Verizon says SpaceX needs up to 8 years and a half trillion dollars to compete in wireless

Verizon's CEO says SpaceX's Starlink faces some significant technical and financial hurdles to compete at scale in the US. Zamek/GVN/VIEW press/Corbis via Getty Images

In business, as in war, the safest bet is often to avoid underestimating your competitors, even when the odds appear to be in your favor.

Verizon CEO Dan Schulman says he's a student of that philosophy when it comes to Elon Musk's ambitions to develop SpaceX's Starlink into a significant US network player.

"Clearly, the tech and the wireless landscape is rapidly evolving, and we need to rapidly evolve along with that," he said during the company's third-quarter earnings call Monday.…