Elon Musk intensified his criticisms of Indian competitors with a direct attack on billionaire Mukesh Ambani, while SpaceX’s Starlink satellite internet service continues to await regulatory approval to begin operations in India.
“Ambani is the real boss of India?”, Musk wrote this Thursday on his social media platform X. According to him, Starlink spent the last five years complying with all legal and regulatory requirements of the Indian government.
SpaceX awaits authorization from the government of Prime Minister Narendra Modi to offer its services in the country, where companies controlled by Reliance Industries, of Ambani, and Bharti Airtel, of Sunil Bharti Mittal, have built dominant positions in the telecommunications sector over the past years.
In his post, Musk stated:
“Starlink has licenses in more than 165 countries and has spent five years complying with all laws and government requirements in India. So why hasn’t it received the license yet? Ambani is the real boss of India?”
A spokesperson for Reliance Industries did not immediately comment on the statements.
Earlier, Musk had already accused unidentified competitors of blocking Starlink’s entry into the Indian market, in comments widely interpreted as a reference to Ambani and Mittal.
“Unfortunately, we are being blocked by certain oligarchs to keep their monopolistic control over the Indian people. You can guess who they are,” Musk wrote in another post.
The Indian government rejected the allegations. In a statement released on Thursday, the Ministry of Communications said that the regulatory framework for satellite communications is “fair and non-discriminatory” and that all three companies authorized to provide these services are broadly at the same stage of the approval process.
The two largest private operators in the country, Reliance Jio Infocomm and Bharti Airtel, together have about 910 million broadband subscribers, equal to more than 80% of the Indian market, according to official data.
The criticisms mark a significant shift from a year ago, when SpaceX signed agreements with Bharti Airtel and with Jio Platforms, the digital arm of Reliance, to offer Starlink services in India.
Bharti Airtel did not immediately respond to requests for comment.
Bharti Airtel’s shares fell as much as 1% on Thursday, while Reliance’s shares declined up to 1.1%.
Bloomberg reported in June that India had frozen final approvals for Starlink’s commercial launch due to national security concerns. At the time, sources said agencies tied to the Home Ministry had withheld the necessary authorizations to begin operations.
Starlink already holds a license for satellite communications services in the country, but still awaits security authorities’ approval and the allocation of spectrum to begin its commercial activities.
During a sector conference in New Delhi on Wednesday, Lauren Dreyer, Starlink’s Vice President of Commercial Operations, said the company spent five years working with Indian regulators and built its network with the country’s security requirements in mind.
“We are ready to serve India when India is ready,” she said.
Bharti Airtel is one of the largest shareholders in Eutelsat Communications, operator of the OneWeb satellite network, one of Starlink’s major global rivals in low Earth orbit. At the same time, it maintains a partnership with SpaceX to distribute Starlink services in India.
Reliance, meanwhile, has its own ambitions in the segment through Jio Satellite Communications and its partnership with Luxembourg operator SES S.A.
Jio, OneWeb, and Starlink are among the three companies that received Indian licenses for satellite communications, but none of them has yet begun full commercial operations.
The dispute comes at a pivotal moment for Reliance. Jio Platforms, the group’s telecommunications and digital services unit, is preparing an initial public offering (IPO) that could become India’s biggest ever this month.
© 2026 Bloomberg L.P.
