Elon Musk has vowed to price Starlink’s satellite internet service affordably in India to take on Mukesh Ambani’s low-cost Reliance Jio, escalating his attacks on the rival billionaire days before Jio’s parent launches India’s largest-ever initial public offering.

Jio Platforms, which owns the telecom arm, is targeting a valuation of 106 billion dollars in the offering. Much like SpaceX-owned Starlink, Jio’s own satellite venture is also awaiting final security clearance to launch in one of the world’s biggest internet markets.

The escalating rivalry

Musk’s remarks were the latest in a series of posts on his social media platform X in which he accused Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s government and Ambani of stalling Starlink’s entry to favour market leader Jio. The posts marked a sharp turn for Musk, who has long enjoyed a warm public rapport with Modi.

Late on Friday, Musk taunted Ambani directly, addressing him as Prime Minister Ambani and asking whether he would consider allowing Starlink to compete. Reliance has not responded to requests for comment on Musk’s remarks. India’s government has denied any bias in its approval process, noting that the three satellite ventures seeking to launch, including Starlink’s and Jio’s, are all awaiting final security clearance.

The price war playbook

Cheap data is the playbook that built Jio in India, and the one Musk has used in markets like Kenya to unsettle local telecom players. SpaceX now plans to enter the mobile carrier market itself, starting in the United States.

Musk did not specify prices for India, where mobile data costs about 8 cents per gigabyte, among the lowest in the world. Obviously, if Starlink is too expensive in India, no one will buy it, so SpaceX will need to make pricing affordable, he said in a post on Saturday. He added that competition would greatly benefit the average citizen in India by giving them more choices, and that Ambani’s profits would be lower but he is not going out of business.

Starlink’s pitch

The SpaceX founder highlighted Starlink’s potential to reach remote areas where conventional networks remain limited, positioning satellite internet as a way to extend connectivity beyond the reach of terrestrial networks while the regulatory wait continues.