Starlink chooses Israeli chip firm for satellite network

Starlink has chosen Israeli semiconductor firm Xsight Labs to supply networking chips for its upcoming V3 satellites.

Xsight Labs, founded in 2017 and based in Israel, develops chipsets for high-performance communications and has raised over US$150 million to date.

The company’s X2 Ethernet switch will serve as the core networking component inside Starlink’s V3 satellites, handling switching and routing for real-time data workloads.

Starlink’s V3 satellites are designed to support higher data throughput and greater network capacity than previous versions, as part of SpaceX’s efforts to expand broadband coverage globally.

According to Xsight, the X2 chip is manufactured using TSMC’s 5-nanometer process, and has passed environmental qualification tests.

Starlink, operated by SpaceX, uses a constellation of low-Earth-orbit satellites to provide global internet access.

🔗 Source: Calcalist

🧠 Food for thought

Implications, context, and why it matters.

Starlink V3 will use Xsight’s X2 networking chips; open questions

Founded in 2017, Xsight Labs says its X2 Ethernet switch will be the core switch on Starlink V3 satellites after passing environmental qualification.
Starlink launches about 2,000 satellites per year and targets a 42,000‑satellite fleet, so any supplier delay or chip failure could disrupt the rollout 1 2.
SpaceX has not said if Xsight is the sole source; it builds up to 45 satellites per week and needs steady parts to keep launch cadence (the pace of launches) 2.
V3 is sized for Starship rather than Falcon 9; Starship is SpaceX’s next‑gen heavy‑lift rocket while Falcon 9 is the workhorse, so throughput per satellite will rise but hinges on Starship readiness 1.

Ground network takeaways

In the U.S., Starlink runs over 100 gateway sites with 1,500+ ground antennas, placed to cut latency; gateway sites are ground stations that link satellites to terrestrial networks 3.
V3’s added capacity will push more traffic into terrestrial networks, creating options for colocation providers (data centers renting space plus power plus connectivity) and internet exchanges (neutral facilities where networks meet) near gateway sites. Knowing Starlink’s current and planned locations helps data center, internet exchange, plus backbone operators place gear early in high‑traffic regions.
ISPs plus Content Delivery Network (CDN) providers can lower latency by peering (exchanging traffic directly) with Starlink’s ground network to improve service, as Starlink serves about 7.6 million active subscribers 2 while gathering hundreds of billions of daily latency measurements in the U.S. 3.