SpaceX faces opposition to Starlink expansion from Ukrainian group concerned about Musk ties to Russia
The Starlink logo is seen on a mobile device with an grahpic illustration of planet Earth in this illustration photo in Warsaw, Poland on 21 September, 2022.
STR | Nurphoto | Getty Images
SpaceX’s effort to put an additional 22,488 satellites into low-earth orbit is facing a formal objection from a Ukrainian-American nonprofit, which says it’s concerned about CEO Elon Musk’s “contacts with Russia and the alleged use of his Starlink system by Russian forces in Ukraine.”
In a petition to deny and motion for stay filed with the Federal Communications Commission on Wednesday, the Ukrainian Congress Committee of America (UCCA) also cited negative environmental impacts of SpaceX launches in Texas and Musk’s potential conflicts of interest due to his work with the incoming Trump administration.
SpaceX’s Starlink system has been linked to Ukraine since terminals arrived there shortly after Russian troops invaded the neighboring country in early 2022. The following year, the Pentagon agreed to purchase Starlink satellite internet terminals for use in Ukraine’s ongoing defense against Russia.
However, in September 2023, Americans of Ukrainian descent rebuked the SpaceX CEO after it emerged that he had thwarted a major attack on the Russian navy. Musk said at the time that he had told his engineers not to turn on SpaceX’s Starlink satellite network over Crimea in order to prevent a planned attack by Ukraine on the Black Sea fleet in 2022.
“There is a necessity to determine if Starlink has been used to help a foreign adversary,” UCCA President Michael Sawkiw, Jr., told CNBC, regarding the group’s decision to file a petition and motion to the FCC this week. “If yes, this is not in the national security interest of Ukrainian-Americans, or of the entire country.”
The UCCA isn’t the only group concerned about Musk’s relationship with the Kremlin.
The Wall Street Journal reported in October that Musk had engaged in a series of “secret conversations” with Russian President Vladimir Putin leading up to the 2024 presidential election. Members of Congress and NASA Administrator Bill Nelson have called for an investigation into those contacts.
A month before the Journal story, Newsweek and others reported that Russia had installed Starlink terminals in its Iranian-designed Shahed drones, used in their military offense in Ukraine. Starlink didn’t provide a comment for the story, but earlier in the year, in February, Musk said in a social media post that news reports suggesting Starlink was selling terminals to Russia were “categorically false,” and that “to the best of our knowledge, no Starlinks have been sold directly or indirectly to Russia.”
Sawkiw said his group advocates for causes of concern to an estimated 2 million Americans of Ukrainian descent living in the U.S. today, many of whom arrived after the war began in February 2022.
The Starlink satellites referred to in the petition would enable the company to deliver internet services to more destinations around the world as part of its Gen2 NGSO Satellite System.
Musk didn’t respond to a request for comment, nor did Tim Hughes, senior vice president for global business and government affairs.
Potential conflicts of interest
If Sawkiw’s group succeeds on legal merits, the FCC may have to pause approvals for SpaceX, leaving time for an environmental review, and for a plan to resolve any conflicts of interest arising from Musk’s new role with the forthcoming Department of Government Efficiency (DOGE).
DOGE is expected to function as a federal advisory committee that will have influence over regulations, government spending and personnel. The group could potentially recommend major changes at the FCC and influence the oversight of SpaceX and other Musk-led companies.
“Musk’s conflicts run the full gamut from financial to objectivity,” UCCA wrote in the petition. “His companies stand to financially benefit both from receiving government contracts and from actions taken by the federal government, including the FCC. Placing Musk at the head of DOGE is equivalent to allowing a fox to guard the henhouse.”
The motion asks the FCC to determine how Musk will comply with the Federal Advisory Committee Act, given his role with DOGE, before it authorizes any further SpaceX requests.
Regarding environmental concerns, UCCA’s lead regulatory counsel Arthur Belendiuk wrote in the filings to the FCC that the SpaceX launch facility in Boca Chica, Texas is “a biologically diverse and essential habitat area for many species, including wildlife protected under the Endangered Species Act.” Referencing prior incidents, he added that, “Rocket launches in this area create the real risk of fire and debris being ejected onto adjacent environmentally protected lands.”
After reports that vibrations and noise from SpaceX launches led to the destruction of nine nests of an endangered bird species in the area, Musk wrote in a post on X in July, “To make up for this heinous crime, I will refrain from having omelette for a week.”
Belendiuk wrote in the petition that instead of remedying the damage caused by SpaceX launches, Musk “responds to the legitimate concerns of local environmental groups with sarcasm and mockery.”
The UCCA had filed comments in April against SpaceX in a separate FCC proceeding pertaining to a request by the company to access additional spectrum for its Starlink network.
Republican FCC Commissioner Brendan Carr said at the time that the group’s comments were “procedurally improper and substantively meritless,” and that it effectively wanted “the government to break the law by weaponizing it” against Musk.
Now, President-elect Donald Trump has nominated Carr to lead the FCC in his second administration. Carr’s office didn’t respond to a request for comment.
Belendiuk told CNBC that his group’s “focus isn’t solely on Musk or SpaceX.”
The group took legal action to take Radio Sputnik, which broadcast Russian government propaganda, off the public airwaves in the U.S., Beledniuk said, and is “actively engaged in discussions with chipmakers whose sanctioned products have been found in Russian weapons systems.”
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Jensen Huang, co-founder and chief executive officer of Nvidia Corp., left, and Emmanuel Macron, France’s president at the 2025 VivaTech conference in Paris, France, on Wednesday, June 11, 2025.
Nathan Laine | Bloomberg | Getty Images
Nvidia boss Jensen Huang has been on a tour of Europe this week, bringing excitement and intrigue to everywhere he visited.
His message was clear — Nvidia is the company that can help Europe build its artificial intelligence infrastructure so the region can take control of its own destiny with the transformative technology.
I’ve been in London and Paris this week following Huang around as he met with U.K. Prime Minister Keir Starmer, French President Emmanuel Macron, journalists, fans, analysts and gave a keynote at Nvidia’s GTC event in the capital of France.
Here’s the what I saw and the key things I learned.
The draw of Huang is huge
Huang is truly the current rockstar of the tech world.
At London Tech Week, the lines were long and the auditorium packed to hear him speak.
The GTC event in Paris was full too. It was like going to a music concert or sporting event. There were GTC Paris T-shirts on the back of every chair and even a merchandise store.
Nvidia GTC in Paris on 11 June 2025
Arjun Kharpal
The aura of Huang really struck me when, after a question-and-answer session with him and a room full of attendees, most people lined up to take pictures or selfies with him.
Macron and Starmer both wanted to be seen on stage with him.
Nvidia positions itself as Europe’s AI hope
Nvidia’s key product is its graphics processing units (GPU) that are used to train and execute AI applications.
But Huang has positioned Nvidia as more than a chip company. During the week, he described Nvidia as an infrastructure firm. He also said AI should be seen as infrastructure like electricity.
His pitch to all countries was that Nvidia could be the company that will help countries build out that infrastructure.
“We believe that in order to compete, in order to build a meaningful ecosystem, Europe needs to come together and build capacity that is joint,” Huang said during a speech at the Viva Tech conference in Paris on Wednesday.
Jensen Huang, CEO of Nvidia, speaks during the Viva Technology conference dedicated to innovation and startups at Porte de Versailles exhibition center in Paris, France, June 11, 2025.
Gonzalo Fuentes | Reuters
One of the most significant partnerships announced this week is between French startup Mistral and Nvidia to build a so-called AI cloud using the latter’s GPUs.
Huang spoke a lot during the week about “sovereign AI” — the concept of building data centers within a country’s borders that services its population rather than relying on servers located overseas. Among European policymakers and companies, this has been an important topic.
Huang also heaped praise on the U.K., France and Europe more broadly when it came to their potential in the AI industry.
China still behind but catching up
On Thursday, Huang decided to do a tour of Nvidia’s booth and I managed to catch him to get a few words on CNBC’s “Squawk Box Europe.”
A key topic of that discussion was China. Nvidia has not been able to sell its most advanced chips to China because of U.S. export controls and even less sophisticated semiconductors are being blocked. In its last quarterly results, Nvidia took a $4.5 billion hit on unsold inventory.
I asked Huang about how China was progressing with AI chips, in particular referencing Huawei, the Chinese tech giant that is trying to make semiconductor products to rival Nvidia.
Huang said Huawei is a generation behind Nvidia. But because there is lots of energy in China, Huawei can just use more chips to get results.
“If the United States doesn’t want to partake, participate in China, Huawei has got China covered, and Huawei has got everybody else covered,” Huang said.
In addition, Huang is concerned about the strategic importance of U.S. companies not having access to China.
“It’s even more important that the American technology stack is what AI developers around the world build on,” Huang said.
Just reading between the lines somewhat — Huang sees a world where Chinese AI tech advances. Some countries may decide to build their AI infrastructure with Chinese companies rather than American. That in turn could give Chinese companies a chance to be in the AI race.
Quantum, robotics and driverless is the future
Huang often uses public appearances to talk about the future.
I asked him about some of those areas he’s bullish on like robotics and driverless cars, technology that Nvidia’s products can power.
Huang told me this will be the “decade of” autonomous vehicles and robotics.
Nvidia boss Jensen Huang delivers a speech on stage talking about robotics.
Arjun Kharpal | CNBC
During his keynote at GTC Paris on Wednesday, he also address quantum computing, saying the technology is reaching “an inflection point.”
Quantum computers are widely believed to be able to solve complex problems that classic computers can’t. This could include things like discovering new drugs or materials.
In an aerial view, a Tesla showroom at 12845 N. US 183 Highway Service Road is seen after police were called for a suspicious device in Austin, Texas, on March 24, 2025.
Brandon Bell | Getty Images
With Elon Musk looking to June 22 as his tentative start date for Tesla’s pilot robotaxi service in Austin, Texas, protesters are voicing their opposition.
Public safety advocates and political protesters, upset with Musk’s work with the Trump administration, joined together in downtown Austin on Thursday to express their concerns about the robotaxi launch. Members of the Dawn Project, Tesla Takedown and Resist Austin say that Tesla’s partially automated driving systems have safety problems.
Tesla sells its cars with a standard Autopilot package, or a premium Full Self-Driving option (also known as FSD or FSD supervised), in the U.S. Automobiles with these systems, which include features like automatic lane keeping, steering and parking, have been involved in dozens of collisions, some fatal, according to data tracked by the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration.
Tesla’s robotaxis, which Musk showed off in a video clip on X earlier this week, are new versions of the company’s popular Model Y vehicles, equipped with a future release of Tesla’s FSD software. That “unsupervised” FSD, or robotaxi technology, is not yet available to the public.
Tesla critics with The Dawn Project, which calls itself a tech-safety and security education business, brought a version of Model Y with relatively recent FSD software (version 2025.14.9) to show residents of Austin how it works.
In their demonstration on Thursday, they showed how a Tesla with FSD engaged zoomed past a school bus with a stop sign held out and ran over a child-sized mannequin that they put in front of the vehicle.
Dawn Project CEO Dan O’Dowd also runs Green Hills Software, which sells technology to Tesla competitors, including Ford and Toyota.
Stephanie Gomez, who attended the demonstration, told CNBC that she didn’t like the role Musk had been playing in the government. Additionally, she said she has no confidence in Tesla’s safety standards and said there’s been a lack of transparency from Tesla regarding how its robotaxis will work.
Another protester, Silvia Revelis, said she also opposed Musk’s political activity, but that safety is the biggest concern.
“Citizens have not been able to get safety testing results,” she said. “Musk believes he’s above the law.”
Tesla didn’t immediately respond to a request for comment.
— Todd Wiseman contributed to this report.
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23andMe founder Anne Wojcicki speaks during a House Committee on Oversight and Government Reform hearing in Washington, D.C., on June 10, 2025.
Andrew Harnik | Getty Images
Anne Wojcicki, the co-founder and former CEO of 23andMe, has regained control over the embattled genetic testing company after her new nonprofit, TTAM Research Institute, outbid Regeneron Pharmaceuticals, the company announced Friday.
TTAM will acquire substantially all of 23andMe’s assets for $305 million, including its Personal Genome Service and Research Services business lines as well as telehealth subsidiary Lemonaid Health. It’s a big win for Wojcicki, who stepped down from her role as CEO when 23andMe filed for Chapter 11 bankruptcy protection in March.
Last month, Regeneron announced it would purchase most of 23andMe’s assets for $256 million after it came out on top during a bankruptcy auction. But Wojcicki submitted a separate $305 million bid through TTAM and pushed to reopen the auction. TTAM is an acronym for the first letters of 23andMe, according to The Wall Street Journal.
“I am thrilled that TTAM Research Institute will be able to continue the mission of 23andMe to help people access, understand and benefit from the human genome,” Wojcicki said in a statement.
23andMe gained popularity because of its at-home DNA testing kits that gave customers insight into their family histories and genetic profiles. The five-time CNBC Disruptor 50 company went public in 2021 via a merger with a special purpose acquisition company. At its peak, 23andMe was valued at around $6 billion.
The company struggled to generate recurring revenue and stand up viable research and therapeutics businesses after going public, and it has been plagued by privacy concerns since hackers accessed the information of nearly seven million customers in 2023.
TTAM’s acquisition is still subject to approval by the U.S. Bankruptcy Court for the Eastern District of Missouri.
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