Musk: Starlink's Next-Gen Laser Links to Reach 10 Terabits per Second, Says They Can Rival Subsea Cables
NEW YORK — Speaking by video link at the 33rd Annual Baron Investment Conference in New York on November 6, SpaceX CEO Elon Musk told Baron Capital founder Ron Baron that Starlink's current inter-satellite laser links run at around 100 gigabits per second, and that the next generation will reach 10 terabits per second — 100 times faster. In a post on X the same day, Musk wrote that with roughly 100 such lasers aboard each of more than 100,000 satellites, Starlink "should be able to outcompete undersea cables."
In the conversation, Musk said Starlink's fourth-generation satellite will have ten times the capability of the third, driven by long-distance laser links: "Our current laser links are around a hundred gigabits a second. Our next generation laser links will be 10 terabits a second, a hundred times better, and we'll put 10 of them on." Two qualifications matter: the per-satellite figure he gave on stage was ten, not the roughly 100 in his X post; and in a November 7 follow-up he said reaching 100 lasers per satellite would depend on shrinking the lasers substantially — an aspiration, not a fixed specification. SpaceX has published no specifications or timetable for a fourth-generation satellite.
Against those targets, SpaceX's official technology page lists the current system: each Starlink satellite carries three space lasers (optical inter-satellite links) operating at up to 200 Gbps. Musk said at the conference that about 11,000 Starlink satellites are now in orbit. The 10-terabit links, with ten or even a hundred lasers per satellite, remain a design goal at least one satellite generation away.
The undersea incumbents are quantified just as clearly. According to the International Telecommunication Union (ITU), more than 99% of international data traffic travels over submarine cables — some 500 systems totaling about 1.7 million kilometers. TeleGeography puts used international bandwidth above 6.4 petabits per second in 2024, up 29% in a year and roughly triple the 2020 level; FCC figures cited by TeleGeography give satellites just 0.37% of U.S. international capacity. Analysts note that the arithmetic in Musk's post simply multiplies each laser terminal's nameplate rate by the number of lasers and satellites — a different measure from the traffic cables actually carry, and not a like-for-like comparison.
One part of Musk's post is plain physics: he wrote that the speed of light in space is about 40% faster than in cable, and that the path is more direct. Light travels through fiber at roughly 200,000 kilometers per second, about two-thirds of its vacuum speed, which works out to a latency edge of roughly 40 to 50 percent for space lasers; long-haul, latency-sensitive traffic is the segment satellites would most plausibly take first. But with satellites carrying well under 1% of international capacity today, social-media claims that the era of undersea cables is ending do not describe the present: cables are still being built, and TeleGeography's 2026 map already counts 694 systems. Whether Starlink's laser mesh can truly challenge them awaits a fourth-generation satellite that has yet to fly.
Source: Baron Investment Conference
Published by GSM · USA (original Chinese edition)
Photo: 图：马斯克11月6日以视频连线方式出席第33届 Baron 投资大会时发言。大会直播视频截图。 / Photo: Elon Musk speaking by video link at the 33rd Annual Baron Investment Conference on November 6. Still from the conference livestream.
