Musk wants it all

Can you hear it now? Verizon’s got some good news on the line, but investors don’t seem too eager to pick up.

The telecom giant added 406,000 postpaid phone customers last quarter, nearly double analyst expectations and Verizon’s strongest third-quarter showing in five years. Adjusted earnings of $1.31 per share also beat estimates, while the company raised its full-year outlook for subscriber growth, earnings, and free cash flow. Verizon also announced a more than $2 billion deal to connect AWS data centers, giving it another path to capitalize on the AI infrastructure boom.

But there was one blemish: Revenue rose 1.5% but slightly missed estimates, partly because customers are holding on to their phones longer and upgrading less often. Shares fell 3.38% today.

SpaceX shakes things up

Verizon’s revenue miss wasn’t the only thing hanging over the stock. Investors are also digesting reports that SpaceX is preparing a much broader push into wireless, including plans to secure access to at least 80,000 US cell sites.

The prospect of a fourth nationwide carrier sent Verizon, AT&T, and T-Mobile shares tumbling last week. Another deep-pocketed competitor could pressure prices, lure away subscribers, and force the incumbents to spend even more defending their networks.

For tower companies, though, SpaceX could become a major new customer. Rather than build tens of thousands of sites from scratch, it could lease space from operators like Crown Castle, American Tower, and SBA Communications, giving the infrastructure owners a potentially lucrative new stream of rental revenue.

Elon Musk’s disruption tour: Wireless carriers weren’t the only stocks feeling the Musk effect. CoreWeave, Nebius, IREN, and Applied Digital also fell today after he warned that many of the 200-plus neocloud companies could face consolidation or “guppy-level death” as financing tightens. SpaceX, meanwhile, just closed a $40 billion financing deal with Apollo for AI chips and servers.

The long game

Citi analysts estimate that SpaceX’s expansion could eventually generate billions of dollars in leasing revenue, although realizing that opportunity will take time. They expect a terrestrial network rollout to take three to five years, while capturing roughly 20% of the wireless market could take a decade.

On top of that, TD Cowen estimates that a nationwide network could cost more than $80 billion, adding another enormous expense to SpaceX’s already ambitious plans.

For Verizon, that offers some much-needed breathing room. Its latest earnings show that the company is still attracting customers at a healthy pace, and SpaceX faces a long, expensive climb before it can seriously challenge the established carriers.

But judging by the pace of Musk’s ambitions—from a potential Tesla-SpaceX merger to his latest wireless conquest—perhaps it’s only a matter of time before Verizon & Co. become relics of a bygone era, when the skies were still up for grabs.—SY