This is related to @navi@lemmy.tespia.org’s post about SpaceX no longer taking losses to produce Starlink satellite antennas. The article below refers to that one.

ArsTechnica, in “SpaceX projected 20 million Starlink users by 2022—it ended up with 1 million”.

It’s based on a Wall Street Journal article, which seems like a bit of a hit piece. The headline claim is absurd, as some comments pointed out: the projection was in 2015! It also points out that skeptics had always said that Starlink would not do well in cities, which would be a more valid criticism if Musk and Starlink didn’t point it out first.

But there was this reported number:

Actual Starlink revenue for 2022 was $1.4 billion, up from $222 million in 2021, according to the report. The documents apparently didn’t specify whether Starlink is profitable.

It mentions numbers that Shotwell had previous provided and that may have been reported here. I’ll add them to have more data in one place:

SpaceX President and COO Gwynne Shotwell said in February that Starlink is expected to turn a profit this year. While Starlink’s specific profit or loss is unknown, the WSJ previously reported that SpaceX overall “eke[d] out a small profit in the first three months of [2023] after two annual losses.” SpaceX’s Q1 2023 numbers reportedly included a $55 million profit on $1.5 billion in revenue.

The CNBC article had this, partially quoted in this ArsTechnica article,

The company last provided an update on its global Starlink user base in May, when it said it had about 1.5 million customers. Hofeller did not specify what that total is now but said Starlink is “well over” that 1.5 million mark. The figure includes both consumer and enterprise customers around the world …