Amazon Continues on Path to World Domination with $10B Satellite Project

One has to wonder just how large a single corporation can truly get.

In American history, there are plenty of examples of enormous companies who were struck down as monopolies thanks to our nation’s anti-trust laws.  When we think about examples of this, we often conjure thoughts of oil tycoons and railroad barons who conquered a single industry through cruel and unusual tactics.

The modern world is much different setting, however, and some of the largest and most powerful companies we see today are diversifying their interests.  They aren’t simply working to make it to the top of the heap in oil or transportation, but in everything.

Amazon is a prime example, (excuse the pun), as they not only deliver everything under the sun directly into our homes, but they also provide streaming entertainment services, hardware for digital books, home assistants, and more.

And, as if this weren’t enough, the company is looking to take their market share into space next.

Amazon has received approval from the U.S. Federal Communications Commission (FCC) to launch and operate a planned constellation of 3,236 internet satellites. That’s the backbone of Amazon’s Project Kuiper, an initiative to create a satellite-based broadband internet service designed to provide high-speed, low latency connections to U.S.-based households that currently don’t have great access to a high-speed connection.

Alongside the key regulatory approval, Amazon also announced that it would be committing over $10 billion in Kuiper, money that it says will generate U.S. jobs and involve not only building and testing satellites for the constellation, but also building out key ground network infrastructure that’s required in order to actually make the connectivity available to consumers.

This means that, in places where cellular service is not a viable option today, Amazon will be able to beam it in from space.

Amazon’s move is not the first of its kind, and the company will be competing with SpaceX for market share in the world of commercial satellites.