Gov't handouts and moats are provided to lots of companies. All over the world. Especially in the rocket & satellite biz, which are seen as top priorities for national prestige/security/infrastructure.
But somehow, those handouts and moats have produced exactly zero credible competitors for SpaceX and Starlink.
If you hate Magnus Carlsen, you can talk about how much time he gets to practice playing chess, and imply that is cheating and the secret of how he beats all his competition at chess championships.
Just don't expect anyone who knows much about chess to be convinced.
> Gov't handouts and moats are provided to lots of companies. All over the world.
> But somehow, those handouts and moats have produced exactly zero credible competitors for SpaceX and Starlink.
Almost no companies in the world get the same level of gov subsidies that starlink/spacex gets. If you exclude other big gov contractors (no reason why you should do that, just to illustrate the point I guess) the number is basically 0. Also, there are several other companies that are direct competitors with Starlink but they haven't been as successful. I don't know if that's due to a funding issue or something else, but I doubt it's due to lack of technical ability. Not sure the Magnus comparison is too relevant here..
But somehow, those handouts and moats have produced exactly zero credible competitors for SpaceX and Starlink.
If you hate Magnus Carlsen, you can talk about how much time he gets to practice playing chess, and imply that is cheating and the secret of how he beats all his competition at chess championships.
Just don't expect anyone who knows much about chess to be convinced.