(Bloomberg) — Fresh off a bitter feud with Elon Musk over his social media platform X, Brazil is now courting a Chinese company to compete with the US billionaire’s Starlink internet servi
The government of President Luiz Inacio Lula da Silva, who will host Xi Jinping this month after the Group of 20 leaders’ summit in Rio de Janeiro, has offered the use of a military space base in Brazil’s northeast to SpaceSail, a Shanghai-based satellite manufacturer.
Lula’s telecommunications secretary said the aim is to foster competition in the low-Earth orbit satellite business in a bid to connect more families, schools and businesses in remote parts of Brazil to the internet.
SpaceSail still needs approval from the Chinese government to be able to use the Alcantara Launch Center, on the Atlantic coast of Maranhao state.
“We are trying to move forward in this partnership,” Telecommunications Secretary Hermano Tercius said in an interview this week. “With Xi Jinping in Brazil we’ll try to make this somehow feasible, in an attempt to get him to authorize it.”
SpaceSail didn’t reply to requests for comment. China’s foreign ministry said it didn’t have relevant information beyond confirming Xi’s trip for the G-20 and a state visit. Brazil’s air force, which operates the facility, said it hadn’t been officially informed of an offer made by the communications ministry.
The offer to use the base highlights the precarious path Lula is trying to walk between deepening Brazil’s ties with China while maintaining good relations with the US. With Musk potentially bound for a role in President-elect Donald Trump’s protectionist administration, satellite launch rights are among the issues that could upset the balance the Brazilian leader has maintained so far.
Tercius toured SpaceSail headquarters last month along with Communications Minister Juscelino Filho, publicizing the trip to China in a press release and on social media. The company “plans to launch its low-Earth orbit satellite internet service in Brazil within the next two years,” the ministry said on X.
Lula’s officials also visited Galaxy Space, another satellite maker, but the Beijing-based company doesn’t yet have authorization to offer its services abroad, according to the Brazilian telecom secretary.
The ministerial talks in China took place on the heels of a monthslong feud between Musk and Brazil’s top court, which culminated in million-dollar fines and X being banned in Latin America’s largest economy.
At one point in the dispute, Starlink had its bank accounts frozen in Brazil in a bid to force X to comply with legal orders. Musk eventually gave in, the accounts were unblocked and access to the US billionaire’s social media platform was restored across the country.
