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Walter Piecyk

Things Walter Says on Podcasts

Where to Find Them

Walter Piecyk has been a guest on Bloomberg Surveillance (12 times) , Closing Bell , Decoder with Nilay Patel and Big Technology .

Recently: “Why Elon Musk wants to sell you cell service” on Decoder with Nilay Patel (October 2026); “Bloomberg Surveillance TV: July 31st, 2025” on Bloomberg Surveillance (July 2025); “Closing Bell Overtime: Dow, S&P 500 record closes; Rare Microsoft downgrade 9/23/24” on Closing Bell (September 2024); “Apple's China Problem, Its Tenuous Valuation, And The iPhone 15 — With Walter Piecyk” on Big Technology (September 2023); “Surveillance: Weak US GDP with Pingle (Podcast)” on Bloomberg Surveillance (July 2022); “Surveillance: Can't Rely On Central Banks, El-Erian Says” on Bloomberg Surveillance (January 2020).

What They Said

“Because what do all of these things need? Whether it's Robotaxi or whether it's data centers in space, they need money, right? And money needs a narrative. And this is just another one of the narratives to stack on top to say, here's how we can drive incremental value.” — Walter Piecyk, Decoder with Nilay Patel

Piecyk is explaining why SpaceX would move into cell service. He points out that US telcos carry about a trillion dollars of enterprise value. The open question, he says, is how SpaceX splits scarce capital between this and its other bets.

Decoder with Nilay Patel · 2026-10-17 Permalink → Listen →
Decoder with Nilay Patel Around 29:04 into the episode
Walter Piecyk

…mean, I don't think it's an either or. And I would think that when you look at people's attempt to justify the valuation of SpaceX, a lot of that value is going to land on data centers in space and the data centers on the ground. And that's where a lot of the value and Starlink to a certain extent.

Nilay Patel

But that's not the launch business, which theoretically is their business, right? It's not even the AI provision business, right? We're describing them as a hyperscaler.

Walter Piecyk

Yeah, exactly. And well, the AI, those are other big chunks of it. There's a lot of different stories here, but it doesn't mean that they don't pursue this if having connectivity and constellations. And they're talking about connectivity in space, right? Because they believe that there's going to be a demand for connectivity between the data centers, whether it's theirs or others and their constellations. There are already data centers that I think are using their constellation to connect. So I think when they looked at it, it was just another part of the narrative that you build in terms of SpaceX and justifying the valuation. Because what do all of these things need? Whether it's Robotaxi or whether it's data centers in space or data, they need money, right? And money needs a narrative. And this is just another one of the narrative to stack on top to say, here's how we can drive incremental value. And the value is, if you look at the enterprise values of these telcos in the United States, you're talking about like a trillion dollars, right? So that's…

Nilay Patel

How much of this is just Elon needs to supply connectivity to his own cars and his own factories and his own robots, and he'll just be his own best customer?

Walter Piecyk

I don't think that's it. I think they really want to, they think they really want to build a revenue business out of it. In fact, they're going to use the cars as like hotspots where they'll put Starlinks on there and then use them as like distribution points. That's part, that's going to be part…

Nilay Patel

I do want to end by talking about the existing telcos and what competition might do to them because I think that's a fascinating dynamic. They are clearly not ready for an actual aggressive competitor. But I want to stick with what you just said for a minute. If I pull that apart, it sounds like…

Speaker names from our own diarization · position estimated from where the line sits in the episode
“We should save all these quotes now where they're saying, oh, Elon can't be a competitor because he only has 80 megahertz of spectrum. Because then when they want to merge with someone, they're going to claim, oh, no, he's actually a competitor.” — Walter Piecyk, Decoder with Nilay Patel

Nilay Patel asked whether four national wireless carriers is the right number for the US. The telecom analyst says more competition drives innovation, notes margins near 60% in wireless, and predicts the carriers will reverse their argument about SpaceX when it suits them.

Decoder with Nilay Patel · 2026-10-17 Permalink → Listen →
Decoder with Nilay Patel Around 47:30 into the episode
Walter Piecyk

Well, under Chairman Wheeler, which goes way back, yeah, four was the number. Wheels

Nilay Patel

and I were buds.

Walter Piecyk

You know, if you called him now, he'd be like, I told you it should have been four and it's going to go back there. Obviously, in the new administration, they didn't believe that that was the case. And I think you see Chairman Carr, you know, pointing to prices, how he sees them being down, and the competition that's happened in fixed wireless. But I think you always want more competition in a market, right? It drives innovation and it lowers prices. And margins are approaching 60% in the wireless business. I can't say we've had a tremendous amount of innovation, which, by the way, gets back to this, what the telcos are doing in the fear, refusing to give them a wholesale agreement. That's their right, right? But at some point, like if the FCC's mandate to act in the public interest, like we have a current administration, who knows who gets in the next administration? If these telcos are going to push back so hard on what the fourth competitor, in this case, SpaceX, is going to do, the FCC can probably get involved in some ways.…

Nilay Patel

There is nothing funnier than a giant telecom insisting that a thing that is not a competitor is their competitor. They all do it. It's very funny. Last question. Again, this is just the big thing that I've been rattling around my head. We might be on a cusp of an entire paradigm shift in what…

Walter Piecyk

I mean, we think about this every day at Lightshed in terms of all the different ways that AI and how we interact with our information and how we interact with commerce and using agents. And Muse has obviously been something we've been waiting for from someone. And there's going to be other…

Nilay Patel

The idea of Elon shipping a mid-range Android phone with the Play Store on it is so deeply funny to me. I truly hope it happens because that's the product you can make today. And maybe there's a paradigm shift and there's a different set of products, but right now you need to have Instagram. And…

Speaker names from our own diarization · position estimated from where the line sits in the episode

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