Elon Musk Promises “Rapid” Starlink Antenna Production Despite Chip Shortage

The world’s richest man, Elon Musk, also the greatest salesman ever, continues to sell dreams of trips to Mars, full self-driving and Robo-taxi Teslas, solar roof shingles, brain chips, robots, and space internet. We can’t help but notice Musk’s latest tweet of possibly overpromising and underdelivering again (not surprising whatsoever), this time with his space internet company, Starlink. 

For some context, many Starlink customers have waited at least a year or longer for space internet. They placed $100 preorders to secure a dish as Musk promised them “a nationwide rollout by the end of October” 2021. People who lived in rural communities with internet speeds as fast as dial-up from the mid-1990s jumped for joy when they heard about the imminent rollout of affordable and high-speed internet from space. 

However, Starlink notified customers in November 2021, one month after Musk proposed an imminent nationwide rollout, that their orders would be delayed another 6-12 months (or in some cases until 2023). People were beyond frustrated, and some canceled their preorders, saying the “whole thing felt like a ruse.” 

The reason we bring up Starlink is that Musk is possibly at it again, tweeting this week, “SpaceX standard antenna production rises rapidly this year, so those with orders shouldn’t have to wait long.” 

SpaceX standard antenna production rises rapidly this year, so those with orders shouldn’t have to wait long.

Note, Starlink can only support a limited number of users in an area, so best to order early.

— Elon Musk (@elonmusk) February 2, 2022

Musk has mastered the modern selling strategy of ‘act now or be left behind,’ allowing him to capitalize on people’s emotions. He routinely incites ‘fear of missing out’ (otherwise known as FOMO) syndrome among Tesla fans who gladly put down payments on future products but barely receive them in the initially promised timeframe. 

The question we have is if Musk is telling the truth about increasing Starlink antenna production considering the ongoing chip shortage. Tesla even noted last month that new models this year would be delayed due to the lack of chips.  

Some people responded to Musk’s tweet, saying, “So why did you back my delivery date up a year?” 

The problem with Musk and his companies, timelines are very unpredictable. If Starlink doesn’t deliver the bulk of the orders that were delayed to the end of this year, we could see a mass exodus of customers canceling orders.