Billionaire Carlos Slim Cancels $22 Billion in Starlink Orders Due to Elon Musk’s Outburst

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Final Up to date on: eleventh March 2025, 02:40 am

This can be a fairly wild story that I hadn’t seen till yesterday, and simply noticed it as a result of a reader introduced it to us. It does have a connection to Tesla and its EV gross sales as effectively, however that’s admittedly unfastened. First, the story.

In case you haven’t observed, Tesla CEO Elon Musk has been getting increasingly more concerned in politics. He acquired into main political spats in Brazil, the UK, Germany, and naturally the US prior to now yr. Within the US, recently, he has been heading up a “Department of Government Efficiency” (DOGE) initiative — not an precise authorities division, in fact, since that must be created by Congress, however one thing that in some way oversees and interferes in authorities division after authorities division. He has triggered plenty of injury in that position, however that’s a narrative for an additional day. The purpose is that he’s gotten closely tied up in political issues, now routinely spreading wild claims and misinformation that’s politically motivated.

Properly, apart from aligning himself with Trump and his incessant assaults on Mexico (and on the New York Occasions), Musk insinuated in January that Mexican billionaire Carlos Slim was considerably concerned with drug cartels in Mexico.

Why was Musk eager to share this? Who is aware of — he’s fallen for numerous conspiracy theories on X/Twitter. Something that sounds juicy and suits his agenda, whether or not discovered at 10pm, midnight, or 2:30 am, is value retweeting or responding to. No constraints, no penalties, who cares? Although, the New York Occasions connection might be the more than likely. Musk has a historical past of battle with the New York Occasions. In truth, a number of the first tales about Tesla I coated and responded to in 2012 have been a few bizarre street journey in a Tesla Mannequin S that wasn’t very pleasant to Tesla. Over time, I feel Musk has grown to hate the New York Occasions. So, one thing to smear the most important particular person shareholder of the New York Occasions? Juicy.

Reportedly, Slim has no editorial control at all over the New York Occasions. Right here’s extra about his historical past and shares of the paper:

“Carlos Slim, a telecommunications magnate, acquired a stake within the NYT throughout the monetary disaster of 2008–2009.

“On the time, the newspaper was going through severe monetary issues, and Slim took the chance to speculate $250 million within the type of loans and warrants.

“By 2015, he exercised name choices that made him the most important particular person shareholder, with 17% of the category A shares, though with out editorial management over the media.

“In 2017, Slim reduced his stake to 8%, selling half of his shares at market price. The investment was highly profitable: the shares, which were worth less than $5 in 2009, reached $18.60 in 2017, according to the Financial Times.”

Slim has a fascinating history. I see nothing there about drug cartels. I think about that if he certainly has zero ties to drug cartels, he’d be very bothered by somebody like Elon Musk implying he did.

Properly, after the accusation, or extra particularly, the monocle-wearing “that’s interesting, one should look at this and investigate further” emoji, Slim determined his large telecoms firm, América Móvil, would now not must spend $22 billion on Starlinks  within the subsequent few years. Initially, nearly 5 minutes after Musk’s tweet, Slim canceled a $7 billion Starlink order. An hour later, the total $22 billion funding plan had been pulled. As a substitute, Slim goes to show to Chinese language and European firms.

“More than money, Musk lost his main partner in 25 countries, in addition to giving up all that territory to companies of his competition and, most seriously, causing the USA to continue losing commercial presence and giving it to China,” Monterey Daily Post writes.

The general level right here is that Musk’s wild, conspiratorial, dangerous claims on X and typically in the true world are driving individuals away. A billionaire who in all probability is aware of effectively how Starlink might assist his firm simply dropped $22 billion in deliberate investments! Many others are usually not shopping for Tesla automobiles, not EVangelizing for Tesla any longer, and even out protesting on the street. Whereas most of us don’t have $22 billion to spend on something, the purpose is evident: Musk retains pushing individuals away from making huge purchases (at their very own ranges) along with his wild and dangerous claims. He could have misplaced $22 billion in orders with this one haphazard insinuation, however he could have misplaced $22 billion or extra different mixed orders at Tesla with different claims and actions.

We’ll discover out soon-ish how a lot Tesla gross sales are being hit. The primary quarter offers some indication, however it’s additionally considerably affected by manufacturing line adjustments and folks ready for the brand new Mannequin Y. The second quarter, although, may have the burst of deliveries for brand new Mannequin Y orders. Properly, total, we’ll need to look throughout the primary and second quarters and tease out the conclusions we are able to. The query is, in 2025, will Musk’s conduct do as a lot injury to Tesla’s gross sales because it did to Starlink gross sales when getting Slim to cancel $22 billion value of deliberate purchases?

Featured photo by Official SpaceX Photos – Starlink Mission, CC0