Elon Musk: SpaceX loses about 20 million dollars every month, providing its satellite Internet service Starlink in Ukraine
SpaceX does not receive any money from the US Department of Defense for providing the Starlink satellite Internet service in Ukraine, and the terminals are paid for by several other countries, organizations and patrons, Elon Musk says.
SpaceX spends about 20 million dollars every month to support the Starlink Internet service in Ukraine. The company does not receive any money from the US Department of Defense for providing the service, ‘but we will continue to do it,’ Musk said in response to a Twitter user.
No money from DoD, but several other countries, orgs & individuals are paying for ~11k/25k terminals (thanks!).
SpaceX is losing ~$20M/month due to unpaid service & costs related to enhanced security measures for cyberwar defense, but we’ll keep doing it (sigh).
— Elon Musk (@elonmusk) October 19, 2022
Back in September, SpaceX sent a letter to the Pentagon, in which it claimed that it could no longer finance the Starlink service in Ukraine, as before, and therefore asked the military department to take over the costs. According to Elon Musk, most of the expenses are financed by his company and ‘the operation has already cost SpaceX $80 million, and by the end of the year it will exceed $100 million.’
News of the letter came amid sharp criticism of Musk’s proposal to end the war by handing over Crimea to Russia and Ukraine’s neutrality. Perhaps the flurry of negativity forced Musk to change his mind: over the weekend, the billionaire published a new message on Twitter, in which he claims that his company will continue to finance the work of Starlink in Ukraine.
The hell with it … even though Starlink is still losing money & other companies are getting billions of taxpayer $, we’ll just keep funding Ukraine govt for free
— Elon Musk (@elonmusk) October 15, 2022
Today, Ukraine has 20,000 Starlink terminals provided equally by USAID, Poland, the European Union and private companies. It is a key means of communication used by the Armed Forces in areas where there is no cellular connection.
