SoftBank's Masayoshi Son Questions Musk's Starlink Valuation, Analysts Say All Parties Have Self-Interest Behind Their Predictions

BlockBeats News, June 28th. SoftBank founder and CEO Masayoshi Son recently publicly questioned Elon Musk's ambitious plan to build a data center in space during a shareholder meeting. Son pointed out that constructing a data center in space is not only costly and time-consuming but also that "in the AI race, the next few years are much more important than what will happen in ten years," sparking widespread discussion in the tech community.

Analysts from TechCrunch pointed out the irony that Son himself is known for his "crazy bets," from WeWork to a series of bold investments through the SoftBank Vision Fund. However, his high-profile questioning still holds significant value because the concept of an orbital data center has swept through the venture capital and entrepreneurial world.

Regarding Musk's true motives, analysts bluntly stated that the idea of an orbital data center aligns closely with SpaceX's commercial interests. Building a satellite constellation implies a continuous launch demand, providing a steady stream of orders for SpaceX's rocket launch business. Currently, SpaceX holds a global launch market share of 80% to 90%, but a significant portion of this relies on the in-house Starlink satellite launches. Excluding this factor, the actual market share may only be between 20% to 40%. SpaceX is also actively expanding its cloud computing leasing business, having signed partnership agreements with Google, Anthropic, among others, and securing the first new cloud computing lease transaction post-IPO.

Of further note, OpenAI founder Altman similarly holds a reserved attitude toward the orbital data center—his longstanding feud with Musk is well-known. Analysts concluded that in this discussion about the future of AI, all the voices involved have significant vested interests. There is "no truly objective and neutral observer," and behind every prediction lies an interest-driven asterisk.