Musk Denies SpaceX Phone Rumor, But App Store Threat Looms

Product / TechRegulationDigital Finance Impact 4
โดย 24/7 Wall St.·Read original
Summary · why it matters

Elon Musk called a Wall Street Journal report about a SpaceX handset prototype “utterly false,” yet the underlying moves by SpaceX to build a complete ecosystem could threaten Apple’s $26.6 billion App Store business. The Journal reported on July 1, 2026, that SpaceX showed IPO investors a prototype phone with a proprietary operating system, a Qualcomm Snapdragon chip, and integration with xAI’s Grok, sending Apple shares up 1.7% while SpaceX fell 7.3%. Musk denied the story on X and then apparently deleted the post, but SpaceX has already taken concrete steps: the FCC approved its acquisition of 65 MHz of exclusive nationwide mid-band spectrum from EchoStar, COO Gwynne Shotwell told investors of plans for a Starlink-branded retail wireless service and possibly a terrestrial cellular network, and the company absorbed xAI in February 2026, combining Grok, X, and Cursor under one roof. Musk has explicitly said the motivation for a phone would be to escape Apple’s control over app distribution, and a proprietary OS would bypass both Apple and Google. Apple’s Services segment, anchored by App Store fees, reached approximately $26.6 billion in the most recent quarter and is its highest-margin business, supporting a trailing P/E of 36. Apple’s fiscal Q3 report is expected July 30, 2026, with the last quarter showing $111.184 billion in revenue and $2.01 EPS, but the earnings may not reveal whether competitors like SpaceX, OpenAI, and Microsoft are quietly building infrastructure to route around the App Store.

Impact on stocks 5

Artificial Intelligence± Mixed · 4 stocks
Apple Inc.
AAPL
▼ NegativeCompetitionrelevance

SpaceX's moves to build a phone with proprietary OS and Starlink wireless service threaten Apple's App Store business, which generated $26.6B in Services revenue.

Cloud & Digital Infrastructure▲ · 1 stocks

Theme Impact 3

Off-coverage companies 2

CursorPrivate± Mixed
relevance

OpenAIPrivate± Mixed
relevance

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