SpaceX CEO Elon Musk said the rocket company’s satellite internet unit, Starlink, had achieved cash flow breakeven.
In 2021, Musk said SpaceX would spin off and take Starlink public once its cash flow was reasonably predictable.
Since 2019, Starlink has grown its network in low-Earth orbit to roughly 5000 satellites, swiftly positioning itself as the world’s largest satellite operator and a rival to satellite internet firms such as Viasat and Eutelsat’s newly acquired OneWeb.
“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,” Musk said in a post on social media platform X.
Starlink has been in the spotlight since last year as it helps provide Ukraine with satellite communications key to its war efforts against Russia.
Last month, Musk said Starlink will support communication links in Gaza with “internationally recognized aid organisations” after a telephone and internet blackout isolated people in the Gaza Strip from the world and from each other.
Musk has sought to establish the Starlink business unit as a crucial source of revenue to fund SpaceX’s more capital-intensive projects such as its next-generation Starship, a giant reusable rocket the company intends to fly to the moon for NASA within the next decade.
Starlink posted a more than six-fold surge in revenue last year to US$1.4 billion ($2.2 billion), but fell short of targets set by Musk, the Wall Street Journal reported in September, citing documents.
SpaceX is valued at about US$150 billion and is one of the most valuable private companies in the world.