Qualcomm's CEO told Fox Business that the SpaceX agreement is finalized rather than a mere engagement, with SpaceX to build the base stations and Qualcomm to supply the silicon.
Qualcomm CEO Cristiano Amon told Fox Business that the SpaceX agreement is finalized, not merely in negotiation. SpaceX will build the base stations, while Qualcomm supplies the silicon and the RAN accelerator for a terrestrial network that Amon described as one of the largest 5G deployments in the United States, with an AI-native architecture.
In a discussion with Royden D'Souza, Brian Wang argues that Elon Musk is building the communications backbone for the AI and robotics revolution, using satellites and cell towers in the way Akamai built infrastructure for the internet. Last quarter, SpaceX's AI business brought in $7.6 billion and its connectivity business $5.2 billion. Both are expected to grow in parallel, and most communication will be AI talking to AI.
According to company figures in SpaceX's Q3 2026 Form 8-K, filed October 20, 2026:
- Super Intelligence (SI, previously reported as AI): $7.560 billion
- Connectivity: $5.248 billion
Current cell towers are still mostly "dumb" radios. The Qualcomm deal is about making them AI-native. The concept includes edge inference at the tower, described as an updated Akamai for AI, alongside Starlink Direct-to-Cell and V3 satellites in the terrestrial build. Wang sees the arrangement as an opening move toward SpaceX becoming the first AI carrier.
**Chapters**
- 0:00 Cold open: the communications backbone, and the $7.6B / $5.2B quarter
- 0:36 Qualcomm CEO Cristiano Amon: the agreement is finalized
- 2:00 One piece of a much bigger mesh
- 3:45 Who owns the cell towers, and a path to ~80,000 U.S. sites
- 5:14 Sponsored by Kalshi: $50 sign-up bonus
- 5:45 Amon's AI-native build, and what that means
- 6:57 The Akamai analogy: an AI edge network
- 8:24 Inference at the tower, and edge compute
- 16:01 SpaceX as the first AI carrier
- 18:19 Direct-to-cell and Starlink V3
- 21:43 Towers and V3 satellites together
- 32:40 Close
**Credits:** Fox Business interview with Cristiano Amon and Elon Musk's X post (commentary / fair use). Falcon 9 Starlink 6-98 launch, U.S. Space Force / DVIDS, public domain. "Cell Tower Near Tomahawk" by Corey Coyle, CC BY 3.0. Thumbnail photo of Elon Musk: Official White House Photo by Daniel Torok, public domain.
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Brian Wang is a Futurist Thought Leader and a popular science blogger with 1 million readers per month. His blog, Nextbigfuture.com, is ranked #1 Science News Blog and covers disruptive technologies and trends including space, robotics, artificial intelligence, medicine, anti-aging biotechnology, and nanotechnology.
Known for identifying cutting-edge technologies, Wang is a co-founder of a startup and a fundraiser for high-potential early-stage companies. He is Head of Research for Allocations for deep technology investments and an angel investor at Space Angels.
A frequent speaker at corporations, he has been a TEDx speaker and a Singularity University speaker, and he has been a guest on numerous radio and podcast interviews. He is open to public speaking and advising engagements.