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Apple's stock closing price pushed its market valuation past the $5 trillion threshold. Separately, Ukraine reported that new restrictions on Starlink access have disrupted its military operations, and OpenAI alleged that a former employee took confidential files to Apple.
Bulgarian PM Rumen Radev confirmed a fire damaged a Starlink satellite internet facility near Sofia last week, with opposition group Democratic Bulgaria saying 11 of 17 antennas were deliberately burned on October 9. Two German passport holders, aged 20 and 21, have been detained in connection with the suspected sabotage, and authorities are investigating possible links to recent arrests in Germany tied to an attack on a Starlink site in Poland.
Ukrainian officials say SpaceX has imposed new restrictions on Starlink satellite internet access that have interfered with military drone missions. The officials say they were given no advance notice before the changes took effect, and that several operations were disrupted as a result.
Ukrainian drone units reported Starlink terminal signal failures at speeds above 160 km/h starting Wednesday, disrupting frontline logistics and strike missions without prior notice, according to military personnel and senior officials. Kyiv also said it received no advance warning from allies of a Russian missile strike on energy facilities for a second consecutive day.
Ukrainian officials say SpaceX quietly imposed a speed limit on its military-grade Starshield satellite terminals, causing connectivity drops when mounted platforms exceed roughly 100 mph. Presidential adviser Serhiy Beskrestnov said no warning was given, and Ukraine's 7th Rapid Reaction Corps reported canceled missions after losing signal for 10-20 seconds at speeds as low as 110-120 km/h. Volunteer Serhiy Sternenko says the threshold is tightening further, with drops now occurring near 60-70 km/h.
Ukrainian officials say Starlink has quietly imposed a new restriction preventing connections to devices moving faster than 100mph, disrupting several military missions including drone strikes and defense against Russian drones. The reported change, detailed by defense adviser Serhii Beskrestnov and covered by Reuters and the Financial Times, follows recent public friction between Elon Musk and Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy over Ukraine's strikes on Russian oil refineries.
Satlyt, a startup founded by former Google and SpaceX engineer Rama Afullo, has raised an $8 million seed round and is launching its satellite-based AI software on a SpaceX rocket this Thursday. The same launch carries the first prototype for Google's Project Suncatcher, its own orbital data center initiative. Satlyt doesn't build its own satellites; instead it makes software that lets AI models run across other companies' spacecraft, using fewer ground-based flight controllers.
Cloudflare data shows bot traffic from Yandex's network has collapsed to just 0.4% of its two-week peak following a third Ukrainian drone strike on the company's data centers. Earlier strikes hit a Sasovo facility housing two supercomputers and a larger campus in Kaluga, while Yandex Cloud's status page lists at least 84 services currently offline. NetBlocks reports Yandex Cloud traffic down to 30% and Yandex LLC traffic down to 63%.
SpaceX announced it has agreed to acquire Grain Management's nationwide 800 MHz low-band spectrum portfolio for roughly $8 billion, giving it up to 14 megahertz of paired airwaves. Elon Musk said the acquisition is the final piece needed for SpaceX to offer complete phone coverage across America, though the deal still requires FCC approval. Separately this week, the FCC authorized SpaceX to launch 15,000 additional satellites.
Elon Musk escalated public criticism of Reliance chairman Mukesh Ambani, sarcastically calling him India's "prime minister" and accusing him of monopolistic practices that prevent Starlink from competing in the country. The remarks follow Musk's earlier claims that unnamed "oligarchs" were obstructing Starlink's entry, which India's Ministry of Communications denied, calling its satellite regulatory framework "fair and non-discriminatory." Despite a distribution deal with Reliance Jio and securing some regulatory clearances, Starlink still awaits final approval and is undergoing a government security assessment along with two other satellite operators.
SpaceX agreed to purchase up to 14 megahertz of nationwide low-band spectrum in the 800 MHz range from Grain Management, which had acquired the licenses from T-Mobile as part of a Sprint merger condition. The deal adds to SpaceX's earlier $17 billion purchase of 65 MHz of mid-band spectrum from EchoStar, approved by the FCC in May 2026. SpaceX also recently won approval to launch 15,000 satellites for an upgraded Starlink Mobile service.
SpaceX announced an agreement to acquire a nationwide spectrum portfolio from Grain Management, covering up to 14 megahertz of paired spectrum in the 800 MHz band, to expand Starlink into mobile service. Verizon shares fell about 7%, heading for their worst day since 2002, while T-Mobile dropped 12% and AT&T fell roughly 10%; SpaceX stock rose about 1%. FCC Chair Brendan Carr said the deal is part of over $100 billion in spectrum expected to enter the market over the next two years.