Musk Questions Ambani’s Role in Starlink Regulatory Holdup

Elon Musk is picking a fight with India’s richest man — again.

In the past few days, Musk has been criticizing regulatory approval delays for Starlink’s satellite-based internet in India, pointing the finger at “certain oligarchs” who want to maintain a telecom monopoly in the country.

Musk didn’t name names in his X post on Wednesday. On Thursday, he called out Mukesh Ambani, the chairman of Reliance Industries, India’s largest conglomerate.

Part of Reliance’s portfolio includes the country’s largest mobile network, Reliance Jio, which the company says has more than half a billion customers.

“Starlink is licensed in over 165 countries and has spent five years complying with every single law and requirement of the government of India, so why still no license?” Musk wrote. “Is Ambani the real boss of India?”

Spokespeople for Reliance Jio and India’s Ministry of Communications did not immediately respond to a request for comment from Business Insider.

Musk followed up on Friday with a sarcastic apology letter addressing Ambani as the Prime Minister.

“Please accept my humble apologies for not realizing that you are the real boss of India,” he wrote. “Naturally, you would prefer to maintain your monopolistic exploitation of the great people of India, but would you nonetheless consider allowing Starlink to compete?”

The actual prime minister of India is Narendra Modi, with whom Musk has had a largely cordial, if pragmatic, relationship.

SpaceX’s Starlink has run into issues with India’s government and Ambani’s Reliance before.

In 2021, Starlink began taking preorders in India before it had the proper licenses to sell an internet service, prompting the Ministry of Communications to advise the public “not to subscribe to Starlink services being advertised.”

In 2024, Reliance lobbied India’s government to allocate satellite spectrum through an auction rather than an administrative assignment. Reliance lost that battle.

In a bit of a twist, Jio and Starlink announced a conditional distribution partnership the following year, which would bring Starlink’s products into Jio’s retail and online stores, pending Starlink’s regulatory approval.

Starlink received a key license from the country’s department of telecommunications around June last year, paving the way for Musk’s company to launch an internet service in India.

India’s government, however, told The Indian Express that a security assessment for Starlink is still underway and needs to be completed.