Starlink achieves cash-flow breakeven, says SpaceX CEO Musk

Elon Musk, the CEO of SpaceX, announced on Thursday that the satellite internet unit Starlink has reached a point where its cash flow is balanced. Musk also revealed plans to spin off and make Starlink a publicly traded company once its cash flow becomes more predictable.

Since 2019, Starlink has rapidly expanded its network in low-Earth orbit and now operates approximately 5,000 satellites, making it the largest satellite operator globally and a formidable competitor to other satellite internet providers like Viasat and OneWeb, recently acquired by Eutelsat. 

In a recent post on social media platform X, Musk announced that Starlink will soon be the majority of all active satellites and will have launched the majority of satellites from Earth by the following year.

He said "Starlink is also now a majority of all active satellites and will have launched a majority of all satellites cumulatively from Earth by next year," 

Starlink gained significant attention since last year due to its contribution in providing satellite communications to Ukraine, particularly in support of its efforts in the war against Russia.

In response to a communication blackout that left the people of Gaza disconnected from the world and from one another, Musk also stated that Starlink will assist in establishing communication links with internationally recognized aid organizations. 

According to the Wall Street Journal, Musk aimed to make the Starlink business unit a significant income generator to finance SpaceX's ambitious projects, including the next-generation Starship.

This reusable rocket is intended to transport astronauts to the moon for NASA in the next ten years.

However, despite Starlink's impressive revenue growth of over six times to $1.4 billion in the past year, it did not meet Musk's set targets.