Carlos Slim cancels Starlink orders
cleantechnica.com
cleantechnica.com
Which cites this: https://www.milenio.com/
Which is just a home page.
Anyone got an actual source on this?
The $22B number comes from the stock market downturn leading to a loss of wealth of $7B for Musk that happened to be on the same day that Slim said they will cancel contracts for an unspecified amount with Starlink and invest $22B into developing their own infrastructure.
So, the headline is completely false.
This seems to be just a rewrite of other people's work.
From previous HN discussions:
https://www.msn.com/en-us/technology/tech-companies/mexican-...
https://mexicodailypost.com/2025/02/24/carlos-slim-orders-to...
As a long time Tesla fan its insane what Cybertruck has done to the brand.
My wife has a new Santa Fe and it blows my Model 3 out of the water in terms of tech. Better back up camera, 360 camera, cross traffic alarms, and two stalks on the steering wheel...
Everytime I see the new Model 3 I can't help but imagine how amazing it would have been if they didn't cut so many corners to build the failing Cybertruck.
All that being said I believe the Cybertruck is still the best selling EV pick up on the market, so it's not like the competition is doing any better in this segment.
According to the first story I found [0], Rivian R1T outsold Cybertruck in in 3Q24 and F150 lightning had outsold it YTD at the same point last year.
[0] https://fordauthority.com/2024/11/ford-f-150-lightning-sales...
[0] https://insideevs.com/news/747195/tesla-cybertruck-sales-dem...
However, you get major successes by taking risks. Evaluating people and businesses, I do so based on successes and not on failures. The best people (and businesses) I know failed more times than successful ones. Cybertruck was a good try, and it takes a few like that to be successful.
Of the problems I have with Tesla, the Cybertruck is not one of them.
Cybertruck owners, on the other hand, you might as well but a dunce cap and a t-shirt which says "I'm an idiot with too much money."
The idea of making an electric truck is a GOOD idea, but building one that is completely out of left field in terms of design is NOT. Tesla would have had a majorly successful pickup truck had they just built a normal ass pickup truck.
Acting like this was just some sort of "risk taking seat of the pants" maneuver is just absolving him of responsibility.
Quite literally snatching defeat from the jaws of victory.
A truly engineering led organization would end up with something like the Tesla & Nikola semi trucks, closer to the ideal teardrop shop that aerodynamics leads to.
Half of all people buy a massive SUV for their one child to be driven around in.
Also the R1T is only about 8% less efficient than a CT...
Compare that to the ~80% conversion rate of the Model 3 when it launched, it appears the Cybertruck is a massive failure.
I'm all for having a good time, but I wish he'd cut out the 5th grade sense of humor and be a man.
He would very much prefer not to be in politics.
He absolutely is a very good salesman and marketeer but that's about it. Everything he sold that was successful was created by others. The moment he starts to interfere things go wrong. The Cybertruck is a great example.
It is also known that people at SpaceX hate it when he is around telling people what to do because most of it doesn't make sense.
Now he is in politics it becomes clear to a lot of people who he really is. A greedy salesman.
Sounds like he does a bit of Seagull Management[1]. Worked with a founder like this once. Everyone dreaded seeing him around the office, because that meant everyone's work was going to get upended and/or canceled, and we'd be working on something totally different once he articulated his latest fever dream to the engineering team. Then, once the place was in chaos, he'd get in his plane and fly off somewhere until he stopped by again to upend everything.
I think that is going to be a common theme in the next decade.
If you have a link to a real news site carrying this, I'd love to see it, otherwise flagging for now.
This link seems to be a bit flimsy at best and they're referencing eachother as sources. This is why the "mainstream" media get paid the big bucks, they actually do a somewhat thorough job whether you trust them or not.
Other news sites say Slim was willing to invest 22B in better communications. So maybe Starlink was a part of this investment but I have a hard time believing Musk lost a $22B deal.
US Digital Service was renamed
So an existing agency was renamed by the executive
Congress not needed
Yeah, very poor source
The EO renamed USDS, to DOGE, but USDS still exists, and then created an organization under USDS called DOGE. But that the DOGE organization doesn't report to USDS, but to a new USDS administrator just for DOGE.
Source: https://www.presidency.ucsb.edu/documents/executive-order-14...
What’s written on paper there is all compliant.
Everyone should read it for themselves before turning that specific verbaige into an amateurish partisan thing. Anything you don’t like here has to be taken up with Congress because they delegated all that authority eons ago.
The chain looks like Milenio (Spanish) > Mexico Daily Post (English) > everyone else.
In October of last year, América Móvil's CFO, Carlos García Moreno, confirmed during a call with analysts that they were seeking an agreement with SpaceX's Starlink to expand the collaboration between the two companies. If successful, the collaboration agreement will allow Musk's company to connect to América Móvil's main mobile services network, joining the commercial alliance to resell the firm's services that they had previously agreed upon. However, on Monday the Mexican businessman confirmed that these agreements were “pushed back” because they prefer to invest in their own infrastructure to offer this type of services. “It is better to put our own towers, plants and the optical fiber that links them,” he said.
The best you'll get, outside of the shareholder webcasts, is, say:
But the prospects of this type of collaboration with América Móvil, announced in October 2024, were put on hold. Carlos Slim, honorary president of the company, said that the alliance with Musk “is going backwards.”
“It is better to put our towers, plants and optical fiber to link them,” said the business magnate in his press conference held on February 10.
Two days later, Daniel Hajj, CEO of América Móvil, confirmed the decision in a conference call with analysts, where he announced an investment of 22 billion dollars over the next three years to expand its infrastructure. With this move, the possibility of a collaboration with SpaceX was ruled out.
Hajj clarified that América Móvil does not work with any satellite company on messaging services and that they are only evaluating the viability of the satellite for coverage in rural areas.
“We are still reviewing whether that service makes sense for us. But, for now, we do not have any ongoing negotiations with satellite companies,” he said on the call with analysts on the fourth quarter 2024 financial results.
( and other sources, this appears balanced ).
But it's all speculative w/out details - AM may or may not actually invest $22 billion, whatever they invest may or may not go with Starlink, this may or may not be a play to get a better deal.
Well, that's a bit of a naive take.
You're not going to do business in a cartel/mafia infested area and not have to deal with them. In the same way that a construction company in Naples is going to get a friendly visit at some point. Or in the way a forest keeper in Romania or Bulgaria will also be reminded of what is good for them and their family. (As experienced repeatedly by the brother of a friend)
> You’re not going to do business in a cartel/mafia infested area
Mexico’s financial life is not cartel infested and certainly was not in the 60-70s when Slim got started
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Carlos_Slim
Slim didn’t come into money in a narco state, he was a stock trader in the 1960s and got into finance and insurance
Eventually turned this into buying the Mexican telecom monopoly Telmex in the 90s, just as the internet was taking off.
He sure as hell did not have to pay off drug lords for that
I think you mean "bought" since WW2.
Even prior to Trump, there was a thing where US tourists would put Canadian flags on their backpacks.
It wasn't mislead all the admiring fans...
It's odd that the author seems to believe that Slim was buying starlink satellites. Maybe just a typo.