares to raise money. That included a comment in a 2020 talk where he said he was “thinking about that zero” when asked about a Starlink IPO.
However, he was more circumspect about a Starlink IPO in an online interview in June. “It would not be legal for me to speculate about a Starlink IPO,” said Musk, who has sparred with the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission in the past in his role as chief executive of automaker Tesla. “I think it’s against regulations to talk with any kinds of specifics about a future public offering.”
That interview came after a report that a Starlink spinoff and IPO could take place by the end of the year. His comments added to speculation that a Starlink IPO could happen sooner rather than later.
However, in the most recent discussion on X with investor Cathie Wood, Musk suggested there were no plans to take SpaceX itself, or the Starlink business unit, public for the foreseeable future. “I don’t think it’s worth going public until you have an extremely stable and predictable revenue stream,” he said. “If your cash flows are extremely stable and predictable, at that point going public is less of an issue.”
SpaceX is still building out the Starlink constellation, with more than 5,200 satellites in orbit. The company recently reported having more than 2.3 million Starlink users, although it was not clear if all were…
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