Musk Is Positioned to Profit Off Billions in New Government Contracts

Within the Trump administration’s Defense Department, Elon Musk’s SpaceX rocketry is being trumpeted as the nifty new way the Pentagon could move military cargo rapidly around the globe. In the Commerce Department, SpaceX’s Starlink satellite internet service will now be fully eligible for the federal government’s $42 billion rural broadband push, after being largely shut out during the Biden era. At NASA, after repeated nudges by Mr. Musk, the agency is being squeezed to turn its focus to Mars, allowing SpaceX to pursue federal contracts to deliver the first humans to the distant planet. And at the Federal Aviation Administration and the White House itself, Starlink satellite dishes have recently been installed, to expand federal government internet access. Musk, as the architect of a group he called the Department of Government Efficiency, has taken a chain saw to the apparatus of governing, spurring chaos and dread by pushing out some 100,000 federal workers and shutting down various agencies, though the government has not been consistent in explaining the expanse of his power. But in selected spots across the government, SpaceX is positioning itself to see billions of dollars in new federal contracts or other support. The boost in federal spending for SpaceX will come in part as a result of actions by President Trump and Musk’s allies and employees who now hold government positions. The company will also benefit from policies under the current Trump administration that prioritize hiring commercial space vendors for everything from communications systems to satellite fabrication, areas in which SpaceX now dominates.

The Federal Communications Commission has its own, smaller grant program that also provides funding to deliver broadband to underserved parts of the United States. Starlink had originally been slated to get nearly $1 billion in funding before the F.C.C. withdrew the offer in late 2023, saying that the service did not meet agency requirements. The commission’s board chair has now been taken over by Brendan Carr, who had protested the decision to deny SpaceX these funds. Industry analysts and two former FCC members said they now expect the agency to once again offer some of these grant funds to Starlink. The commission also approved a SpaceX request, despite protests from Verizon and AT&T, to boost power on its Starlink satellites so they can provide smartphone service directly from orbit, ending cellphone dead zones for some customers. A victory on each of these fights by SpaceX “could be huge — in the tens of billions of dollars,” said Drew Garner, a researcher at the Benton Institute for Broadband & Society.