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.”
WATCH: It’s impossible for DOGE to cut government spending without touching the defense budget
The X logo appears on a phone, and the xAI logo is displayed on a laptop in Krakow, Poland, on April 1, 2025. (Photo by Klaudia Radecka/NurPhoto via Getty Images)
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Elon Musk‘s xAI Holdings is in discussions with investors to raise about $20 billion, Bloomberg News reported Friday, citing people familiar with the matter.
The funding would value the company at over $120 billion, according to the report.
Musk was looking to assign “proper value” to xAI, sources told CNBC’s David Faber earlier this month. The remarks were made during a call with xAI investors, sources familiar with the matter told Faber. The Tesla CEO at that time didn’t explicitly mention any upcoming funding round, but the sources suggested xAI was preparing for a substantial capital raise in the near future.
The funding amount could be more than $20 billion as the exact figure had not been decided, the Bloomberg report added.
Artificial intelligence startup xAI didn’t immediately respond to a CNBC request for comment outside of U.S. business hours.
The AI firm last month acquired X in an all-stock deal that valued xAI at $80 billion and the social media platform at $33 billion.
“xAI and X’s futures are intertwined. Today, we officially take the step to combine the data, models, compute, distribution and talent,” Musk said on X, announcing the deal. “This combination will unlock immense potential by blending xAI’s advanced AI capability and expertise with X’s massive reach.”
Read the full Bloomberg story here.
— CNBC’s Samantha Subin contributed to this report.
Alphabet CEO Sundar Pichai during the Google I/O developers conference in Mountain View, California, on May 10, 2023.
David Paul Morris | Bloomberg | Getty Images
Alphabet‘s stock gained 3% Friday after signaling strong growth in its search and advertising businesses amid a competitive artificial intelligence environment and uncertain macro backdrop.
“GOOGL‘s pace of GenAI product roll-out is accelerating with multiple encouraging signals,” wrote Morgan Stanley‘s Brian Nowak. “Macro uncertainty still exists but we remain [overweight] given GOOGL’s still strong relative position and improving pace of GenAI enabled product roll-out.”
The search giant posted earnings of $2.81 per share on $90.23 billion in revenues. That topped the $89.12 billion in sales and $2.01 in EPS expected by LSEG analysts. Revenues grew 12% year-over-year and ahead of the 10% anticipated by Wall Street.
Net income rose 46% to $34.54 billion, or $2.81 per share. That’s up from $23.66 billion, or $1.89 per share, in the year-ago period. Alphabet said the figure included $8 billion in unrealized gains on its nonmarketable equity securities connected to its investment in a private company.
Adjusted earnings, excluding that gain, were $2.27 per share, according to LSEG, and topped analyst expectations.
Alphabet shares have pulled back about 16% this year as it battles volatility spurred by mounting trade war fears and worries that President Donald Trump‘s tariffs could crush the global economy. That would make it more difficult for Alphabet to potentially acquire infrastructure for data centers powering AI models as it faces off against competitors such as OpenAI and Anthropic to develop largely language models.
During Thursday’s call with investors, Alphabet suggested that it’s too soon to tally the total impact of tariffs. However, Google’s business chief Philipp Schindler said that ending the de minimis trade exemption in May, which created a loophole benefitting many Chinese e-commerce retailers, could create a “slight headwind” for the company’s ads business, specifically in the Asia-Pacific region. The loophole allows shipments under $800 to come into the U.S. duty-free.
Despite this backdrop, Alphabet showed steady growth in its advertising and search business, reporting $66.89 billion in revenues for its advertising unit. That reflected 8.5% growth from the year-ago period. The company reported $8.93 billion in advertising revenue for its YouTube business, shy of an $8.97 billion estimate from StreetAccount.
Alphabet’s “Search and other” unit rose 9.8% to $50.7 billion, up from $46.16 billion last year. The company said that its AI Overviews tool used in its Google search results page has accumulated 1.5 billion monthly users from a billion in October.
Bank of America analyst Justin Post said that Wall Street is underestimating the upside potential and “monetization ramp” from this tool and cloud demand fueled by AI.
“The strong 1Q search performance, along with constructive comments on Gemini [large language model] performance and [AI Overviews] adoption could help alleviate some investor concerns on AI competition,” Post wrote in a note.
WATCH: Gemini delivering well for Google, says Check Capital’s Chris Ballard
CNBC’s Jennifer Elias contributed to this report.
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