SpaceX to Pentagon: Pay up
Starlink, the satellite internet network operated by Elon Musk’s SpaceX, has been used by Russian forces in Ukraine to steer explosive drones into their targets.
In its war on Iran, the US military has adopted the same cheap but deadly tactic, controlling its LUCAS kamikaze drones through attached Starlink terminals. However, according to Reuters, SpaceX officials felt shortchanged by the Pentagon. Weeks into the war, SpaceX executives reportedly held a meeting with US military officials, where they “argued the military had been paying about $5,000 for connection per terminal while effectively using a higher tier of service worth closer to $25,000, according to two sources familiar with the matter and Pentagon documents reviewed by Reuters.”
The Pentagon capitulated to SpaceX’s price demands and is now “considering an additional purchase of more than 3,500 Starshield terminal subscriptions, including 100 with the higher-priced aviation tier,” according to Reuters. That could funnel hundreds of millions of dollars in additional taxpayer money to SpaceX every year.
On X, Musk described the Reuters story as “false” and said that SpaceX was at fault for allowing Starlink to be used “for military purposes.” SpaceX has a policy banning the use of Starlink for military applications and operates a second network for the Pentagon called Starshield. However, Starshield terminals — which are used to operate US kamikaze drones — can connect to both the Starshield network and Starlink.
The Reuters report also revealed that the Pentagon has explored a $500 million deal with SpaceX to provide direct-to-device Starlink service to the entire country of Iran. SpaceX asked to be paid an additional $100 million each month. The sticker shock appears to have convinced the Pentagon not to move forward.
But on Tuesday, SpaceX landed a $2.29 billion contract with the US Space Force to develop a globe-spanning, high-speed network that the military plans to use to track missile threats and guide interceptors, among other applications. The network appears to be an early pillar of the Golden Dome, Donald Trump’s missile-defense boondoggle.
This Week in Musk:
SpaceX had a modestly successful inaugural test of its two-stage Starship V3, which launched outside of Brownsville, Texas, last week. One of the 33 Raptor engines on the first stage Super Heavy booster failed less than two minutes after launch. Additional engine failures then caused the booster to undergo an uncontrolled descent after detaching from the second stage. There was also an engine failure aboard the second stage, known as the Ship, which prevented SpaceX from meeting its mission goal of relighting a Raptor engine in space. The Ship, however, did succeed in releasing its payload of dummy satellites and camera-fitted spacecraft in space. It then came back to Earth, where it exploded over the waters of the Indian Ocean. (NBC News)
Tesla investors are concerned about SpaceX’s upcoming IPO, fearing it will divert hype from the carmaker. “This cannot be a positive for Tesla,” portfolio manager Joe Gilbert said. “We believe that Musk’s focus will predominantly be lasered on SpaceX. Musk has proved to be able to balance multiple initiatives simultaneously in the past, but it feels like SpaceX is his new baby at the expense of Tesla.” (Fortune)
Musk is again dabbling in British right-wing politics, calling for voters to back Restore Britain in a key by-election for the parliamentary constituency of Makerfield. Nigel Farage, head of the Reform UK, another right-wing party that rivals Restore, has since accused Musk of helping the race’s liberal candidate by trying “to split the Right of British politics as best he can.” (The Telegraph)
$2.8 billion
That’s how much SpaceX, the parent company of Musk’s xAI firm, plans to spend to acquire additional gas turbines, including $2 billion for “mobile gas turbines,” according to a regulatory filing and reporting from TechCrunch. Those are the same kind of turbines that the NAACP is currently suing xAI for illegally operating to power its data centers in Memphis, Tennessee. The turbines are known to generate dangerous amounts of pollutants, including nitrogen oxides, carbon monoxide, particulate matter, volatile organic compounds, and formaldehyde.
Supreme Court declines to hear Meta’s challenge to social media addiction lawsuit
On Tuesday, the US Supreme Court declined to hear a request by Meta to dismiss a social media addiction lawsuit filed by Vermont.
Like hundreds of prosecutors, individuals, and school districts across the country, Vermont Attorney General Charity Clark has accused the company of targeting young people by implementing addictive design features on the Instagram app. “By designing its product to exploit teenagers’ developing brains,” wrote the state of Vermont, “Meta aimed to foster their addictions and increase the amount of time they spent using Instagram. The more time Vermont teenagers spend on Instagram, the more money Meta can make selling advertising space.”
The Supreme Court’s brush-off came after a lower court had allowed the lawsuit to move forward.
Meanwhile, in Kentucky last week, Meta agreed to settle with the Breathitt County school district over a lawsuit that accused the Mark Zuckerberg-led company of designing addictive products that have caused young people to experience emotional distress and engage in self-harm. Meta is set to face many similar claims in August as part of a bellwether trial in federal court. “Our focus remains on pursuing justice for the remaining 1,200 school districts who have filed cases,” attorneys Lexi Hazam, Previn Warren, Chris Seeger, and Ronald Johnson, who are representing the school districts, said in a statement.
And in New Mexico, Judge Bryan Biedscheid appears inclined to slap a “public nuisance” label on Meta’s social media products and order sweeping changes at the company. From Politico:
Biedscheid suggested he is considering requiring Meta to implement an independent safety monitor, pause app notifications for young users during school hours, engage more directly with parents and school districts, and adopt stronger policies to ban users posting sexually explicit and harmful content involving children. Meta will also likely be ordered to implement stronger and more visible health and safety warnings directly into its platforms.
Such a ruling could result in fundamental changes to some of the most widely used social media apps in the world, including Instagram and Whatsapp. It would also likely prompt legal action to address similar harms in other jurisdictions.
The state’s attorney general previously handed a significant blow to the company, with a New Mexico jury finding Meta liable for enabling the sexual predation of children on its platforms and violating consumer protection laws.
This Week in Zuck:
While lobbying for land deals that enabled Meta to begin construction of a colossal data center in Louisiana, a Republican state senator was buying up land around the proposed project. Senator John “Jay” Morris then sold hundreds of acres to a utility company, which plans to use the land to build a methane-burning power plant to power Meta’s data center. (The Guardian)
Biohub, a philanthropy founded by Zuckerberg and his wife, Priscilla Chan, claimed to release “a world model of protein biology” that could enable AI technology to develop new drugs. To date, AI-developed drugs have never passed human clinical trials or received approval for human use. (Axios)
Through a combination of acquisitions and mimicry, Zuckerberg has ensured that his business empire remains at or near the top of every major social media format — except for Reddit, the internet’s most popular forum platform. Now, he is attempting to change that. Last week, Meta launched a new app called Forum to serve as a dedicated app for Facebook Groups. The release comes nearly a decade after the failure of Facebook’s original Groups app. (The Verge)
Bezos is falling short of his $10 billion climate pledge
The Bezos Earth Fund is not on track to donate the $10 billion that Jeff Bezos promised by 2030 when he founded the climate fund six years ago. A Bloomberg report found that the Bezos Earth Fund has disbursed just 28% of its pledged funds so far. From Bloomberg:
That leaves more than $7 billion, suggesting the need for a surge in grantmaking under Chief Executive Officer Tom Taylor, who took over leadership last year after running Amazon.com Inc.’s Alexa division. Yet spending by the Earth Fund dropped to $183 million in 2025 before ticking up to at least $400 million this year, according to fund officials.
Bezos has increasingly used the fund in recent months as a vehicle to greenwash the AI industry, which generates huge amounts of climate-heating carbon and consumes vast quantities of fresh water. Nevertheless, the Bezos Earth Fund has sought to convince the public that AI technology could be the ultimate solution for the global climate crisis.
This Week in Bezos:
Following more than a year of Bezos’s attempts to ingratiate himself with Trump, Blue Origin, the centibillionaire’s space technology company, has received a $468 million contract with NASA for two uncrewed lunar landers. The contracts are part of the agency’s initial plans to spend $20 billion constructing a permanent base on the Moon. (Financial Times)
On Thursday night, a Blue Origin New Glenn rocket caused a massive explosion atop a launch pad during a static fire test in Cape Canaveral, Florida. “All personnel are accounted for and safe,” Bezos wrote on X. “It’s too early to know the root cause but we’re already working to find it. Very rough day, but we’ll rebuild whatever needs rebuilding and get back to flying. It’s worth it.” Elon Musk, Bezos’ chief rival in the space exploration industry, also commented on the accidental detonation, writing, “Most unfortunate. Rockets are hard.” (Associated Press)
Engineers and researchers at Amazon Web Services claim to have developed a groundbreaking networking innovation that simultaneously increases data speed and reduces energy consumption. The technology does not appear to be applicable for AI data centers, with AWS executive Matt Rehder calling it “a great fit for our core demands, but AI training data patterns are far more coordinated and centrally orchestrated.” (Wired)
Jeff Bezos has continued to receive backlash for his recent appearance on CNBC, during which he insisted that raising his taxes would not help regular Americans. “You could double the taxes I pay, and it’s not going to help that teacher in Queens,” he said in the interview. In response, New York City Mayor Zohran Mamdani said he knows “a few teachers in Queens who would beg to differ.” And technology journalist Kara Swisher called the comments “disingenuous,” adding, “Let’s try, Jeff. Even if you pay billions, you have billions.” (The Wrap)
“Humanity, created by God in all its grandeur, is today facing a pivotal choice: either to construct a new Tower of Babel or to build the city in which God and humanity dwell together.”
Pope Leo XIV wrote those words in a 42,300-word encyclical published this week, outlining the Vatican’s opposition to the AI industry and the tech elite who are leading trillions of dollars in spending to develop the technology. The Pope also warned that AI “threatens to normalize an anti-human vision,” adding, “A more moral AI is not enough if that morality is determined by a few.”
Oligarch Roundup
Peter Thiel relocates family to Argentina. The German-born tech billionaire, who has played a significant funding role in American right-wing causes and campaigns, has acquired a mansion in Buenos Aires and relocated his family there, including his children, who are enrolled in a local school. The New York Times, citing two sources familiar with Thiel’s thinking, reported that he is “considering making Argentina another Plan B” as he grows increasingly wary of the direction of the US. Argentina, meanwhile, is led by self-described “anarcho-capitalist” Javier Milei. The upcoming vote on the Billionaire Tax Act in California, where Thiel’s fortune and businesses originated, appears to be a particular source of concern for him. Should the Argentine economy continue to struggle under Milei’s radically austere policies, Thiel could always turn back to New Zealand, another country where he holds citizenship. (New York Times)
Thiel’s steroid olympics flops. In Las Vegas, the Enhanced Games, which received funding from Thiel and Donald Trump Jr., failed to deliver any significant athletic feats, despite the use of performance-enhancing drugs by many of the athletes who competed. Three athletes who said they hadn’t used PEDs managed to win events against their enhanced counterparts. (SF Gate)
SpaceX says cryptocurrency billionaire will lead Mars flyby mission. In a video released by the company last week, billionaire Chun Wang said he would join a crewed interplanetary mission aboard a SpaceX Starship that would fly past the Moon and Mars. It remains highly unlikely that such a mission would take place anytime soon, given Elon Musk’s long history of failing to deliver on his Martian mission promises. (Gizmodo)
“SpaceX has a policy banning the use of Starlink for military applications,” says Musk. But the Russians are using it to kill Ukrainians. I’m confused.
What do you care if Bezos is short on Global Warming fund? It's all BS anyway to genocide planet (net zero lifespans).