And an “age of abundance”, too – hmmm-hmmm.

This is a short version of the only story in town today, covered at some length here… RCR was going to write up BT’s results today, but then this dropped: “We have identified the largest actionable total addressable market (TAM) in human history,” writes SpaceX. That’s right: SpaceX’s filing with the FCC about a proposed IPO is available, and it is a big read (380 pages). It goes on: “Our TAM is $28.5tn, consisting of: $370bn from space-enabled solutions; $1.6tn across $870bn in Starlink Broadband and $740bn in Starlink Mobile; $26.5tn across $2.4tn in AI infrastructure, $760bn in consumer subscriptions, $600bn in digital advertising, and $22.7tn in enterprise applications.”

Them’s some big numbers, right there – the story of a hyper-scale business that wants to hyper-scale hyperscale. If you will. Everyone knows this about Musk, of course; but here it is, in print, in a 300-page document that is part sci-fi fantasy and part corporate manifesto, presented with pictures like a coffee-table brochure. Its mission statement is to “build the systems and technologies necessary to make life multiplanetary, to understand the true nature of the universe, and to extend the light of consciousness to the stars”, it says. It is the kind of thing George Lucas would have written as escapism for teenage geeks. Except some of it will come to pass, and turn its author into a trillionaire.

There is too much to go through; RCR will have another crack, maybe. But for now, the rumours are true: SpaceX brings in a lot of money, but still makes a loss; and its Starlink satellites, carried physically into low-Earth orbit (LEO) on SpaceX rockets, carry the whole SpaceX business. SpaceX earned $18.7bn in revenue in 2025, but lost $2.6bn after paying asset-related operational costs, and other things; its adjusted EBITDA was $6.584bn. Most of the money comes from Starlink, which generated revenue of $11.4bn in 2025 – about 61% of its takings across its three core units. But even Starlink’s returns are not enough to push its parent business into the black. It needs more scale.

The bigger business logic is plain: a “vertically-integrated innovation engine” in the form of a fleet of SpaceX rockets, a Starlink satellite constellation, and an xAI supercomputer to shuttle compute power to and from the Earth, and host it where energy is cheap and abundant, data can be processed at planetary scale, and intelligence rains down globally. Plus, yeah, if the Earth’s days are numbered, then the rich can settle Mars – so humans don’t go the way of the dinosaurs. Those aren’t my words, totally. “We do not want humans to have the same fate as dinosaurs. We want to give them a reason to look ahead with excitement, with the prospect that we are entering an age of abundance.”

There is a lot of this in there, including 41 pages or risk factors (pp. 24-63, before all the financial and legal stuff, plus the indexes). It will be interesting to go through those – another time.

James Blackman
Executive Editor
RCR Wireless News

RCR Top Stories

SpaceX – do you want in? SpaceX’s IPO filing reads like a techno-futurist manifesto – but then its his business: a vertically integrated empire of rockets, satellites, and AI infrastructure to scale intelligence globally.

5G-NTN for defense: 5G and non-terrestrial networks (NTNs) are converging fast. NATO, the US Army, Airbus, and MSSA outlined at Defense Comms Forum where standards, deployments, and security sit today – and what 6G changes.

Emerging RAN markets: Emerging markets supported global RAN growth in the first quarter of 2026 as North American spending slowed following peak 5G deployments, according to new market data and analysis from Omdia.

Alibaba plumps AI stack: Chinese company Alibaba has introduced a new Qwen foundation model, upgraded AI cloud infrastructure, as well as a next-gen AI chips as it targets enterprise demand for large-scale agentic AI workloads.

New space edge: As satellite comms reshapes global connectivity, attention is shifting beyond internet access to compute in orbit. The challenge is to understand how space infrastructure will integrate with terrestrial networks.

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Beyond the Headlines

The Road to Level 4: Who’s the best? “China Mobile.” What about in Europe? “Telefónica and Orange.” And where is the industry, at large? “Between about 1.5 and 2.1.” So how do we get to Level 4, then? TM Forum has the answer.

Snowflakes in AI storm: Telcos will never achieve full autonomy or change by layering AI agents onto legacy systems, says TM Forum. Telcos are not special cases, it says. They must rebuild their IT and network foundations first.

Verizon on cyber-design: Verizon made the case at the Defense Communications Forum that military network security is a design choice – tied to how modalities, applications, and more get stitched together.

KDDI eyes ‘AI society’: Japanese telco KDDI has unveiled a new three-year strategy focused on AI infrastructure, low-latency connectivity, and future 6G readiness as the operator prepares for what it describes as an AI-native society.

Sean & Will, ep #4: In the latest episode of Beyond the Network, Sean Kinney and Will Townsend dig into the weird world of quantum computing, including the latest on quantum-safe networking and Cisco’s Universal Quantum Router.

What We’re Reading

BT flatlines, ups cuts: BT raised its cost-cutting target to £3.7bn from £3bn, extended to FY30, as FY26 earnings (£8.2bn) were flat and revenues (£19.7bn) were slow – despite record FTTP build-out, and growth across broadband, mobile.

P5G #1 – remote cranes: A good white paper from Finnish firm Konecranes to assess whether private 5G meets demands for remote crane operation and automation in port environments. Its conclusion: well, yes it can.

P5G #2 – D2D at 900MHz: The FCC has approved a test license for Anterix to use Lynk’s D2D network in its 900 MHz band. The parties will test devices in multiple critical-infra locations, with a view to supplying utilities, pipelines, military bases.

P5G #3 – at Kiwi port: Port Nelson has private 5G from Spark New Zealand and Ericsson across three warehouses, covering around 30,000 square meters, including adjacent outdoor yard areas, and forklifts.

P5G #4 – in Canada 4.0 lab: Ericsson has installed 5G at an Industry 4.0 lab at state-backed manufacturing institute CNIMI in Canada to give startups a real-world test environment to put their AI and automation cases through their paces.

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