SpaceX Eyes Boost Mobile in Push for a Fourth US Carrier

SpaceX is in talks to buy Boost Mobile or lease its cellular network, the Washington Post reported on Monday, citing two people familiar with the negotiations. The move would give Elon Musk's company a back door into the US wireless market — an opportunity it sizes at roughly $235 billion — and support its stated target of $1 trillion in revenue by 2027.

The reported talks follow a pattern. Just over a week ago, a published report surfaced of Musk's exploratory conversations with tower operator Crown Castle. A Citi research note published at that time flagged several cellular providers and tower operators as buying opportunities given SpaceX's push into the sector. EchoStar Corp., Boost Mobile's parent, was one of the names on that Citi list.

Why does SpaceX need a cellular network?

The answer is spectrum and physics. SpaceX's satellite network today lacks the low-spectrum coverage and in-building access needed to build a comprehensive mobile service. Satellites handle wide-area coverage well. They struggle indoors and at the frequencies that carriers use for deep urban service.

That gap explains Musk's approach to the incumbents. According to the Washington Post, Musk approached all three major US telecoms providers — AT&T, Verizon and T-Mobile — with requests for network access. All three rebuffed him. The competitive threat posed by SpaceX discouraged the carriers from cooperating with a potential rival.

Boost Mobile offers a different route. Boost leases its network from AT&T and T-Mobile, the Washington Post reported. Buying into Boost could therefore hand Musk an entry into national wireless without needing to build terrestrial infrastructure from scratch. The report notes there is no certainty at this stage that any deal would require the two carriers' permission.

What did the market do?

The market reacted fast and unevenly on Monday.

• EchoStar, Boost's parent, jumped more than 5% before the open, trading around $102.50 on speculative volume.
• SpaceX shares gained after the report, changing hands pre-market at $137.74, up 2.25%.
• Verizon, T-Mobile and AT&T all showed lower prices early Monday.

The SpaceX share price needs the lift. The stock has declined by around a fifth during the broader tech-sector correction of the last month, and investors who subscribed to this summer's IPO at $135 are showing no positive return yet. A deal for Boost would be the first concrete step toward reversing that narrative.

How credible is the deal talk?

The reporting rests on two anonymous sources, and no party has confirmed negotiations. But the strategic logic is visible in Musk's earlier moves: the Crown Castle talks, the Citi analysis of acquisition targets, and the approaches to all three major carriers all point in one direction. Musk wants terrestrial spectrum and in-building coverage, and he has been shopping for it extensively since the incumbents refused to sell access.

Market commentator Jim Cramer weighed in on the developments in a posting on X. The putative deal, he wrote, "would end any question that it (SpaceX) doesn't have the reach to compete." That framing cuts to the core of what a Boost acquisition would change: SpaceX's satellite network is strong on reach over open terrain but weak indoors, and a leased national cellular network closes that gap.

The stakes explain the carriers' caution. A fourth national carrier backed by SpaceX's launch capacity, satellite constellation and Musk's capital would compete directly for the same subscribers. Refusing network access slows that threat; selling Boost would accelerate it — which is why the question of whether AT&T and T-Mobile can block a deal may become the negotiation's central fight, and why traders pushed EchoStar up more than 5% on a report alone.