{"text":[[{"start":7.65,"text":"Shanghai SpaceSail Technologies may be a few years – and thousands of satellites – behind Starlink, Elon Musk’s company it hopes to one day imitate. But that hasn’t stopped the operator of a homegrown Chinese low Earth orbit satellite network from hitting up investors for cash."}],[{"start":25.549999999999997,"text":"SpaceSail is seeking up to 15 billion yuan ($2.2 billion) in a new funding round for its Qianfan satellite constellation, according to Chinese media reports, citing a public company disclosure. That disclosure came the same month as the record Nasdaq listing for Musk’s SpaceX (SPCX.US), whose assets include the Starlink service that accounted for about 60% of the company’s $18.67 billion in revenue last year. Starlink currently boasts about 10.3 million users and 9,600 satellites, dwarfing SpaceSail’s much smaller 200 satellites and almost no revenue."}],[{"start":64.4,"text":"https://www.caixinglobal.com/2026-06-23/chinas-starlink-challenger-seeks-up-to-22-billion-for-satellite-network-push-102456833.html"}],[{"start":82.60000000000001,"text":"SpaceSail’s new fundraising looks less like ordinary venture capital than a strategic state-led infrastructure financing. The company plans to bring in up to three new investors or investor groups, with new backers getting no more than 20% of the company. Proceeds will go mainly to constellation construction, technology development, market expansion and daily operations. The round also excludes foreign capital, including investors indirectly backed by foreign money, according to Chinese media reports."}],[{"start":112.65,"text":"That ban on foreign investment helps explain Beijing’s attitude towards the company. Satellite internet may look like a broadband business, but China increasingly treats it as future communications infrastructure. Nearly all such telecoms infrastructure in China is currently state-owned, with private investors – both domestic and foreign – largely barred from the area. The Ministry of Industry and Information Technology (MIIT) has said China aims to have more than 10 million satellite communication users by 2030, with direct smartphone satellite links moving toward mass use."}],[{"start":149.4,"text":"SpaceSail, known in Chinese as Shanghai Yuanxin Satellite, was founded in 2018 and is the company behind the G60 Qianfan constellation, also known in English as Thousand Sails. Qianfan refers to the actual satellite network, while G60 refers to the Shanghai-linked Yangtze River Delta technology corridor branding attached to the project. In simple terms, the plan is to put hundreds, and eventually thousands, of small satellites into low orbit to provide broadband and communications services from space."}],[{"start":181.9,"text":"Tied to state capital"}],[{"start":183.9,"text":"The company’s current backers show how closely it is tied to state capital. SpaceSail’s 6.7 billion yuan ($933 million) A round financing in 2024 was led by the CDB Manufacturing Transformation and Upgrading Fund, a national industrial fund tied to China Development Bank, and Finance Ministry-backed capital. Other investors include Shanghai Alliance Investment, the Shanghai municipal government’s investment arm, and CAS Capital, which is associated with the Chinese Academy of Sciences system."}],[{"start":217.7,"text":"SpaceSail is chaired by Zhang Qi, an executive with links to state capital operations of the Shanghai government. Its CEO is Shen Hongbo, a telecom veteran who previously held senior roles at Shanghai Telecom, China Netcom and China Unicom Shanghai, all tied to two of the country’s “big three” state-owned telecom carriers. That mix is telling. SpaceSail needs government funding to build the network, but it also needs telecom operating experience to turn satellites into paying services."}],[{"start":248.5,"text":"The company has made real progress in orbit. After a June launch, SpaceSail said it had 200 Qianfan satellites in orbit and had completed initial networking for an automatic identification system (AIS) maritime tracking system. Its plan calls for 324 satellites by the end of 2026 to form the backbone of its initial service capability. Its first phase consists of 648 satellites, with more than 15,000 satellites planned to make up the constellation in its final stage. It also launched its first direct-to-phone test satellite in June."}],[{"start":285.55,"text":"But the company is still a tiny minnow compared with Starlink. SpaceSail’s 200 satellites equal roughly 2% of Starlink’s reported 9,600. The financial gap is even wider. SpaceSail reported revenue of just 49,300 yuan, or less than $10,000, in 2023, 1.15 million yuan in 2024 and 188,700 yuan in 2025. Its net loss was much bigger, widening to 890 million yuan last year. It had no revenue in the first quarter of 2026."}],[{"start":322.15000000000003,"text":"Big market"}],[{"start":323.45000000000005,"text":"The size of the China and global markets helps explain why investors may still be interested in SpaceSail despite the big early losses. The country’s broader commercial space market was already worth 2.3 trillion yuan ($320 billion) in 2024 and was expected to rise to 2.8 trillion yuan last year, according to Xinhua. The narrower satellite internet industry was worth 45.41 billion yuan in 2025. Globally, satellite internet applications are forecast to exceed $30 billion by 2030. Those figures use different definitions, but they point to the same bet: China wants to build the full stack, from rockets and satellites to terminals, ground stations and services."}],[{"start":370.20000000000005,"text":"SpaceSail is not China’s only player chasing Starlink. Beijing created the state-owned China Satellite Network Group in 2021, with the State-owned Assets Supervision and Administration Commission (SASAC) acting as investor on behalf of the State Council, to build Guowang, or “national network,” a planned constellation of 12,992 satellites. Geespace, the aerospace company under private auto giant Geely, completed the first phase of its own low Earth orbit internet of things (IoT) constellation with 64 satellites in orbit. Hongqing Technology, linked to private rocket maker LandSpace, has also filed plans for the Honghu-3 constellation containing roughly 10,000 satellite."}],[{"start":413.1,"text":"Even combined, China’s current low Earth orbit networks remain small next to Starlink. SpaceSail’s 200 satellites, Guowang’s roughly 160 plus tracked satellites and Geespace’s 64 add up to only a few hundred spacecraft, still a tiny fraction of Starlink’s fleet. And none of the Chinese players have meaningful numbers when it comes to paying users and revenue."}],[{"start":435.70000000000005,"text":"SpaceSail’s best chance may not be competing head-on with Starlink in the U.S. or Europe. Instead, it could find an opening in markets where governments want a second supplier, where Chinese financing carries influence, or where relying on Musk’s network is politically uncomfortable. The company has pushed into Brazil and Kazakhstan and has signed aviation related cooperation with Airbus."}],[{"start":460.25000000000006,"text":"All of that gives SpaceSail a plausible business opening, even though it’s still far from operating a proven business. State backing can pay for launches, absorb losses and open diplomatic doors. But it can’t singlehandedly create millions of users or a profitable telecom network. The new fundraising will test whether China can turn its satellite ambition into a commercial service in the race to catch up with Starlink."}],[{"start":495.9000000000001,"text":""}]],"url":"https://audio.ftcn.net.cn/album/a_1782968220_4093.mp3"}