Musk Inc Is Under Serious Threat

The world's richest man has lost focus. His competitors are taking advantage.

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Until recently Mr Elon Musk had little need to look over his shoulder. He once described competition for Tesla, his electric vehicle (EV) company, as "the enormous flood of gasoline cars pouring out of the world's factories every day", rather than the "small trickle" of other EV makers. SpaceX, his rocket firm, had so undercut and outwitted the bloated aerospace incumbents that it had developed an almost invincible aura.

Yet if Mr Musk can tear himself away from the intoxication of shredding the American government, he may notice something. It is not just that the political firestorms he has whipped up in 2025 are singeing his companies' brands. It is that the two businesses that underpin his corporate empire — accounting for around 90 per cent of its value and probably all its profit — are facing increasingly stiff competition. The world's richest man has lost focus — and now has a target on his back.

Start with SpaceX. In 2024, it conducted five out of every six of the world's spacecraft launches. Through its Starlink division, it owns 60 per cent of satellites in space. In December, it sold shares at a valuation of US$350 billion (S$468.7 billion), two-thirds higher than its previous level. Starlink, its main profit engine, is on track to generate more than US$11 billion of revenue this year and US$2 billion of free cash flow, says Mr Chris Quilty of Quilty Space, a consultancy.

Now, however, Mr Musk's bomb-throwing interventions are alarming SpaceX customers, and at a time when rivals are growing more capable. His on-again, off-again threats to end Starlink's support for Ukraine have raised the difficult question of trust. European politicians are pondering how reliable Mr Musk will be as a long-term provider of strategic satellite communications. The search for alternatives has helped spur a more than tripling of the share price of Eutelsat, the French owner of OneWeb, which provides satellite services to broadband companies.