Billionaires Clash Over Space Spectrum as Elon Musk Accused of Speculative Plans

Jakarta, CNBC Indonesia - Companies owned by two of the world’s richest individuals are locked in a corporate dispute. Amazon Leo, Jeff Bezos’s satellite internet company, has submitted a letter to regulators requesting the rejection of SpaceX’s Starlink licensing application, owned by Elon Musk.

Amazon Leo reportedly sent a letter to the US Federal Communications Commission (FCC) opposing SpaceX’s proposal to deploy 1 million satellites in Earth orbit. Elon Musk is ambitious to launch 1 million satellites to build data centre facilities in orbit.

The letter questioned why the FCC accepted and processed what Amazon considers SpaceX’s speculative proposal.

“The FCC has historically refused to process proposals that are speculative, merely conceptual, or incomplete. The timeline in the SpaceX proposal is unclear. Launching 1 million satellites would require centuries. That is also if global launch capacity were available,” Amazon Leo wrote to the FCC.

In 2025, companies worldwide launched 4,526 satellites into orbit. Based on this data, deploying 1 million satellites would require 220 years.

Far greater capacity would be needed to maintain a 1 million satellite constellation in orbit. If each satellite has a five-year lifespan, SpaceX would need to manufacture and launch 200,000 satellites annually. That figure is approximately 44 times global satellite production in 2025.

Additionally, Amazon argued that granting SpaceX a licence would exacerbate the problem of available space in low Earth orbit (LEO) and force other operators besides Starlink to plan based on a satellite constellation that may never materialise.

According to Amazon, SpaceX’s proposal is merely a strategy to monopolise the extremely limited “land” in Earth orbit.

Elon Musk is currently the world’s richest person with wealth exceeding US$836 billion (approximately IDR 14.122 trillion). Jeff Bezos, who once held second place, now ranks fourth after Google founders Sergey Brin and Larry Page. Bezos’s wealth is estimated at US$227 billion (approximately IDR 3.834 trillion).