Elon Musk previously laid out what Starlink would need in order for it to be worthy of an initial public offering (IPO), and it looks like the company has almost achieved those goals.
Starlink is by far the most successful SpaceX project currently available and has the greatest mass market appeal. The satellite internet project is now reaching every continent on earth, bringing internet to some of the most hostile and inaccessible places on the planet. After this success, Starlink seems ready for an IPO.
The chance of Starlink going public was raised on Twitter by user @Teslaconomics, who pointed out that the global internet provider has almost met the conditions set by Elon Musk, which he announced back in 2021.
As mentioned in Elon Musk’s 2021 tweet, Starlink’s overall goal before going public is to generate predictable cash flow. And while predictability is hard to gauge as a private company outsider, its overall profitability has certainly improved over time, and the consistency with which it achieves this has also improved significantly. In 2022, Starlink posted its first quarterly profit, and many expect the company to achieve similar success this year.
Supporting Starlink’s financial endeavors has been primarily its coverage of the globe and more recently the declaration of numerous emerging industries such as aviation and maritime internet services. In either case, existing solutions are slower and less reliable than Starlink’s current offering. With more and more upgrades to the company’s satellite network, Starlink’s industry moat is expected to only widen.
At the same time, Elon Musk has finally expanded Starlink’s reach into areas where the service is likely to be more successful, areas that don’t yet have traditional internet infrastructure. This includes South and Central America, Southeast Asia, Africa and even parts of Europe. One of the best examples is Starlink’s recent expansion into El Salvador, which the Salvadoran President heralded as a notable achievement.
Going forward, the goal for Elon Musk and Starlink is clear: to expand the user base and continue to increase revenue per user by keeping costs under control. And while an IPO may still be more than a year away, the prospect of the internet system finally achieving consistent profitability from now on will no doubt attract investors.
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