Tycoon Elon Musk arrived in Bali, Indonesia, yesterday ahead of the planned launch of Space Exploration Technologies Corp’s (SpaceX) Starlink Internet service, which the Indonesian government hopes would boost Internet penetration and health services in remote parts of the sprawling archipelago.
Indonesian Coordinating Minister of Maritime and Investments Affairs Luhut Binsar Pandjaitan yesterday greeted Musk upon his arrival by private jet at Bali’s airport, Pandjaitan’s Instagram page showed.
The two would discuss several important collaborations, including the inauguration of Starlink, he wrote.
Photo by Sonny Tumbelaka, AFP
Equal Internet access across Southeast Asia’s largest economy, home to more than 270 million people living in three time zones, would enable people in remote areas to enjoy the same fast Internet as those in urban areas, Pandjaitan said.
Musk, the billionaire head of SpaceX and Tesla Inc, was to launch Starlink with Indonesian President Joko Widodo at a community health center in Denpasar, the capital of Bali, yesterday afternoon, he said.
The satellite unit of Musk’s SpaceX has already secured a permit to operate in Southeast Asia’s largest economy, Indonesian Minister of Communication and Informatics Budi Arie Setiadi said last week.
Starlink obtained a permit to operate as an Internet service provider for retail consumers and had been given the go-ahead to provide networks, having received a very small aperture terminal permit, Setiadi said.
GLOBAL PRESENCE
Indonesia is the third country in Southeast Asia where Starlink would operate.
Malaysia issued the firm a license to provide Internet services last year and a Philippine-based firm signed a deal with SpaceX in 2022.
Starlink is also used extensively in Ukraine, where it is employed by the military, hospitals, businesses and aid organizations.
SILICON VALLEY
Separately, Argentine President Javier Milei is planning to meet with Meta Platforms Inc CEO Mark Zuckerberg and other leaders of tech giants in Silicon Valley at the end of this month, people with direct knowledge of the matter said.
The presidential mission to San Francisco would include meetings with representatives of Apple Inc, OpenAI Inc and Alphabet Inc’s Google, among other companies in the technology industry, the people said.
Argentine Ambassador to the US Gerardo Werthein would also be participating in the mission, they said.
The trip comes after Silicon Valley investor Peter Thiel met with Milei in Buenos Aires earlier this month.
Milei has also had two meetings with Musk, including at the Milken Institute’s conference in Los Angeles recently.
The libertarian has won international praise from the likes of billionaire Stanley Druckenmiller for his austerity campaign.
The council of the Argentine president’s economic advisers, led by economist Demian Reidel, is coordinating the final details to push and define the agenda, which would seek investments to turn Argentina into an artificial intelligence hub.
Additional reporting by Bloomberg
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