Elon Musk escalated his public dispute over Starlink’s delayed launch in India on Thursday, October 8, by naming Mukesh Ambani after accusing unnamed “oligarchs” of blocking the service. The Indian government rejected the claims as baseless. Ambani and Reliance have not publicly responded.
On Wednesday, Musk said Starlink was “being blocked by certain oligarchs in order to maintain their monopolistic chokehold on the Indian people.” He added, “You can guess who they are… This is a crime against the people of India!” The comments were widely read as a reference to Ambani’s Reliance Jio and Sunil Bharti Mittal’s Bharti Airtel, which together account for more than 80 percent of India’s broadband subscribers.
On Thursday, Musk responded to a post alleging that the government protects “crony capitalists.” He said Starlink was licensed in more than 165 countries and had spent five years complying with Indian government requirements. “So why still no license? Is Ambani the real boss of India” he wrote. The post naming Ambani drew tens of millions of views.
The Ministry of Communications called suggestions of unfair or discriminatory treatment “baseless and misconceived.” It said three satellite operators—Starlink, Reliance’s Jio Satellite and Bharti-backed Eutelsat OneWeb—hold licences and are at “broadly the same regulatory stage.”
All three operators are awaiting security assessments from the Ministry of Home Affairs before final spectrum clearance. None has received approval for a commercial launch in India, according to the government’s statement.
The dispute revives a 2024 argument over how satellite spectrum should be assigned. Jio and Airtel sought an auction, while Starlink supported administrative allocation. The Telecommunications Act, 2023, and government policy took the administrative route. In 2025, SpaceX signed separate distribution agreements with Jio Platforms and Bharti Airtel, but they have not led to a commercial Starlink service. Officials have also cited security scrutiny, including reports of terminals in conflict areas; Starlink has denied operating over India.
Shares in Bharti Airtel and Reliance Industries each fell about 1 percent on Thursday, and neither company immediately commented on Musk’s posts. A Deloitte forecast cited in coverage estimates India’s satellite broadband market could reach about $1.9 billion by 2030, while Jio reported more than 520 million customers as of March 2026.
