Between the actions and the words of Elon Musk, there is a gap. The 51-year-old billionaire, whose escapades have made him famous around the world as much as his many successful companies (Tesla, The Boring Company, Neuralink…), has struck again. He who has never ceased to criticize the aid given by the American government has just been refused one, and is preparing to appeal for compensation!
$885.5 million in aid for Starlink
Now launching every ~5 days https://t.co/KJYG5CKPYx
The US FCC (Federal Communications Commission) told him no. Elon Musk asked for $885.5 million in aid for Starlink, its satellite Internet connection system. However, the funds of Rural Digital Opportunity Fund, which are to be used to better connect rural areas of the United States to the Internet, will not be awarded to the Contractor. A blow for the billionaire, who despite his fierce position against aid, benefited greatly from the generosity of public funds! Indeed, in 2015, our colleagues from the Los Angeles Times indicated that his companies, including Tesla, SpaceX and SolarCity, had benefited from $4.9 billion… Along with that, in December 2021, the CNBC site reported his words from Elon Musk:
I literally say get rid of all subsidiesbut also for oil and gas.
State aid for others is no, but for him, no worries! Elon Musk has therefore decided to appeal to give Starlink a chance to obtain the hundreds of millions of dollars demanded, not being one contradiction. Among other things, in its argument, SpaceX argues that:
[…] changing the rules to undo a prior policy is grossly unfair after investing in thousands of hours of salaried labor and spending millions of dollars to meet program obligations on the reasonable assumption that [la FCC] would enforce its rules impartially.
Case to follow!