Elon Musk takes on Mukesh Ambani, addresses him as ‘PM of India’ over Starlink licence

Tech billionaire Elon Musk, chief executive of SpaceX, took aim at Indian billionaire Mukesh Ambani on Friday, questioning whether he was the “real boss of India” amid delays in securing approval for Starlink to launch commercial services in the country.

Musk began his post on X (formerly Twitter) by addressing Ambani as “Dear Prime Minister Ambani”.

“Naturally, you would prefer to maintain your monopolistic exploitation of the great people of India, but would you nonetheless consider allowing Starlink to compete?” he wrote.

Musk said many areas in India still lack internet access, depriving children of educational opportunities and small businesses of the chance to sell their goods in global markets.

“Starlink would change their lives for the better,” he added.

India’s telecom minister, however, pushed back against Musk’s claims.

“India does not allow a monopoly in any sector,” Jyotiraditya Scindia said at a media briefing on Friday, responding to Musk’s remarks.

Starlink is seeking to enter India’s telecommunications market, which has more than a billion internet users and is dominated by the mobile networks of Ambani’s Reliance Jio and Sunil Mittal’s Bharti Airtel.

The four-year wait for Starlink to launch its satellite internet services in India has fuelled heated online exchanges over corporate influence and regulatory delays, with Musk targeting Ambani and political opposition leaders joining the debate.

Although Starlink has secured a licence to operate in India, a commercial launch remains contingent on meeting security compliance requirements and obtaining a spectrum assignment.

Reliance Jio, owned by Ambani, is India’s largest mobile telecommunications operator.

A day earlier, Musk alleged that Starlink was being blocked in India by “certain oligarchs in order to maintain their monopolistic chokehold”.

“You can guess who they are,” he wrote on X, adding that blocking Starlink was “a crime against the people of India”.

Musk’s Starlink provides internet access through a network of more than 10,000 satellites in low Earth orbit (LEO). Its satellite-based service is designed to connect users, particularly in remote areas where installing mobile internet infrastructure or broadband connections is difficult or impossible.