In recent weeks, satellite business EchoStar has clinched multibillion-dollar deals with SpaceX and AT&T. It may sound like boom times for founder Charlie Ergen, but these deals illustrate something different: the abandoning of an ambitious, decades-long quest to build his own mobile phone network. The FT’s Wall Street editor Sujeet Indap and US trading and crypto correspondent Jill R Shah explain how Ergen’s fortunes changed, and the role Elon Musk and US President Donald Trump played in that.

Clips from CNBC, Reuters, Yahoo Finance, Echostar/Vimeo

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For further reading:

How a deal with Elon Musk helped a telecoms tycoon save his company from bankruptcy

Trump forces billionaire to fold

Charlie Ergen: Media mogul at a Sprint

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Behind the Money has been nominated for a Signal Award in the Money & Finance category! It's a Listener Choice award, which means we need your help. Vote for us to win here. We appreciate your support!

Follow Sujeet Indap on X (@sindap), or on Bluesky (@sindap.bsky.social). Follow Jill Shah on X (@jillrshah). Michela Tindera is on X (@mtindera07) and Bluesky (@mtindera.ft.com), or follow her on LinkedIn for updates about the show and more.

Read a transcript of this episode on FT.com

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US President Donald Trump has pledged to “plant the stars and stripes on the planet Mars”, China could send its first crewed mission to Mars within a decade, and Elon Musk wants people to actually settle on Mars, transforming the human race into an interplanetary species.

In a new series of Tech Tonic, the FT’s Peggy Hollinger asks if we’re really about to land, and even live, on the red planet.

Free to read:

Musk’s mission to Mars

Three days with America’s rocket chasers

Tech Tonic is produced by Mischa Frankl-Duval. The senior producer is Edwin Lane. Flo Phillips is the executive producer. Sound design by Breen Turner and Samantha Giovinco. Original music by Metaphor Music. Manuela Saragosa is the FT’s acting co-head of audio.

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India’s tech hub Bangalore has experienced huge growth of companies and employees in the past two decades. But the city’s infrastructure is not keeping up with such rapid growth. With the tech sector contributing more than $300bn to the nation’s economy, what happens to the country’s growth if Bangalore can’t solve its issues? The FT’s Mumbai bureau chief Chris Kay and Mumbai correspondent Krishn Kaushik travelled to Bangalore to try to find out.

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For further reading:

The unsustainable boom in India’s Silicon Valley

Multinationals turn to India’s back offices for AI engineers

Indian IT shares fall over fears from Trump’s $100,000 H-1B visa fee

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Behind the Money has been nominated for a Signal Award in the Money & Finance category! It's a Listener Choice award, which means we need your help. Vote for us to win here. We appreciate your support!

Follow Chris Kay on X (@christopherkay) or on Bluesky (@christopherkay.ft.com), and Krishn Kaushik on X (@Krishn_) Michela Tindera is on X (@mtindera07) and Bluesky (@mtindera.ft.com), or follow her on LinkedIn for updates about the show and more.

Read a transcript of this episode on FT.com

Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.