Billionaire Carlos Slim Cancels $22 Billion in Starlink Orders Due to Elon Musk’s Outburst – CleanTechnica

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Last Updated on: 11th March 2025, 02:40 am

This is a pretty wild story that I hadn’t seen until yesterday, and just saw it because a reader brought it to us. It does have a connection to Tesla and its EV sales as well, but that’s admittedly loose. First, the story.

In case you haven’t noticed, Tesla CEO Elon Musk has been getting more and more involved in politics. He got into major political spats in Brazil, the UK, Germany, and of course the US in the past year. In the US, lately, he has been heading up a “Department of Government Efficiency” (DOGE) initiative — not an actual government department, of course, since that has to be created by Congress, but something that somehow oversees and interferes in government department after government department. He has caused a lot of damage in that role, but that’s a story for another day. The point is that he’s gotten heavily tied up in political matters, now routinely spreading wild claims and misinformation that’s politically motivated.

Well, aside from aligning himself with Trump and his incessant attacks on Mexico (and on the New York Times), Musk insinuated in January that Mexican billionaire Carlos Slim was significantly involved with drug cartels in Mexico.

Why was Musk keen to share this? Who knows — he’s fallen for countless conspiracy theories on X/Twitter. Anything that sounds juicy and fits his agenda, whether found at 10pm, midnight, or 2:30 am, is worth retweeting or responding to. No constraints, no consequences, who cares? Though, the New York Times connection is probably the most likely. Musk has a history of conflict with the New York Times. In fact, some of the first stories about Tesla I covered and responded to in 2012 were about a weird road trip in a Tesla Model S that wasn’t very friendly to Tesla. Over the years, I think Musk has grown to hate the New York Times. So, something to smear the largest individual shareholder of the New York Times? Juicy.

Reportedly, Slim has no editorial control at all over the New York Times. Here’s more about his history and shares of the paper:

“Carlos Slim, a telecommunications magnate, acquired a stake in the NYT during the financial crisis of 2008–2009.

“At the time, the newspaper was facing serious financial problems, and Slim took the opportunity to invest $250 million in the form of loans and warrants.

“By 2015, he exercised call options that made him the largest individual shareholder, with 17% of the class A shares, although without editorial control over the media.

“In 2017, Slim reduced his stake to 8%, selling half of his shares at market price. The investment was highly profitable: the shares, which were worth less than $5 in 2009, reached $18.60 in 2017, according to the Financial Times.”

Slim has a fascinating history. I see nothing there about drug cartels. I imagine that if he indeed has zero ties to drug cartels, he’d be very bothered by someone like Elon Musk implying he did.

Well, after the accusation, or more specifically, the monocle-wearing “that’s interesting, one should look at this and investigate further” emoji, Slim decided his giant telecoms company, América Móvil, would no longer need to spend $22 billion on Starlinks  in the next few years. Initially, just about 5 minutes after Musk’s tweet, Slim canceled a $7 billion Starlink order. An hour later, the full $22 billion investment plan had been pulled. Instead, Slim is going to turn to Chinese and European companies.

“More than money, Musk lost his main partner in 25 countries, in addition to giving up all that territory to companies of his competition and, most seriously, causing the USA to continue losing commercial presence and giving it to China,” Monterey Daily Post writes.

The overall point here is that Musk’s wild, conspiratorial, harmful claims on X and sometimes in the real world are driving people away. A billionaire who probably knows well how Starlink could help his company just dropped $22 billion in planned investments! Many others are not buying Tesla cars, not EVangelizing for Tesla any longer, and even out protesting in the street. While most of us don’t have $22 billion to spend on anything, the point is clear: Musk keeps pushing people away from making big purchases (at their own levels) with his wild and harmful claims. He may have lost $22 billion in orders with this one haphazard insinuation, but he may have lost $22 billion or more other combined orders at Tesla with other claims and activities.

We’ll find out soon-ish how much Tesla sales are being hit. The first quarter gives some indication, but it’s also significantly affected by production line changes and people waiting for the new Model Y. The second quarter, though, will have the burst of deliveries for new Model Y orders. Well, overall, we’ll have to look across the first and second quarters and tease out the conclusions we can. The question is, in 2025, will Musk’s behavior do as much damage to Tesla’s sales as it did to Starlink sales when getting Slim to cancel $22 billion worth of planned purchases?

Featured photo by Official SpaceX Photos – Starlink Mission, CC0