SpaceX Starlink IPO — 21st century’s biggest investment opportunity. Here is why:
The Internet Is The Fountain Of All Knowledge. It is “a global communication network that allows almost all computers worldwide to connect and exchange information” the greatest invention of the 20th Century… You can learn anything on the internet.
It is estimated that 37 percent of the global population, around 2.9 billion people, has never used the internet, according to data from the (ITU)
The internet has already shaken up our lives in some incredible ways, it’s revolutionary potential is perhaps only beginning to be realized. Just think what will happen when an additional 3 billion users come online as expected over the next few years.
This influx of humanity could represent a massive step forward for society and economies, improving incomes for citizens everywhere and enabling knowledge sharing between people with previously unconnected perspectives.
Furthermore, it could greatly increase the amount of content available to explore and enjoy — truly there is no telling how vast the impact of this shift will be.
Starlink is a satellite internet constellation operated by SpaceX, providing satellite Internet access coverage to 47 countries.
SpaceX is the king of integration:The company builds its own rockets, with its own engines; it launches them; it sends tourists into space; plan to build a city on Mars and it has put Starlink, the largest constellation of low-altitude satellites, into orbit.
Starlink is a product of SpaceX which is private company and does not publish its financial statements. It’s possible that Starlink will become its own entity so it won’t threaten the SpaceX Mars mission when Publicly Traded.
“SpaceX needs to pass through a deep chasm of negative cash flow over the next year or so to make Starlink financially viable,” — @elonmusk said in a tweet. The Starlink IPO could make way in 2023, years earlier than planned, Chamath Palihapitiya said on his podcast @theallinpod
SpaceX announced reaching more than one million subscribers in December 2022. A 100.000% increase in 22 months.
As of February 2023, Starlink consists of over 3,580 mass-produced small satellites in low Earth orbit (LEO), which communicate with designated ground transceivers. In total, nearly 12,000 satellites are planned to be deployed, with a possible later extension to 42,000.
High Bariers to Entry
SpaceX launch services are less expensive than many of its competitors. With rapid reusability and cheapest launch costs making it nearly imposible for any compentition to compete without hundreds of billions of dollars to burn.
With Starlink IPO we could see a rise of many new startups or projecs like Amazon’s Kuiper trying to capitalize on that. Similarly as happend within the EV industry with startups like Rivian, Lucid Motor reaching nearly $100B valuation each. But we haven’t seen much from them yet.
The hard costs of a Starlink launch are in the neighborhood of $15 million, meaning that launch cost alone per satellite is about $300,000, assuming 50 satellites per launch. — Forbes
Economies of Scale
The initial $499 for the connection equipment plus $99 monthly fees might seem appropriate only for users who have no other choice. The more people will connect the cheaper it will be. Lovering the price enough to make it affortable in developing countries.
Musk’s companies are know for rapid price cuts to enable access to wider range of customers. In 2022 Starlink lowered monthly internet prices by 50% for some countries.
With it’s initial goal: 40 million subscribers by 2025. Assuming an average monthly rate of $40 a month, Starlink could bring in $24 billion a year.
The internet connectivity industry, Musk told, brings in about $1 trillion in revenue per year globally. Starlink could access around three to five percent of that total annual revenue. That means Starlink could bring in around $50 billion per year. - Space.com
The service currently offers speeds of around 150 megabits per second, some would argue that Fiber internet in the US is almost three times faster than Starlink satellite internet. Starlink also has higher latency and monthly costs therefore Starlink can never compeete with Fiber.
In many parts of the world, however fiber and other internet simply isn’t available. As someone who always prefered living outside a city, even if it was right on the borders of world’s major metropolies. I never could get more than 100 megabits per second. SpaceX plans to eventually reach up to 10 gigabits per second.
Starlink has received favourable attention from governmental agencies, winning contracts with NASA and the US Department of Defense. SpaceX was awarded almost $900m in subsidies by the Federal Communications Commission (FCC) to bring high-speed internet to rural areas of the US.
Starlink has played a vital role in keeping Ukraine’s military and citizens online as the war continues to rage and Russia targets Ukraine’s telecommunications and electricity infrastructure.
Without the bounds of traditional ground infrastructure, Starlink can be deployed in a matter of minutes to support emergency responders in disaster scenarios. As have already been demostrated in many cases.
The company’s 2016 application stated: “once fully optimized through the Final Deployment, the system will be able to provide high bandwidth (up to 1 Gbps per user), low latency broadband services for consumers and businesses in the U.S. and globally.”
Starlink is a revolutionary step in our technological progress, no doubt about that. With Starlink, it’s easy to forget how lacking access to decent internet used to be in some places, since now there are no more holes in the signal.
Starlink marks an enormous milestone in our civilization’s connection to each other. Starlink could revolutionise how humanity communicates with itself and boldly take us into a future of seamless connectivity.
@SpaceX @elonmusk
