On October 21, the FCC approved SpaceX's purchase of three Tristar AWS-3 licenses at 1695–1710 MHz for its direct-to-device network, covering 62 counties in eight states and about 4% of the US population. It waived the tower-based buildout rules and imposed the same buildout conditions as its EchoStar order, after SpaceX applied in June.

On Tesla's Q3 earnings call on October 21, Musk said the Austin research fab will begin commissioning machinery in the first half of 2027, with a first test chip "just to see if we can make any chip at all" around May or June and a useful chip at volume around Q3 2028. He put Terafab's cost in the tens of billions.

Reportedly, there's a push to announce a SpaceX–Tesla deal by the first half of 2027 so that it closes during the Trump administration, Bloomberg reported on October 21. No terms have been agreed, and Musk has said both companies formed special committees to discuss a merger.

Reportedly, Anthropic is set to file its S-1 publicly as soon as Friday, October 23, per Yahoo Finance on October 21, citing three people familiar with the plans. Anthropic submitted its draft confidentially in June, and a public filing would be a step toward a potential November listing. Anthropic hasn't confirmed the timing.

Reportedly, Anthropic's draft IPO prospectus shows it could spend $750B on compute in the coming years, including deals in negotiation, per the WSJ on October 20. It lists $111B with Google Cloud, $110B with AWS, $31B with Microsoft and up to $86B with Nscale and Lambda for Nvidia-based compute. Anthropic hasn't confirmed the figures.

SpaceX reported on October 20 that third-quarter revenue rose 161% to $14.6 billion, with net income of $4.4 billion and adjusted EBITDA of $8.8 billion. Super Intelligence revenue was $7.56 billion, Starlink reached 13.6 million consumer subscribers and nameplate compute hit 1.7 GW. On the earnings call, the CFO guided Q1 2027 revenue to $33–37 billion.

On SpaceX's Q3 earnings call on October 20, Musk said SpaceX and Tesla have each formed special committees of independent directors to discuss a merger, Ars Technica reported. He said no terms are agreed and there's no guarantee, that as a conflicted party he can't join the talks, and that he thinks combining the companies would be a good idea.

Reportedly, Tesla and SpaceX staff visited about 10 Korean materials, parts and equipment suppliers at SEMICON West on October 13 to source for Terafab, and more than half have already signed NDAs, according to The Elec on October 20. HPSP has agreed to supply one annealing system for the R&D line.

VEON and Starlink said on October 19 that more than 11 million unique VEON customers have connected to Starlink Mobile in under a year, across Kyivstar in Ukraine, Beeline in Kazakhstan and Banglalink in Bangladesh (VEON release). VEON says the service could reach more than 40 million people across its footprint.

Deutsche Telekom, Orange, Telefónica and Vodafone said on October 19 they signed a letter of intent to explore a joint bid for EU mobile satellite spectrum, with a satellite partner still to be selected (Deutsche Telekom). Bloomberg framed the group as an effort to fend off competition from Starlink (Bloomberg).

On October 19, Bloomberg reported that Nscale is in talks to sell Anthropic about $45 billion of computing power for a second 460 MW building at its Monarch campus in West Virginia, using Nvidia Vera Rubin chips. Both companies declined to comment; Anthropic already has Nscale deals worth up to about $44.6 billion (Bloomberg).

On October 19, a Bloomberg Government analysis found that SpaceX's reported defense obligations reached $5.9 billion in the first three quarters of fiscal 2026, up from $1.8 billion in all of fiscal 2025, driven by space-based missile defense work tied to the Golden Dome initiative (Bloomberg Government).

On October 19, Globalstar said the FCC granted it nationwide authority to operate its third-generation C-3 system, including direct-to-device service to smartphones. C-3 will have 48 satellites at 1,414 km plus 6 in-orbit spares, built by MDA Space, with launches expected to begin next year (Globalstar).

On October 19, Berlin-based Reflex Aerospace said Nvidia plans a minority investment to scale its satellite production in Bavaria and develop on-board processing; financial terms were not disclosed (Reflex). Jensen Huang announced it in Berlin alongside planned stakes in Agile Robots, Avelios Medical and Mirelo (Nvidia).

Elon Musk said on X on October 19 that he will give one of his SpaceX shares to every kid in America next year, calling it "the first of many." President Trump later thanked him for giving the stock through Trump Accounts (Trump on X). No timing, eligibility or delivery details have been given (CNBC).

Starship Flight 15 is targeting November 8 NET per FAA CADENA planning data, with Musk saying SpaceX will attempt to catch both the Super Heavy booster and the Ship (NSF). Flight 16 is reportedly aimed for December and could be the first Starship launch from LC-39A, NSF reported on October 18 (NSF).

On October 18, Lithuanian PM Mindaugas Sinkevičius said an overnight attempt to burn satellite antennas at a firm storing Starlink equipment failed after security was raised (LRT). Officials called it Russia-linked sabotage aimed at Ukraine (Reuters); BNS reported the site is SpaceX-rented space at a Delska data centre (BNS).

US Ambassador to the EU Andrew Puzder told the Financial Times on October 18 that European companies could face "devastating" US retaliation if Brussels limits US firms such as SpaceX in the 2 GHz satellite-to-phone band (FT, Anadolu). The Commission's plan to reserve much of the band for European operators is still a proposal.

On October 16, Blue Origin said it will add two more New Glenn launch pads to the two at LC-36 and buy two more landing ships, aiming for multiple flights a week by the end of the decade (Blue Origin update, post). A $330M Rocket Park expansion will build up to 150 upper stages a year from summer 2027. Ars and SpaceNews report about $3B invested in Florida so far (Ars, SpaceNews).

On October 16, the Financial Times reported that Anthropic is offering Blackstone a yield above 10% on $9B of junior debt in a roughly $60B financing for about 1.5 GW of Google TPUs (FT, FT post). Per the FT via Investing.com, about $42B of senior debt would be guaranteed by Broadcom, which co-develops the chips (Investing.com). Reuters said it could not verify the report (Reuters).

On October 16, Starlink said it is ready to connect India, with in-country gateways built under the required approvals (Starlink post). Reliance had welcomed Starlink but said Jio's satellite service also awaits clearances (Reliance statement, The Hindu BusinessLine). Reuters called that Reliance's first response to Musk's attacks (Reuters). India says security compliance comes first (ET).

Poland's Ministry of Digital Affairs told Rzeczpospolita on October 16 it has spent PLN 481 million on Starlink for Ukraine since 2022, about $120 million, funding nearly 30,000 terminals and subscriptions (Rzeczpospolita). The current PLN 143.3 million contract runs through December 2026, with no deal yet for 2027.

On October 15, Elon Musk claimed the Star Mind computer SpaceX and Nvidia are co-engineering will reach volume production next year, calling it “far better than almost anyone expects” (Musk post). He was quoting a clip of Nvidia CEO Jensen Huang saying the two teams are designing a new type of server for data centers in space (Huang clip). No specs are public.

On October 15, Nvidia CEO Jensen Huang said on the BG2 podcast that Nvidia moved Musk's AI business from its enterprise category into its cloud service provider group, citing training, deployment and rented capacity (BG2 clip). The clip says Musk wants 10 GW of compute by the end of 2027; Musk replied "Maybe more than 10GW" (Musk post). SpaceX is also deploying Nvidia Vera CPUs (Nvidia).

On October 15, Southwest said it will bring Starlink to its entire fleet and expects to finish in fall 2027, which would make it the first major U.S. airline to do so (Southwest release). Runway Girl Network reports this reverses Southwest's February plan to keep Viasat on already-fitted jets (RGN, February report). Its first Starlink jet flew in June (Starlink).

On October 14, Rocket Lab said Neutron's first launch has moved from late 2026 into 2027 (press release). CEO Peter Beck said voids were found in a carbon-composite first-stage tank dome; a replacement is being built, with stage assembly and testing expected in Q1 2027. No launch date was given (Rocket Lab, Reuters).

On October 14, Starlink said its high-speed, low-latency internet is now available in Curaçao (Starlink). Its coverage map shows the whole island, including Willemstad, as available (starlink.com). Pricing and the local licence details were not stated in the announcement.

On October 14, Speedcast said an unnamed Asia-Pacific oil and gas producer signed a multi-year deal to move all its connectivity to Starlink through Speedcast (Speedcast release). The three-stage rollout covers platforms, vessels and drilling rigs, then gas plants and refineries, with Speedcast SIGMA managed services. Contract value was not disclosed.

On October 14 at 7:40 a.m. ET, LandSpace's Zhuque-2E Y4 launched 10 satellites from Jiuquan, per LandSpace and state outlet Xinhua. Eight were ADASpace "Star Compute" Group 02 satellites; two were Guangchuan-03/-04 laser-communication test satellites.

• That makes 20 ADASpace compute satellites in orbit, toward a planned 2,800: 2,400 for inference and 400 for training, per ADASpace via China Daily (state media).
• Group 02 will test 10 kW-class liquid cooling, large deployable radiators, laser links and in-orbit foundation-model training, per ADASpace via Xinhua. ADASpace has claimed 10+ POPS per Group 02 satellite (single-source, unconfirmed for this batch).
• Group 01: 12 satellites launched in May 2025 on a Long March 2D: up to 744 TOPS each, 5 POPS combined, per Xinhua (state media). 10 AI models have run on them in orbit, per China's State Council Information Office, and Alibaba's Qwen3 running in orbit was announced in January, according to Xinhua.
• In March, ADASpace and Shanghai Jiao Tong University say they used the 12 Group 01 satellites to run AI in orbit that controlled a humanoid and a quadruped robot on the ground, which ADASpace calls a world first (Xinhua; China in Space).
• Next: a 1,000-satellite network by 2030 and all 2,800 by 2035, according to Xinhua (state media).
• Zhuque-2E failed once (August 2025), and a June upper stage broke apart in orbit after payload delivery, per Ars Technica.
• US efforts are earlier-stage: Google's first Suncatcher prototype flew October 1, and Starcloud has flown one H100.

On October 14, Ukraine's Mykhailo Fedorov claimed Starlink connectivity at speeds up to 160 km/h is being restored after the reported StarShield cap, and urged removing the limit entirely; SpaceX has not confirmed. StarShield is SpaceX's US government military service, which Musk has said is operated by the US government, not SpaceX.

On October 14, Stoke Space said its Nova second stage left the factory for the last time and is now in Moses Lake, Washington. The stage will undergo cryo proof testing and an Andromeda engine hotfire campaign before shipping to Stoke's Cape Canaveral launch site.

On October 14, SpaceX's transport barge You'll Thank Me Later (YTML) arrived at Port Canaveral, towed by the tug Signet Warhorse I, which left Brownsville near Starbase on October 9. Spotter John Concilus reported the barge is carrying a Starlink V3 "speedloader", the system that loads satellites into Starship's dispenser; SpaceX has not confirmed the cargo.