Elon Musk told investors on November 6 that SpaceX could acquire a legacy telecommunications carrier and use its airwaves ten times more effectively than current operators, though he named no target and no transaction has been filed. Musk made the comments by video at the Baron Investment Conference in New York, adding that any purchase would be conditional on SpaceX using spectrum better than the incumbent. Verizon and AT&T each declined 0.89 percent following the remarks, while SpaceX rose 8.62 percent to $134.27.
Deutsche Telekom chief executive Tim Hoettges said on a November 5 earnings call that SpaceX would need at least 200 billion euros, or roughly $220 billion, to compete with established U.S. carriers. Hoettges, whose company controls T-Mobile, estimated SpaceX holds 76 megahertz of spectrum compared with approximately 400 megahertz for T-Mobile, and said leasing tower space alone would cost $20 billion to $30 billion. He added that his company must still assume SpaceX will enter the market.
Any acquisition of a major carrier would require SpaceX to assume significant debt, including Verizon's $166.2 billion or AT&T's $159.6 billion, along with labor agreements, retail operations, and landline networks. Both antitrust regulators and the Federal Communications Commission would need to approve such a transaction. The three major carriers together were valued at approximately $507 billion, while SpaceX was worth roughly $1.77 trillion.
SpaceX purchased AWS-4 and H-block licenses from EchoStar in September 2025 for approximately $17 billion and has agreed to buy nationwide 800-megahertz licenses, with closing expected in the first half of 2027. Analysts noted that at its current price, SpaceX stock likely already assumes its Starlink Mobile service will succeed, and a carrier acquisition would add substantial debt and regulatory complexity to that assumption.