Elon Musk asks "Is Ambani the real boss of India?" in Starlink dispute

Elon Musk has escalated a public dispute over Starlink's India launch by targeting Reliance's Mukesh Ambani and alleging unnamed powerful interests are blocking the service, according to his X posts. Musk also challenged Ambani's role in India's decision-making. The clash comes as India reviews Starlink; the communications ministry says Starlink still needs security clearance and spectrum before commercial service, rejects Musk's claim of unfair treatment, and says the framework is even-handed. The ministry places Starlink, Eutelsat OneWeb, and Jio Satellite Communications at broadly the same approval stage. The bottleneck affects all three operators competing for the same satellite broadband market. In March 2025, Reliance Jio and Bharti Airtel signed deals with SpaceX to distribute Starlink in India pending approval. At a Delhi telecom event Wednesday, Akash Ambani said Jio is developing satellite technology and declined to address Musk directly.