Federal Communications Commission (FCC)

Independent U.S. agency regulating interstate and international communications by radio, television, wire, satellite, and cable. - Reviewing SpaceX's million-satellite orbital data center application

Elon Musk's SpaceX has acquired his artificial intelligence startup xAI in a $250 billion deal—the largest acquisition in corporate history, surpassing Vodafone's $203 billion purchase of Mannesmann in 2000. The combined entity is valued at $1.25 trillion, with SpaceX contributing $1 trillion and xAI $250 billion. The merger consolidates three of Musk's companies under one roof: SpaceX's rocket and satellite businesses, xAI's Grok chatbot and AI infrastructure, and X (formerly Twitter), which xAI absorbed in March 2025. Within days of the merger announcement, Musk began publicly articulating the orbital data center vision, appearing on the 'Cheeky Pint' podcast in early February 2026 to argue that solar panels produce five times more power in space than on Earth, making orbital AI infrastructure economically superior to terrestrial data centers by 2028.

Updated Feb 6

U.S. agency regulating communications infrastructure, including equipment authorization required for wireless devices sold in America. - Implementing foreign drone restrictions via Covered List

For nearly a decade, Chinese drone manufacturer DJI dominated the American skies. The company held 70 to 90 percent of the U.S. drone market—used by hobbyists, farmers, real estate agents, and 90 percent of first responders with drone programs. On December 23, 2025, that dominance hit a wall: the Federal Communications Commission (FCC) added all foreign-made drones and critical components to its Covered List, blocking any new models from receiving the equipment authorization required for U.S. sale.

Updated Feb 3

The referee holding Amazon to a timeline: half deployed by July 30, 2026. - Regulator enforcing Kuiper/Leo deployment milestones and spectrum/operations conditions

At 3:28 a.m. ET on December 16, ULA lit an Atlas V and pushed 27 Amazon Leo broadband satellites into orbit. It’s another clean launch in a campaign that’s starting to look like a metronome: stack satellites, light rocket, repeat.

Updated Dec 16, 2025

The FCC is turning robocall compliance into a network-access condition, not a best practice. - Rule-writer and enforcer pushing robocall mitigation from voluntary tools to mandatory blocking

The FCC’s robocall fight just hit the part where the referees stop warning and start pulling players off the field. As of December 15, 2025, U.S. voice providers are required to block calls that claim to originate from numbers that should never place outbound calls.

Updated Dec 15, 2025

The FCC is the referee for spectrum-sharing deals that let satellites act like cell towers. - Setting rules that determine whether direct-to-cell becomes mainstream or chaotic

SpaceX doesn’t “do launches” anymore. It does output. Another pair of Starlink v2-mini batches is on the manifest, each packing 29 satellites — the orbital equivalent of sliding more servers into a data center rack.

Updated Dec 14, 2025