Musk Threatens to Pull Starlink from Ukraine

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On Friday it was reported that Musk will no longer be providing the essential Starlink internet service to Ukraine for free, which means that (unless the Pentagon decides to foot the bill) that’s the end of StarLink for the Ukrainians.
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[@TLDRnewsUS]

Since we wrote this video, Musk has come out to say that SpaceX will continue to provide StarLink to Ukraine free of charge (as we predicted in the video). We hope you nonetheless find this video informative and entertaining, and apologies for our bad timing!

[@user-hj8rn5wp8z]

if gues in another video (pre uploaded in fri) is correct - this should be a lesson. Don't preapload news... Information could stop be "news" in some time

[@TheFirebird123456]

@@user-hj8rn5wp8z There is a long process between recording a video and it being shown to viewers. first, there is video editing/soundcheck/doublechecking of sources etc. then there is the actual upload (which can take a long time depending on the computer and the internet connection) and finally youtube does a check to see if content is appropriate for viewers (so no terrorists are uploading videos etc) and monetizable. In general the last step is at least 24 hours from what I heard. in other words you are basically stating don't do news. most news doesn't change that much in 24 hours unless it is a fast moving event.

[@GhostOnTheHalfShell]

beau of the 5th column pointed out that the defense industry has a long memory and takes a dim view of the games he played. not in a military campaign. besides some comments in ft claim that those services are paid for by Ukrainians. They buy terminals etc. musk has signed himself for a lot of enmity. the dod will find or fund a replacement for starlink. Also the power of Musk as you mention has historical precedent. Think 30 years war or most of European history precedent. You know the devastations visited upon Europe from the mixture of economic, religious and political machinations and turmoil, that shaped the concept of a modern state? A return to princes atop vast (economic) estates wielding political power is a return to a terrifying past.

[@HiroTunatako]

Thin skinned billionaire is still thin skinned.

[@reelenz]

This is some of the worst reporting I’ve ever seen. Even considering you missed what Musk said in update, you ignore the fact that other companies are getting billions and the US government turns a blind eye to him. You also fail to understand the difference between a marketcap and what real cash flows mean to a company. Also, you act as if Musk is the only person has the type of power he has. How naive, seriously.

[@petrsmital7340]

I think this war has shown more than once that relying on one source of ANYTHING is pretty much always a bad idea.

[@Ryanowning]

To solve this particular issue all we need to do is to pressure our governments is to subsidize and pay for Starlink. It's pretty fucking obvious how ridiculously strong of a military tool it is. If we could position Starlink into Iran we might actually see Iran become a democracy without stepping a single boot into Iran.

[@Dragoon77]

Diversification all the way

[@erinckula7779]

Just perfect! This comment of yours should be written on the foreheads of all world leaders.

[@kingace6186]

I agree. Neither energy, nor supplies, nor internet.

[@deusexaethera]

@@Nick-jn2fq : If it's the only source, then you rely on it while you scramble to make a new source.

[@bracco23]

Just for context on people commenting that he said yesterday he will continue to support the program, in the UK it is currently Sunday, so it's more than probable the video was exported and uploaded on Friday (before the announcement), and scheduled for today.

[@Tulku]

Thank you for the update.

[@stevielicks8262]

Well that’s the thing, they shouldn’t have waited to post this video. TLDR = 2SLOW.

[@thelegend_doggo1062]

@@stevielicks8262 that’s not the point of TLDR. If you want instant constantly developing news, you have 24 hour news networks.

[@cfv7461]

What do you mean i cant tell countries to surrender their sovereign territory to aggressors??

[@realkekz]

What do you mean I can't hold onto historical Russian territory populated by Russians due to a technicality of union dissolution?

[@maddybeste280]

Even though I already watched news reports about this that mentioned Musk would continue to pay for starlink in Ukraine, this video still gave me a lot more information I didn't know about how important starlink is to the war and Musk's other political statements on Twitter (which I very purposely avoid at all costs since nothing good ever goes down on Twitter haha)

[@westrim]

This being a case in point. He does a lot of great stuff, but it's severely undermined by his Twitter addiction

[@charlesphilips2045]

But is he actually paying for the service if he owns the whole set up? or is this just another way an already ridiculously wealthy person wants to shake down Uncle Sam for more cash?

[@palmercolson7037]

@@charlesphilips2045 It has been said before: to become rich and stay rich, avoid using your own money.

[@WalkerRunnels]

100%

[@lachlanB323]

@@charlesphilips2045 Yes. He has money in space X so if space X spends Money that won't ever make the money back it hurts the stock price which affects his wealth.

[@mattbenz99]

Am I the only one who doesn't see an issue with paying Musk for the services he has provided? This has been the equivalent to a 100 million dollar donation already. That is a drop in the bucket to what Western governments have already spent on Ukraine, so why shouldn't Musk be entitled to be paid for his services? At least pay for the break even costs of the service.

[@quadeong7453]

for me it's less the fact that he wants payment and more of the timing of these events. Because it comes off a lot more as him being vindictive rather than actually being worried about the cost (especially since he's still spending tens of millions to buy Twitter?)

[@jimsackmanbusinesscoaching1344]

Many of the people that view this video will be unaware that much of the money that Starlink was supposed to make in the next 10 years was intended to come from the Rural Digital Opportunity Fund (aka RDOF). These were grants given to companies to supply high speed internet services in very rural areas. Many people will not realize that in the US that there are many places with population densities between 1 and 10 people per square mile. Internet is hard to put there and so has been a swaths of land that have no or poor Internet Access. There was a form of auction for RDOF funds and Starlink initially won $900M (which would be awarded over 10 years). Recently Starlink (and some other winners) have been disqualified as not having the technical capability to meet the requirements of the service. Starlink is appealing that decision, but is unlikely to win. So, the primary way that SpaceX was going to pay to deploy Starlink has vanished.

[@endless2239]

he said just the giving free internet in Ukraine will cost the company 100M and *some* of the terminal were paid by the govt, so how would have been 900M in 10y enough to cover the expansion in all rural USA? that sound fishy as F, I hope someone is doing the math cuz no wonder that plan got rejected.

[@jimsackmanbusinesscoaching1344]

@@endless2239 The subsidy is what the subsidy is. Let's go at this the other way around. Let us say that he gave Ukraine 1,000 Terminals. That means he would be giving away about $500K for the terminals plus not charging $100K per month (Starlink service is about $100/month). For 1 year, this equates to $1.7M. So, there is no possibility that a $100+M subsidy is justified. Where did he get $100M+ for the subsidy from the Pentagon? I have no idea. But at 1,000 terminals that is over 80 years worth of service. One of the huge problems with LEO satellite Internet service is that you have to constantly launch replacement satellites to maintain the service. To put this in perspective, let's call fiber to the home service $2,500 per home cost (and that is a bit high). $128M funds the deployment of over 50K homes.

[@aaroncousins4750]

@@endless2239 i believe he said that the fees would cost 80m to operate at $110 per satalite, this doesnt include the cost of the satalites, and the cost for the research and development of them, which is typically the biggest cost in new products, look at things like iphone, you can get a phone 20years old for 10$ but when it was released will have been 1000$

[@jimbarron9939]

The problem with access to the internet in rural areas in the USA is not remotely about population density -it is about the density of money There are rural areas being"gentrified" in my region with far lower population density then most of the rural areas that just cannot get internet access yet the gentrified areas have far more bandwidth available then even someone binge watching streaming video could ever use. But in my area even with the best plan of the best service available it may take half an hour or an hour to download three web pages to order one small item on eBay and even then the order might process because the confirmation keeps getting timed out. And that's during times of low traffic!!! During primetime you often can't download a single web page! The end of net neutrality was effectively the end of rural access to the internet.

[@jimsackmanbusinesscoaching1344]

@@jimbarron9939 Let me be clear on rural US, because most people, like you, don't understand it. Imagine a phone company with 6,500 subscribers in 7.500 square miles. And about 1/2 of that population lives in a little town. This is a real company that used to be called Valley Telephone in West Texas and is now part of VTC. I helped deploy the first DSL circuit for this company back in 1999. You also probably don't know that there are over 1,000 local telephone companies (not competitive or alternate carriers) and over 200 cable TV operators in the US. And this has NOTHING to do with Net Neutrality (which has to do with neutral treatment of content not the amount of bandwidth that subscribers get). And by the way, you can likely get 100Mb/s satellite Internet from Viasat if you so choose. Not good for latency in first person shooters, but streams video just fine. Given that compressed HD video is about 4 Mb/s, that is not a problem. So, stop your b*tching and look around for solutions.

[@xanderreyno]

It's so weirdly petty to be like oh I can't afford to help you anymore despite being a literal billionaire and also I think you should give up parts of your country because apparently bullies leave you alone when you give them what they want.

[@a.i.l1074]

We should entrust all power to governments and the military, as neither have ever done anything wrong ever

[@estraume]

"Elon Musk says his rocket firm SpaceX will continue funding its Starlink internet service in Ukraine, a day after he said it could no longer do so." - BBC yesterday. Independent of the outcome of that discussion, other US defense contractors are making a lot of money on this war, so it is kind of fair that the Defense Department pays the cost of Starlink also. Personally I think Musk should not tweet about geopolitics. In addition to the Ukraine war, he also said that Taiwan should be part of China and not independent, which is contrary to the view of most people in the free world.

[@zed739]

What the FUUUUCK lmfao this is a truly pathetic thing to say

[@antyspi4466]

Musk simply has realized that we ware on the road to hell with the conflicts in Ukraine and over Taiwan, and did his best to avoid the almost inevitable: WW III.

[@icebox1954]

Why care what most people have to say? Most people are not experts in geopolitics. Their opinions are not worth much of anything. Musk's opinion matter simply because he has power through capital and power is what's important.

[@ASK-ko9qx]

Lol that is not not contrary to the most people's view. No one supports Independent Taiwan other than some delusional Western woke liberal. They don't want to get dragged in another conflict. Keep that Imagination to yourself.

[@estraume]

@@ASK-ko9qx I am sure you gained many points in the Chinese Social Credit System by this comment. Well done! 🤣

[@yellowlemonmothfreak]

You have to love how far the pendulum of media coverage can change how people are portrayed in the media

[@archigoel]

Media is almost always wrong. I prefer checking twitter or individual KZbin coverage, they are much better. You are exposed to many opinions and come to know what is right.

[@peterszoldan150]

I think the Logan Act should have been mentioned. Maybe the reason Musk backtracked on his demands was a phone call from DOJ.

[@getnohappy]

From Rome to the dawn of the European Imperial age, you'd be surprised how much history is caused by rich private citizens with... let's say a lot of belief in themselves

[@quadeong7453]

thats basically every two-bit warlord in human history.

[@Secret_Moon]

It's not that much of a surprise. If you have the power and a vision that you believe will better the world, wouldn't you act on it?

[@quadeong7453]

@@Secret_Moon because unfortunately, vision and power don't equate to ability.

[@erez2111]

I have been liking and commenting on every video happy to see that the channel has almost 250k subscribers. I watch this TLDR News more than any other.

[@frazzleboi2821]

same

[@drsuikoden3850]

Rt

[@mrintrovert5068]

How come because they post the least amount of videos here

[@erez2111]

@@mrintrovert5068 They actually explained all of that in their video telling us that it might be canceled check it out.

[@aaroncousins4750]

@@mrintrovert5068 well they made a video on it, but i mean they are a british channel, ofc they will make more news in britain? Do you see fox news putting priority to british broadcasting?

[@Bolsonaro_em_Haia]

It would be nice to have more alternatives and redundancy for this sort of technology. I will not be surprised if NASA begins to receive significant money for communication satellites now.

[@karlfranzemperorofmandefil5547]

There were talks about employing the defense production act

[@victormolina6316]

There are more providers of satelite internet, but they don't have the needed bandwidth.

[@klumzyee]

only companies with reusable rockets can pull this off

[@murkywateradminssions5219]

@@karlfranzemperorofmandefil5547 good on Biden, nationalise his companies that should keep him in line.. for now(mind you most of the starlink equipment were bought By the US govt so yeah...)

[@nunosilva187]

NASA is a shot hole company that doesnt actually do anything useful but fill the pockets of a few states which produce rockets and are linked with it

[@m.junaidmahmood4209]

Starlink is like Nestle providing baby milk formula to new mothers in Africa for 3 months so that when they run dry of their natural milk, they would in anyway have to buy the milk formula from Nestle. So Musk is basically a bit nu-patiently waiting for when the Ukarainian addiction starts to pay of his initial investment. So basically the adverb there is no free lunch stands true.

[@samsoncooper1]

No mate what Nestle did was worse and akin to giving a prostitute crack to keep them under control. I don't like Musk but Nestle were responsible for the deaths of thousands of African babies a bit different from not allowing Internet. You know them 3 months were enough so the women stopped producing milk etc. Like seriously think about what you're saying

[@1990SammieJ]

Musk's help to Ukraine was actually a free trial, now he got them hooked he wants a monthly subscription.

[@tedtyro2961]

Honestly, I was more surprised when he briefly chose *not* to be utterly evil.

[@TheSandkastenverbot]

He likes to play the hero but gets bored when he's not praised enough

[@Newidhan]

Yes, how dare he provide crucial communications infrastructure and service worth tens of millions of dollars to the Ukranians free of charge. A true monster.

[@Ren_-]

Another great video, TLDR!

[@swissbulgarianprod]

How to say absurdity without saying absurdity: Well the relations between Ukraine and Musk have soured over the past couple of weeks due to Musk’s armchair diplomacy on Twitter

[@darnit1944]

Russian biased diplomacy that is.

[@nigelwiseman8644]

Musk has proposed a new "one country two systems" for Taiwan. As we saw with Hongkong, there is no such thing as "one country two systems". One wonders if he is'nt politically a complete ignoramus.

[@joeyjojojrshabadoo7462]

Both China Taipei and Mainland China believe in the One China system they just disagree on which is which.

[@wiizzpl4718]

It's his company, his Starlink, which's service he donated out of his free will; he can do with it what he pleases. Ukrainians got mad about him wanting to make plebiscites, so I'm not surprised that his support has weakened.

[@darnit1944]

Ukraine got mad because his attempt at diplomacy is absurd. He should have sticked to EVs and rockets, not geopolitics.

[@zaptosmedia4707]

Musk is such a child

[@SushiParty]

If Musk had not made that stupid poll, then him coming out now about the financials relating to Starlink and asking for money for it would have gone down much better and easier. He probably would have a majority of the public on his side. But now it just looks petty and typical Elon Musk behaviour.

[@antyspi4466]

If Kiev had not twittered "fuck off" and put him even on a kill list, he would likely have footed the bill longer. Musk has the longer leverage here. He CAN provide Starlink services, he doesn´t have to. Kiev needs Starlink desperately, but doesn´t want and can´t pay. Washington desperately needs Kiev to fight on.

[@Overkill42]

Petty is receiving millions of free service and telling the provider to f off for stating an opinion

[@moritamikamikara3879]

Agreed. If he hadn't pretended he knew fucking ANYTHING about geopolitics, he could probably have made the claim that he couldn't afford to do starlink for free and shouldnt be expected to and people would probably be supportive of it. But because he opened his mouth and talked about appeasing a bully, no one will give him the benefit of the doubt.

[@GaganSingh-nx2yv]

Well he wouldn't have done it if not for that stupid poll reason being he is petty.

[@hchen2513]

Musk is just acting like a child at this point

[@256shadesofgrey]

Any peace deal that doesn't involve restoring Ukrainian borders agreed on in the Budapest Memorandum in 1994 is unacceptable, because it means that international treaties have no value, and the only thing that matters is who has the biggest and most impressive guns.

[@joeyjojojrshabadoo7462]

See that's what the minister should have said instead of just tell Musk to go F himself publicly. Passionate and Polite.

[@neilknightley4703]

he is in the right to say that a private company cannot afford to fund operations indefintely without revenue.if he funded 100m already he already did alot then any one of us

[@dorianphillips7714]

Great video! Thank you.

[@LyricsFred]

This is the richest man on Earth. Easily can donate the capacity... but only care about profits. This is why he wont solve world hunger. Where is the profit in that?

[@anixes]

You sound as if he has all that money in his bank account, ready to be donated.

[@moqqy]

For the love of god don’t close this channel. Make it profit by donations until it grows.

[@MrBizteck]

Musky needs that sweet cash to buy twotter!

[@okman9684]

If weapons donated to Ukraine is funded by us gov then why can't the internet should be

[@alanleung1828]

If Musk wanted someone to foot the bill, he would've enter negotiation with NATO or the US government directly, they understand how pivot satellite internet is. Him making a public stink about it was that he wanted a viable way to simply cut Ukraine off entirely, which the public backlash made him stop.

[@jasonitaliano8631]

This feels like a TLDR Business topic. Edit: I want it on record, I don't want TLDR US to die

[@EverettBurger]

Makes sense for starlink to be subsidized by the Pentagon.

[@DaDunge]

They're already spending a lot supplying actual weapons to ukraine

[@Ryanowning]

Not just the Pentagon. All of NATO needs to be taking the cyber domain seriously. Starlink is an exceptional weapon for bringing democracy to the whole world on the cheap. We might not even need a kinetic WW3 to rid the world of autocracies.

[@aaroncousins4750]

Pentagon might not want to do that to avoid confrontation with russia, currently they can say "thats not us thats him"

[@ChristianDoretti]

@@aaroncousins4750 Yeah, because private companies are the ones giving weapons to Ukraine. Private companies have the right to complain on being exploited for the Interest of governments.

[@hankjones3527]

​@@aaroncousins4750 The US is supplying HIMARS, Javelins and untold other weapons directly to Ukraine, I'm pretty sure free internet isn't what's keeping the Russian leadership up at night.

[@boborock2012]

He was paying just 15%, the pentagon and other friendly countries like Lithuania, pentagon, Germany etc

[@Mr.Nichan]

I would alter Elon Musk's suggestion by also redoing the referendum in Crimea (which will probably vote to join Russia again) and not preventing Ukraine from NATO or any other alliance,* and I would specifically argue that care should be taken to allow NEITHER the Ukrainians, the NATO bloc, nor Russia and it's bloc to distort the referenda. Perhaps the UN and mixed Russian and Ukrainian observers could be brought in. *I've actually recently gotten the idea that national sovereignty would benefit from alliances of strictly smaller weaker countries, with no superpowers, but just enough weaker countries to compete with superpowers.

[@fraufuchs9555]

I understand the idea of giving Crimea to Russia, but does it really work for good? Maybe it's just like giving your lunch to a bully so that he leaves you alone. When Putin took Crimea nobody did anything, and what happened? He thought he could do whatever he wanted because nobody would stop him. Crimia wasn't enough. I'm not saying I know what should be done in this situation, I'm just not convinced giving Crimea would be a solution.

[@quadeong7453]

Plus that's assuming Putim will even accept those terms. As far as he's concerned, Crimea already belongs to Russia and they've held it for year's without any recognition from other countries. So just saying they'll accept it really won't feel like a win for him

[@svanimation8969]

@@quadeong7453 bruh my girlfriend is Crimean and i know who's right! Let them bark

[@sweepingtime]

It isn't. Putin wants to remake the USSR, except with no pretense at communism and just a full-on dictatorship.

[@jmhorange]

Ukraine's unprofessional response notwithstanding, no leaders in Ukraine or the West is ready to have the conversation what Ukraine is going to give up. It's neither the time nor the place for an influential person with millions of followers helping Ukraine's military to be discussing it on Twitter because it can have a material effect on the battlefield and hurt Ukraine's prospects. But short of regime change in Russia, there's going to have to unfortunately be some kind of concessions from Ukraine and that time and place will have to eventually come. And Crimea is not going to be one of the concessions because it's de facto already Russia's regardless of no international recognition, hollow words that no one is willing to back up with actions.

[@GaganSingh-nx2yv]

@@jmhorange any concession is tantamount to appeasement and it never works or atleast that's the mindset of many people.

[@Itchyback]

No, he's already cancelled his threat.

[@Silver_Prussian]

Real shame should have left the trash to fend for itself

[@docphoenix2619]

@@Silver_Prussian like the russian soldiers currently? no backup, no supplies, no ammo, completely abandoned by daddy vlad

[@Itchyback]

@@Silver_Prussian FO AD, Putler's poodle.

[@Vordigon1]

@@Silver_Prussian мълчи бе, гошеее...

[@TheSandkastenverbot]

@@Silver_Prussian Go to the Nazi floor in hell. Or Stalin, I don't care. Soon Ukraine will have their own день победы. In contrast to Russia in WW2 they're doing all the work annihilating the Nazis themselves

[@isz6143]

You forget to mention that Ukrainians were and are paying for Starlink connection.

[@DavidLopez-yp5xo]

Musk is playing with fire. The US Department of Defense will remember this lapse in judgment when it’s time to renew or bid on a SpaceX contract. There are plenty of contractors that don’t exist anymore for the most trivial of reasons.

[@mkvenner2]

It’s like the Thai cave rescue all over again

[@skaldlouiscyphre2453]

At least his isn't accusing Zelensky of being a pedophile yet.

[@oohhboy-funhouse]

For Musk, calling rescue workers pedo for turning down your dumb idea is every week.

[@georgiewalker5826]

He is just an attention seeker

[@yscol1313]

“Just an attention seeker”… uhmm, have you forgetten about the two multi-billion dollar companies he runs? An annual production run rate of close to 2 million electric vehicles by the end of the year. Providing pivotal communications infrastructure to Ukraine when they needed it most. All of this just for attention?? Even if you dislike what you’ve seen of the guy, he is one of the most influential people of our time to accelerate use of sustainable energy and hopefully in the future also giving the world high speed access to the internet. Just an attention seeker my arse 😂

[@MrIrvash]

@@yscol1313 rich attention seker ^_^

[@Liam-bo6de]

@@yscol1313 ratio

[@scott.ebusiness]

Greatest man alive 😍 fully agree with you

[@ViktorVildras]

@@yscol1313 Ya, he isn't just an attention seeker. He also used government subsidies to become the richest man in the world, now he wants to end those subsidies so noone else can compete with him.

[@longhairgamer3371]

First he gives the starlink free of charge and waits for them to get hocked. He then starts charging them and jacks up the price. There is a word for that, it's called WAR PROFITEERING!!!!

[@quadeong7453]

don't forget asking for asking back pay.

[@longhairgamer3371]

@@quadeong7453 Yeah that guy is a real bastard.

[@maxjansen5591]

After I heard the quote "The ukrainian ambassedor to germany" 5:16, I instantly thought: What now?

[@begr_wiedererkennungswert]

I got a bit scared when I read it on Twitter. No, no, no Andrij, you caused enough damage in Germany, what if he DOES?

[@raistaparta]

Some dark part of me is laughing at all the people who praised Musk’s effort in the beginning of the war. We all know it would end up more or less this way. He’s vile.

[@internetguy478]

Note Elon Musk said on Twitter he will continue to support Starlink in Ukraine.

[@Ryanowning]

The reason he wanted to pull it, stated, was money and security. NATO needs to get their asses moving and open up significant cyber divisions through Starlink; we need MASSIVE funding for military application of Starlink immediately. Obviously, Musk is a businessman first, but Starlink isn't free to operate, it has a gigantic upkeep that needs to be subsidized immediately. It is FAR too useful of a tool to lose to stingy pockets.

[@Bingiisyaboi29]

@@Ryanowning America, uk and Poland have taken up about 80% of the costs so basically musk is speaking out of his ass and was butt hurt over being made a clown on twitter

[@Ryanowning]

@@Bingiisyaboi29 Musk has 80% of the costs, the rest have taken 20% of the costs.

[@Herbaling]

@@Ryanowning how so? Just check with Ukrainian military. I've heard and read multiple statements, that majority of Starlinks have been crowdfunded. See for yourself. How would that amount to 80% for Musk? Musk is butthurt about the upkeep costs, but those are his standard operational costs. It's not like he gave away Starlinks for free. They were purchased. At which point the upkeep is just standard operational cost, so what the fuck is his problem?

[@stivenstivens]

Great thanks for covering project starling. It was weary informative . You nailed it.

[@aimx4]

Boo hoo Mr. 300 billion dollars lost 100 million in profit

[@monferno1]

Honestly I didn’t even know he was doing it for free

[@TheDancing0wind]

maybe/sort of.... a lot of terminals were bought by governments supporting Ukraine. Satelites travel in very low orbits and only cover area when they are directly above. A satelite using bandwidth over Ukraine is not a missed opportunity anywhere else .. well excluding russians. Ground stations not sure but in Europe internet is cheap (I'm sure Polish or Romanian governments/companies will have no problem supporting them). Finally .. I heard Ukrainian support organisations saying this is first time they are hearing about "waived monthly fees" - starlink costs 60eur/month in Ukraine and they are paying it through donations. I personally have no problem if Musk want to do a costs+ contract but dude seriously sux at PR.

[@OperationBaboon]

he isn't

[@kirktierney]

Damn, you are good at this!

[@JonathanShyman]

great video!

[@maotseovich1347]

Being valued at $207B doesn't mean he has $207B in cash. He'd have to completely give up all his shares in Tesla and sell SpaceX to be able to spend $207B. Also the whole point of Starlink was to make SpaceX sufficiently profitable to be able to develop their Starship system. If Starlink isn't profitable, that's actually also really bad news for SpaceX. It means their entire core long-term strategy is actually not viable.

[@GaganSingh-nx2yv]

And you think Musk wasn't aware of it at the start?!

[@maotseovich1347]

@@GaganSingh-nx2yv What?

[@GaganSingh-nx2yv]

@@maotseovich1347 you think Musk was unaware of the finance involved beforehand?!

[@maotseovich1347]

@@GaganSingh-nx2yv Again, what? What are you even trying to say? Have you even thought it through? If you mean _do I think Musk was unaware that Starlink would struggle to be profitable before SpaceX set about developing it?_ then the answer is yes, I think Musk _and Shotwell_ both were unaware that Starlink would struggle to be profitable. I think he overestimated how much people would be willing to pay for it, he clearly underestimated the hardware that would be necessary to provide a good service (note the enormous increase in hardware sophistication between 1st and 2nd gen Starlink satellites), he almost certainly didn't predict the amount of time and money they'd end up spending reducing the satellites' albedos to mitigate complaints about light pollution. I also doubt that he predicted the inefficiencies and problems they'd run into manufacturing the things. He's well known to be a chronic optimist, and he has quite the reputation for being bad at estimating things in the future - especially timescales (you've surely heard the phrase "Musk-time") which are generally pretty hugely significant to things like profitability. If you mean the cost of providing Starlink service to Ukraine, again, for similar reasons, yes, I do believe he didn't realise what the cost would be. He probably thought ahead about as much as he usually does before tweeting. Even if we assume that he was overcome by a sudden and significant bout of forethought, he could easily have underestimated the amount of data traffic the Ukrainians could generate while being bombed, how long the war would go on, how many terminals would be required... But I'll wager most likely he just saw that something was going on, had an idea and decided to do the idea without putting all that much thought into it. But what are you even trying to imply?

[@GaganSingh-nx2yv]

@@maotseovich1347 I don't buy the argument that Elon musk is stupid and doesn't put much thought into his investment. You don't get rich without putting thoughts into your investment otherwise world would have been run by gamblers. He has team of experts and they could be off by some point but no sane person would suggest investing in Ukraine will be profitable at the movement. Civil unrest, war, even just instability and unpredictablity is enough to dissuade investors.

[@davidwarburton-burley9967]

Same guy who called the cave diver rescuer a paedo because they didn't want a useless submarine when saving the kids in Thailand

[@InquisitorThomas]

Yeah everything Elon does is to boost his own fragile ego, and if you call him out on it he’ll try to crush you. The dude is a fucking cartoon character.

[@theoc007]

In response to the cave diver telling Elon f*** off with his help (he also sent a team of engineers to make changes to the sub on the spot so it could work). The only times Elon does this is when the other party starts saying f you to his help. Not like the man is asking money he is just easily pissed off when people bite at the hand that feeds.

[@davidwarburton-burley9967]

@@theoc007 Presumably because they didn't need some attention seeker with useless toys getting in the way

[@theoc007]

@@davidwarburton-burley9967 guess we will never have helpful billionaires in this world if everyone assumes its attention seeking. Bill Gates spending his money on ending diseases and bringing people out of poverty in other countries must also be attention seeking.

[@Tmb1112]

He went back on it a few hours later.

[@FlorianMaeder]

I hate reports that equate valuation and wealth...

[@vonigner]

I have starlink and it's 50€ per month now (and the terminal was 500€) He should just write it off Starlink's taxes and call it a day tbh

[@theoc007]

If the US government does that then it would be a miracle.

[@antyspi4466]

Do you believe Spacex has copious amounts of cash lying around, while building an unprecedentedly large satellite network AND 3 new assembly and launch bases for the biggest rocket ever, which is still in development?

[@newbie1816]

What taxes? SpaceX does not currently make a profit and isn't going to be writing any off. Loss carryover might be useful for when SpaceX makes a profit but that isn't happening any time soon.

[@relucentsandman6447]

Privatized internet is starting to look like as bad as an idea as privatized water

[@archigoel]

Really, so 7 months of free internet is not enough?

[@YonaahrUnofficial]

is it just me or is nuclear war is just a trivial risk nowadays... "global change is anyways going to kill us all" type of logic.

[@brynyard]

100M$ is still dirt cheap for the PR campaign this was supposed to be (until Musk got a bit too full of himself and shared his "ingenious" ideas on how to end this war).

[@InquisitorThomas]

And his ingenious idea was pretty much just everything Putin wants short of the entire country.

[@murdelabop]

He wants to sell Starlink in Russia. Plus, he wants more money from the US government. In addition to that, Iridium is a better technology for battlefield use.

[@FuzzyRiy]

He is trying to stop WW3 starting with nukes. But people are so bloody shallowed view they cannot get past OMG RICH MAN SAYING STUFF. Ukraine isn't even part of NATO and the west are getting too involved. Sorry but Ukraine and Chrimera are not worth mass destruction for.

[@AnErrantPhoton]

To me, this is a question of if private money or private citizens should have this much influence. A follow-up question if your answer is no is what are you willing to give up or do to ensure that private money or private citizens don't have too much control (depending on what your definition of too much is). One doesn't need a lot of money to start a revolution. One doesn't need a huge following to have a lot of power. Asked a slightly different way, what are you willing to do or give up to have your preferred governance structure maintain or gain power and keep others under some threshold of control?

[@stormiewutzke4190]

Given that the last time there was serious attention payed to this sort of problem was over 100 years ago I think it's time to get a handle on the ultra rich.

[@maansmokers]

Let's all try to keep this channel up!

[@franekkkkk]

Maybe finally people will see how selfish Elon Musk really is. The dude is making a clown of himself. BTW this is probably a good moment to say: increase taxes on these weirdos

[@EricTomlinson]

Because he's done giving it away for free? Why don't you get off KZbin and go fight in Ukraine? So selfish.

[@rc7625]

That's because his supporters, who are clowns, naturally like and support other clowns..

[@Droidman1231]

Elon paid over 11 billion in taxes in 2021 lol

[@rc7625]

@@Droidman1231 And he should pay more.

[@PerryKobalt]

@@EricTomlinson Imagine you've bought expensive give for your your girl and she responded with breaking up with you(She cheated on you) + People&"Friends" calling you stalker It also very interesting timing on Elon Musk getting the Twitter investigation at same time where Ukraine Ambassador to Elon "F*ck off"

[@TheDonnyl]

You are wrong about the fees. For most of the units in Ukraine he charges 4500$ per month.

[@miguelangelsimonfernandez5498]

No he won't. He's just exposing the swamp

[@derekhebert2345]

he's already said on twitter yesterday that he would finally keep them online

[@yscol1313]

Yeah, not sure if TLDR missed that tweet 😅

[@chinguunerdenebadrakh7022]

Musk has made many statements that were made redundant a few days later.

[@derekhebert2345]

@@chinguunerdenebadrakh7022 exactly why making this video was risky 😅

[@yscol1313]

@@chinguunerdenebadrakh7022 Musk isn’t a media company

[@hippopotamusbosch]

💊 Like any successful dealer, the first hit is always free.

[@sfp2290]

Except in this case, it is more related to life-saving medicine, rather than life destroying drugs. It has probably been excellent for a lot of tests, to improve their systems and even sell it to other governments.

[@Veemo590]

I don't get the idea of announcing everything on twitter that you know wont be positive and expecting it to go well, instead of i don't know meetings with pentagon officials about it, instead of just whipping a storm and getting annoyed about it?

[@jaelynmeade]

Commenting for engagement. Good work! 😀

[@vaxam676]

I love your unbiased news. Please continue to report on issues on my side of the planet!

[@camilrath5990]

Sad state of affairs, man wants money for providing what is basically a humanitarian service because Ukraine told him how delusional he is about a peace deal. Big man baby Elon GuGu Musk

[@roejogan2693]

He didn't have to do it in the first place. Some gratitude would be polite

[@KommandantAegis]

@@roejogan2693 maybe don't say dumb shit on Twitter. I imagine the Ukrainian officials didn't really care what the hell Elon did until he decided to post his stupid ass Tweet acting like he is some geopolitical expert.

[@Reivehn]

@@roejogan2693 Gratitude was given, But musk suggesting the government make unfavourable peace terms is an insult that gets return-fire.

[@yscol1313]

@@Reivehn he didn’t demand anything. He offered suggestions on twitter. Millions of other people also tweet suggestions, that doesn’t mean they are demanding anything.

[@roejogan2693]

@@Reivehn he didn't demand anything. And I agree with him that the Ukrainians government should be working to make a peace deal. It's stupid to think they'll ever take back Crimea or the Donbass. And Russia will do whatever it takes to hold on to the "annexed" regions.

[@xt7519]

I'm not a big fan of Musk, but he did volunteer his (still in beta) system for Ukraine's use. Granted, he did it to get exposure and publicity for StarLink, but he still did it...and I didn't see (nor have I seen after this) anyone else stepping up to do, well, anything similar. His 'peace' plan is a joke (as is his suggestion about Taiwan), but I think asking someone to pay for StarLink's services is reasonable at this stage, especially if Ukraine has become more reliant on it. What this SHOULD spark in someone's head is that there is a real market for this technology and that getting your own constellation up there is going to be key. I know StarLink isn't the only company doing this, and I realize it's expensive, but surely someone realizes the potential here?? In rural America alone there is a ton of need for this...and not in 5 years, but more like 10 years ago. Musk doing what he's done has set that back as a lot of their efforts are going towards hooking up the Ukrainians, and as I said, I'm not seeing anyone else stepping up.

[@bartandaelus359]

Who would have thought that the Son of an apartheid era emerald mine owner would have sub-zero ethics?

[@kevinbourke1847]

Stand by Ukraine 🇺🇦

[@roejogan2693]

It depends on what you mean. I would say I stand by them, but I don't think it's for anyone's good if they join NATO.

[@kso4vfl]

Stand by Russia 🇷🇺

[@moqqy]

Nah usa supports it, then it must be evil.

[@kevinbourke1847]

@@kso4vfl no defeat for Russia

[@yazovgaming]

Nah

[@neondystopian]

I really hate how entitled, petty and ungrateful society has become.

[@DodoLP]

No he doesnt threaten to pull starlink out, he just wants to get paid...

[@MohamedGX]

Why are people expecting so much of musk? He may have the money to help Ukraine, but he has no reason whatsoever to do so. He doesn't hold any responsibility to do anything.

[@MrFancyDragon]

This man has so much influence that he can easily sell whatever perfume or flamethrower he produced. I get that he’s rich, but I’m starting to sour that one man has this much influence on political, economical and social things.

[@roejogan2693]

There are people that have way more power that you don't even know about

[@briceleroy]

It's an odd awakening uh, money is power, it has always been like that, it's not news. There isn't even anything wrong with it, it was meant to be this way. You have more money you can have more things and more influence

[@inkryption3386]

@@briceleroy just because that's the way the system is doesn't mean it's good. Absolute power corrupts absolutely. Allowing them to play outside the rules does nothing but embolden and invigorate their egomania.

[@wolshak112]

Like every rich madafaka out there. The methods are different the results the same. Musk goes always straight to the point and of what he believes is right. On the big scheme of things... Yeah nobody wants nuclear warfare.

[@maartent9697]

You just found out about Elon and his cult?

[@TaliyahP]

No single human should have this much influence.

[@randar1969]

Without him Ukraine wouild have been Russia's vassal state by now, but you can't say something nice about Elon because you have decided to dislike him.

[@aguynamedscott11]

Go raise enough money to launch a network of communications satellites into space and design portable terminals capable of interacting with them and then no single person will have that much influence. There will be two of you. Truth be told, no one person has that much influence. Elon Musk still has to answer to a board of directors and the share holders of his company. He only owns 10% of his company, and most of his wealth only exists on paper.

[@igoralmeida9136]

if he doesn't keep his mouth shut the US government (biggest mafia in the world) will definitely get rid of him

[@randomjay3633]

Karma will come back to bite wannabe Tony Stark eventually.

[@quadeong7453]

Not Tony Stark, Lex Luthor.

[@sibu2]

My friend this is old news. Musk already tweeted he will continue to suport free internet for Ucraine via Starlink

[@hypnosesubliminale5018]

But millions of us have stopped helping Ukraine.

[@Alfonso88279]

If Elon musk was able to keep control over his huge mouth and talked like a normal human being, explaining things carefully, this could have gone much better.

[@mr.boomguy]

Yup. That's why I'm consider myself now a Elon Critic, not a full blown hater tho. Believe me, I bet he's thinks his intensions are for the best, but he gets into so much trouble that I don't see myself supporting it.

[@Silver_Prussian]

Ohhh not liking he doesnt support the dumb narrtive anymore or russia bad and nato good ?

[@luisandrade2254]

It’s not his job to comform to normy standards talk like a real human my ass

[@luisandrade2254]

@@mr.boomguy if what you hate about musk is his unconventional personality then you’re really just a hater

[@creesmith2794]

Elon was kind of right though

[@prfwrx2497]

I dare you, Elon. Invoke the Defense Procurement Act, I fucking dare you.

[@RangKlos]

It's his and no one is paying for it so...

[@NeutronStream]

So a private unprofitable company should continue providing its service for free. 🤔... I Yeah, that sounds fair! 👍 I wonder if other private companies will come to help if they know they'll be vilified when they have no choice but to stop eventually.

[@xtopia9758]

bro said tldr business even though it's been uploaded to tldr us lol

[@frazzleboi2821]

very good video 👏👏

[@ismailabdulahi1214]

I agree. It was a very good video 👏 👏

[@herrhornbuckele5227]

Musk has been drifting towards the far right for months now so something like this was to be expected. However it seems he can't stand criticism over his position without getting really butthurt over it.

[@klumzyee]

Morals aside, #1 Regulatory wse, Starlinks been trying to get into eastern eu well prior to the war without complete success. He simply took Zelenskyy's tweet for help as approval. #2 out of the private companies, Musk has given the most accommodations for Ukraine. Even allowing employees to take a leave to go back (probably because there are a lot of spacex engineers who are ukrainian). #3 he is right, the US has offered billions in Raytheon, Northrupt, and Boeing equipment. Why shouldnt starlink be any different?... whatever it ends up being, I doublt the US will pay for starlink given that the Biden administration always clash with Elon. And Elon wont pull starlink out as they want to continue to service the EU and eastern europe (regulatorily)

[@laluglu_]

Someone's had their head turned by Russia

[@kingace6186]

I think Ellon Musk, being the richest person on Earth, should stay out of the realm of geopolitics and war. Or at the very least, he should make a serious effort to study the subject matter before acting, regardless of how tempting that might be.

[@antoniomarigliano4231]

Very interesting video!

[@Jayenwoods]

Huge respect to you guys for being the only channel I've seen to put out a truly unbiased account of the events here. As a general rule people either create Elon hater videos or fan videos... The haters outright lie about the details or show a total lack of understanding of them while the fans just ignore or paint a pretty picture over the more ugly ones. The truth is almost always somewhere more in the middle ;) Subscribed, good luck with the us channel!

[@trappist1-e301]

Lol

[@dalecavallino4029]

" Pay that man his money " - KGB

[@liquidl5380]

This man becomes more and more unhinged every day, istg. The worst thing about pursuing an astronomy program right now is having to endure people in classroom discussions who worship uncritically at this man's feet.

[@r2sav175]

I think it’s fair to have a UN monitored referendum done for these oblasts. Same goes for any disputed territories in the world such as Tamil Eelam, Kashmir or Kurdistan, the people there have the right to self determination

[@JohnSmith-tl8pq]

Won't work as millions of pro-Ukrainians have fled the entire region. There is nothing for them to go back to as all their property has been confiscated by the Russians. You would only have the pro-Russian minority voting.

[@Larsino2000]

Musk trying to become a arms dealer while asking for a massive premium of the product under the camouflage of generosity.

[@somethinglikethat2176]

Sounds like he was running a free for the first 6 month subscription plan.

[@Larsino2000]

@@somethinglikethat2176 how free is free if you send the bill 6 months later?

[@shahzebk7899]

Solution is that the government(s) should declare some products as part of the critical infrastructure e.g. Railways, Satellite, Cellular communications etc. Therefore we can still have private companies doing business in these sectors, but then if the CEO of private critical product decides to blackmail the public, then they should be criminally liable for disturbing critical infrastructure.

[@mrintrovert5068]

The infrastructure that didn’t exist until they built it with their and their investor’s money

[@kudr66]

Nobody is "blackmailing the public".

[@Son-Of-Gillean]

Thats just dumb.

[@George.Coleman]

Pentagon: If we pay you the losses, will you keep paying for their Internet... Elon: Yes, yes I will.