SpaceX Is Basically a Huge Meme Stock(www.theatlantic.com)

44 pointsby breve9 hours ago2 comments

justinclift6 hours ago
* https://web.archive.org/web/20260414235001/https://www.theat...
* https://archive.md/w1p99
Seems like a weird article though, with some inaccuracy in key data:
> The company is in fact relatively small and losing money.
Whereas it's widely reported to be profitable:
https://www.reuters.com/business/finance/spacex-generated-ab...
(many reports of that same info around)
The article also contradicts itself later on:
> SpaceX’s rocket-launch and satellite-internet businesses are enormously profitable near-monopolies.
Was this article just AI generated spam? :(
- adjejmxbdjdn6 hours ago
  The article states right up front that they’re not profitable because of xAI’s costs.
  So there’s nothing contradictory about it.
  In the second paragraph:
  > SpaceX’s annual revenue last year was less than $20 billion, and it lost nearly $5 billion, according to a new report from The Information, mostly because of xAI’s huge capital costs.
  - peebee674 hours ago
    That's right. SpaceX is likely a great business on its fundamentals, and starlink is probably even better. The meme-stock part of this is that they've swept all these different business up together. I would've loved the opportunity to invest in SpaceX and starlink, but I'm not convinced the AI and other parts of the business are anything other than a landfill fire. The orbital datacentre concept is just plain nutty and in a different way than most of Elon's major undertakings. Sweeping them all in together like this just creates a serious risk that the best space company in the world will go under when the AI bubble bursts.
    __patchbit__an hour ago
    > The orbital datacentre concept is just plain nutty
    It's edge computing. Obsoletes the round trip for ground based AI crunch and power draw, cooling.
- barbacoa6 hours ago
  They are likely including xAI and the massive training costs that entails in order to make it sound like all their ventures are losing money.
  - whaleofatw20225 hours ago
    In fact lumping xAI in that to cause a loss likely provides some tax benefits vs putting it with Twitter/X itself
- lp0_on_fire4 hours ago
  The Atlantic aligns politically with people who do not align politically with Musk. It’s just red meat for their readers.
BobAliceInATree7 hours ago
There's a reason why he's trying to reserve 30% of the IPO for retail investors.
- hampowder6 hours ago
  please elaborate
  - killingtime746 hours ago
    Bagholders
    caminante4 hours ago
    Doesn't seem right as plenty of institutionals get cooked.
    He claims loyalty with long-term holders who trust him (read:less nagging and more license). I suspect it's also more convenient for his IR team to avoid worthless meetings with super shareholders.
  - deeviant6 hours ago
    There are ~7 born per minute. 95% of them are retail investors.
    If you want actual reason, it's because he uses it as a money battery, i.e. funding xAI and SPACE DATA CENTERS.