Musk Vows Affordable Starlink for India Amid Ambani Feud

Elon Musk is promising that his Starlink service will be priced affordably in India just as a bitter feud with Mukesh Ambani heats up. This exchange comes days before Jio Platforms, the parent company of Ambani's low-cost Reliance Jio telecom arm, launches what may become the largest initial public offering ever seen in the country.

Billionaire entrepreneur Elon Musk stated he would price Starlink to compete directly against Ambani's existing network. He escalated his attacks on the rival tycoon right before this massive stock market debut. Jio Platforms is currently targeting a valuation of $106 billion for its share sale. Much like the SpaceX-owned Starlink venture, Jio's own satellite project is still waiting for final security clearance to officially launch.

Cheap data has always been the playbook that built Jio in India. It is also the strategy Musk used in markets like Kenya to unsettle local telecom players. Now SpaceX plans to enter the mobile carrier market itself, starting operations within the United States. Musk did not specify exact prices for India yet, even though mobile data costs about rupees 7.74 per gigabyte there. That rate is among the lowest in the entire world, sitting at roughly $0.08 per gigabyte.

Obviously, if Starlink is too expensive in India, no one will buy it, so SpaceX will need to make pricing affordable, he said in a post on his social media platform X on Saturday. The reality is that competition would greatly benefit the average citizen in India by giving them more choices, as it always does, Musk added. He noted Ambani's profits will be lower, but he is not going out of business according to the Tesla boss.

Musk's remarks were the latest in a series of X posts where he accused Prime Minister Narendra Modi's government and Ambani of stalling Starlink's entry into one of the world's biggest internet markets. He claims this delay favors market leader Jio. These posts have marked a sharp turn for Musk, who has long enjoyed a warm public rapport with Modi. India's government has denied any bias in its approval process. They noted that all three satellite ventures seeking to launch, including Starlink's and Jio's, are awaiting final security clearance.

Late on Friday, Musk taunted Ambani directly by addressing him as Prime Minister Ambani. He asked whether he would consider allowing Starlink to compete against his network. Reliance has not responded to Musk's remarks so far.