[laughing_man]

Starlink made a $4 bn profit last year, and is apparently growing 30% YoY.

[ben_w]

Starlink isn't billed for the cost of launches.

https://www.fool.com/investing/2026/06/29/spacex-secret-laun...

[laughing_man]

Interesting. I didn't realize that.

[inemesitaffia]

It's not true.

It's billed at cost. Not at price.

[yesplorer]

From Space X prospectus:

For launches of our Starlink satellites, the Company does not recognize any inter-segment revenue, rather those launch costs are capitalized in satellites in Property, plant, and equipment, net. We allocate a significant amount of launch capacity to our Connectivity segment, and expect to allocate a significant amount to our AI segment in the future. Our Space segment revenue only reflects our customer launches and customer activities.

For launches dedicated to deploying our Starlink satellites, we capitalize the associated costs within our Connectivity segment and depreciate them over time, and we do not recognize revenue for those launches in our Space segment.

[inemesitaffia]

There's no dispute there with what I said.

The launch cost for Starlink is in the connectivity segment. It has to go somewhere on your balance sheet and you can't magic it away.

If you manufacture cement and you also sell premixed concrete in another division it's a similar thing. Or any other company that sells both raw material and finished product.

Here they are saying it's in the connectivity segment costs instead of them buying it at retail. That's all there is.

That's how analysts can estimate launch costs ~$20MM and $600k for satellites as opposed to the idea that launch is $0 for Starlink and the cost is hidden in the space segment.