John Malone Predicts SpaceX Will Put Up to $10 Billion Into Skydance

John Malone thinks SpaceX is about to put $8 billion to $10 billion into Skydance, the newly combined owner of Paramount and Warner Bros. Discovery, in a deal that would ease the studio’s debt and give Starlink a way into Hollywood content distribution. Neither company has announced anything, and for now this is one well-connected billionaire’s prediction.

That’s according to TheWrap, which reported that the media mogul made the call on Wednesday, October 21, while speaking with Liberty Global CEO Mike Fries at the Paley International Council Summit in New York. Malone suggested the two companies could reach a global content distribution agreement involving as much as $8 billion to $10 billion in cross-investment, and he pointed to the financial ties between Elon Musk and Oracle founder Larry Ellison, the father of Skydance CEO David Ellison and a major backer of the company. “I think there’s a deal coming there,” Malone said.

TheWrap (@TheWrap) October 21, 2026

Malone went on to say that Larry Ellison helped finance Musk’s purchase of Twitter, now X, and that Ellison used Tesla stock to help fund his son’s Hollywood ambitions. “I would not doubt for a minute that before very long, you’re gonna see an announcement,” he said. TheWrap noted that Malone did not indicate any negotiations were underway, and that representatives for Skydance and SpaceX did not immediately respond to requests for comment. As of Wednesday morning, SpaceX, Starlink, Musk and Skydance had not addressed the prediction on X either.

Part of the history Malone described is on the public record. Ellison joined Tesla’s board in December 2018 and left when his term ended at the company’s 2022 annual meeting. In May 2022, a filing tied to Musk’s $44 billion Twitter takeover listed Ellison as a $1 billion backer of the deal.

Skydance has a lot on its plate right now. The company, formerly known as Paramount Skydance, closed its acquisition of Warner Bros. Discovery on October 6, putting Warner Bros., HBO and CNN alongside Paramount and CBS. The deal was backed by $47 billion in new equity led by the Ellison family, with debt financing led by Bank of America, Citigroup and Apollo. Skydance says the combined company has nearly $70 billion in revenue and is targeting more than $6 billion in annual run-rate savings within three years, while working to bring its net leverage down to 3.0 times by the end of 2029.

Malone is no outsider to that business. He founded Liberty Media and served as its chairman until the end of 2025, when he stepped down from the board and became chairman emeritus, and he spent years on the Warner Bros. Discovery board. At the same event, he urged David Ellison to keep the creative talent behind HBO and Warner Bros. and warned that YouTube is “running away with the gold ring when it comes to media.”

On paper, SpaceX could afford a check that size. The company posted $4.4 billion in net income on $14.6 billion in third quarter revenue on Tuesday, its first profitable quarter since going public in June. Starlink connectivity revenue rose 69% to $5.2 billion, and SpaceX ended September with $51.3 billion in cash and cash equivalents plus another $38.6 billion in marketable securities.

Investors are also putting a huge price on the company. Nasdaq’s quote page put SpaceX’s market value at about $2.2 trillion earlier this month, and early investor Peter Diamandis said this morning that he expects SpaceX to become the first $10 trillion company. A content deal with Skydance would be a new direction for a company whose growth has come from Starlink subscriptions, launches and its SpaceXSI segment, and until SpaceX or Skydance says otherwise, it remains Malone’s forecast.

Would you want Paramount, HBO or Warner Bros. content bundled with your Starlink plan?