- Despite deep cost cuts elsewhere, Amazon is still spending heavily on Project Kuiper satellites.
- SpaceX’s Starlink offers a blueprint for Kuiper’s financial potential.
- Amazon may also want strategic independence from Elon Musk.
When Andy Jassy went on a post-COVID cost-cutting spree, eliminating roughly 27,000 employees , I thought most of Amazon’s risky moonshot projects would also get the chop.
So when Jassy didn’t cut Project Kuiper , a bold plan to launch a constellation of internet-beaming satellites, I scratched my head. Of all Amazon’s moonshots , this may be the most expensive. If the CEO wanted to quickly slash costs, nixing Kuiper would have been the play.
Instead, Kuiper survived the purge — while others, like an AR headset for business meetings, were cut — and Amazon plowed ahead…