Unless I’m misunderstanding something OP is saying that the only reason Starlink is profitable is because they don’t pay for the rocket launches. But the rocket launches still cost money, it’s just that SpaceX pays for it. But given they’re part of the same overall organization it just seems like an accounting trick.
This is correct. I’m not an accountant so not qualified to say the degree to which it’s tricky, but it does add an addendum to “Starlink is profitable [if you completely exclude the primary source of variable cost by burying it into a different business segment].”
Imagine they didn't have starlink... They would have massively too few clients to fill their launch roster, and would be deeply unprofitable.
Starlink could be seen as a 'fire sale' of launch capacity rather than a sound business move.
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