Elon Musk’s plan for SpaceX to “become a major mobile carrier in the U.S.” sent shares of the nation’s big three wireless carriers sliding by double digits Friday, wiping out more than $50 billion in market value before lunch.
\n\n“Once we receive final FCC approval, Starlink Mobile will deploy a flexible architecture combining our satellite-to-mobile constellation in space with an advanced terrestrial deployment that can seamlessly connect devices everywhere,” the company said late Thursday.
\n\nIt also announced that the Federal Communications Commission had approved the launch of 15,000 new satellites, also under Starlink Mobile, which is a subsidiary of SpaceX.
\n\nShares of AT&T and Verizon both dropped 10% on Friday morning, while T-Mobile US stock plunged 14%.
\n\nShares of Charter and of Comcast, the parent company of NBC News, also fell throughout the day Friday. Both companies sell wireless services under their own brands using Verizon’s infrastructure.
\n\nThe announcement from SpaceX marked Musk’s latest step to expand his global tech empire. The world’s richest man and its first-ever trillionaire, Musk’s net worth as of Thursday was about $990 billion.
\n\nMusk’s constellation of companies already includes electric vehicle maker Tesla, the social media site X and xAI, which builds data centers…
Original source: https://www.nbcnews.com/business