Elon Musk says that Starlink has achieved breakeven cash flow, something that seems a bit confusing given an earlier statement this year from a SpaceX Exec. The latest claim regarding Starlink’s financial standing was made on X where Musk added that its satellites are a majority of all active satellites and that it should have the majority of its satellites launched by 2024. Presently SpaceX is estimated to have launched roughly 5,000 of its previously announced goal of 12,000 low Earth orbit satellites.
Excited to announce that @SpaceX @Starlink has achieved breakeven cash flow! Excellent work by a great team.
— Elon Musk (@elonmusk) November 2, 2023
Starlink is also now a majority of all active satellites and will have launched a a majority of all satellites cumulatively from Earth by next year.
The statement from Musk follows another in February (via CNBC) by Gwynne Shotwell, SpaceX president and Chief Operating Officer, who said in February that Starlink would make money and was cash flow positive as of 2022.
Per CNBC:
“This year, Starlink will make money. We actually had a cash flow positive quarter last year,” Shotwell said.
This statement was preceded by an announcement from Musk in December 2021 who called workers back from holiday breaks saying that SpaceX could potentially go bankrupt if certain conditions were not met. Perhaps this latest tweet from Musk is just a further acknowledgment of Starlink passing another milestone beyond just being cash flow positive and having escaped some form of debt, or having met some other fiscal goal.
Even as Elon Musk says that the company has achieved its current status it has already been reported that it had $1.4 billion in revenue in 2022, up from $222 million in 2021. While those numbers may look impressive they did greatly fall short of the $12 billion it was expected to make which would have provided $7 billion in profits. More recently The Wall Street Journal reported in August 2023 that SpaceX achieved a profit of $55 million during the first quarter of this year and that too may have something to do with Musk’s latest post.