SpaceX and Blue Origin have a powerful new space race rival
One of the world's wealthiest nations just took a 30% stake in a Starlink alternative.
Elon Musk's exit from the White House may be for the best, considering President Donald Trump, his one-time ally, is making his life really hard at the moment.
While he voiced some tepid concern about the issue at the time, Musk seemed willing to endure the administration's tariff war despite its detrimental cascading effect on his most valuable asset, Tesla.
Related: SpaceX faces a surprising rival Tesla is already battling
During one particularly tough week for Tesla share prices, Musk lashed out at Peter Navarro, Trump's top economic policy advisor. However, after the president said that he was backing Navarro and didn't mind if his two underlings duked it out, Musk backed off.
Since then, Musk has also lashed out at Trump in recent weeks as the 130-day window for special government advisors who are not officially a part of the cabinet is closed.
Trump's isolationist agenda has nonetheless marched forward unimpeded, leading rivals to reconfigure themselves so that their futures are less reliant on the U.S.
But they are also becoming less reliant on businesses based in the U.S., such as Musk's SpaceX and Jeff Bezos's Blue Origin. Image source: Newton/AFP via Getty Images
France pays billions for bigger stake in SpaceX rival
Thanks to his politics, Elon Musk has quickly become a divisive figure across the pond, and his Tesla brand has suffered as a result.
While only a small percentage of sales were made in Europe, it was a challenging region in the quarter. Sales in Germany reportedly fell 62%, and numbers in Norway, the UK, and France weren't much better.
And now France is stepping forward to eliminate the need for SpaceX's Starlink satellite internet service on the continent.
France invested 717 million euros ($825 million) in Eutelsat during this week's 1.35 billion-euro ($1.55 billion) funding round.
Related: Elon Musk's entourage forces drastic move from the government
Eutelsat merged with British firm OneWeb in 2023, and the company has more than 600 satellites in low Earth orbit, making it the world's second-largest satellite operator behind SpaceX and its nearly 8,000 satellites.
With this latest investment, France increased its stake in the debt-ridden company from 13% to 30%, and President Emmanuel Macron was blunt about the reason for the move.
"The race is on. That's why we have to take a position now and invest now. Otherwise, the whole market will be occupied and France and Europe will depend on other powers in the future," Macron said, according to local reports.
The cash infusion is expected to be completed by the end of the year, giving the company a clear financing roadmap for the future.
Musk has dangled Starlink in the face of Ukraine, calling it the "backbone" of the Ukrainian army and saying that "their entire front line would collapse if I turned it off."
This is also why European leaders want to take control of the technology.
"The war in Ukraine has shown the importance of space infrastructure for resilient communications infrastructure, whether civilian or military," French Finance Minister Éric Lombard said.
"It has also spotlighted Europe's dependence on non-European technology."
Elon Musk's alienation of Europe is costing him
In May, Tesla reported one of its worst quarters in years.
The company reported a 9% decline in first-quarter revenue to $19.3 billion, missing analyst estimates by $2 billion.
Earnings of 27 cents per share fell short of Wall Street expectations by 34%.
One of the issues during the period was cratering demand in Europe.
It was reported that Tesla's European sales dropped another 49% in April to 7,261, despite overall EV sales rising 34% in the region during the month, according to the European Automobile Manufacturers Association.
Musk has admitted that his political activism has turned some people off from his products. But he also says that his activism has garnered him even more new fans from the opposite end of the political spectrum.
He recently spoke at the Qatar Economic Forum, saying that any politically left-leaning buyers who abandoned the company have been replaced by people who align more with his politics.
He punctuated his point by emphasizing that Tesla has no problem with demand.
