8 ms·

The end game is the SpaceX IPO which will make him a trillionaire, and then he doesn't need Tesla any more.

toomuchtodo 8mo ago
Indeed. SpaceX in Merger Talks with xAI - https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=46814701 https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=46814701 - January 2026
burningChrome 8mo ago
Or the Boring Company which most people have also completely forgotten about.
- hinkley 8mo ago
  Because it’s boring.
  - alterom 8mo ago
    Not in principle, mind you. It's just that the company has stalled every major project they started, and, so far, completed a rather shitty an uninspiring one in Vegas that has no reason to exist in the first place (it's subway but with Teslas instead of trains). Its only purpose is to prevent the money from being spent on viable public transportation projects, and in that sense, it's very interesting that it got so far.
    - ianburrell 8mo ago
      Not to mention that keep getting fined for improper disposal of waste material. Just dumping tunneling fluid into the sewer.
    - panick21_ 8mo ago
      Their mistake was to go from tunnels to transportation systems. I'm sure there are some innovations possible in tunnel boring. But that's not going to be some massive growth market. But trying to reinvent transportation was stupid.
      - alterom 8mo ago
        > But trying to reinvent transportation was stupid. It's not stupid, it's weaponized incompetence to divert funding from actual transportation infrastructure to their non-solutions which are all about the company owner's biggest money-making product (cars).
    - scottyah 8mo ago
      Or, digging tunnels is a lot harder than expected and there have been no big technical leaps to change that. The idea is great, but only if the cost goes down and digging speed goes up by a lot. I assume you got a cut of the $23bn my state took with the promise of a high-speed rail, which afaik is the only "viable(?!)" transportation project that could have been affected by this, or you just hate subways/subterranean transportation progress?
      - stephen_g 8mo ago
        The idea isn’t great, tunnels for cars or pods have really low throughput (low occupancy + safety margin headways, even at a high speed). And it hinged on them magically revolutionising an already highly mature field, which surprise, surprise didn’t work out. If it had been possible to speed up and reduce the cost of tunneling, the thing that would most make sense is running regular trains through them. But they never had any real ideas to actually make it cheaper or faster (apart for making it too small for proper emergency egress), just the idea that SV tech guys would be able to find a way to do it.
        scottyah 8mo ago
        I disagree, tunnels for transport of both people and goods, especially in high-density urban areas is the best way to go. Walking and biking is great for their distance, but cars and trucks are still needed for larger and heavier items. Using shared transportation (like a train) is terrible for "The last mile". Doing everything at night just seems like a band-aid and sucks for all those workers. The idea of trying to solve the hard infrastructure problem of digging first also seems like a great idea. Build the aqueduct before you build the millions of houses and farms, and even let anyone do that part. It's still premature to say that they haven't revolutionized the field, people around the world are still digging tunnels so there's still a market. It wouldn't be the first time an already highly mature field got revolutionized, I still don't get why you're so anti-tunnel.
        alterom 8mo ago
        Because The Boring Company hasn't built any tunnels worth noting, perhaps, and stalled most of its projects. This isn't a case against tunnels, this is a case against The Boring Company. The tunnels aren't a great idea apriori. Good luck pitching the tunnels idea in Venice. The tunnels may be a good or a bad idea depending on many variables, and the tunnels that the Boring Company has actually built are worthless. As for the tunneling equipment: selling those machines isn't their core business, and there's no evidence these machines have, or may in the feasible future, do anything revolutionary in the tunnel industry (i.e., built radically better, radically cheaper, or radically faster). The idea of having such machines is good. They don't have such machines. > It's still premature to say that they haven't revolutionized the field It's never premature to say that. Read what you wrote. You can say a field has been revolutionized once a revolution takes place. It's hasn't. The impact of the Boring company on the way tunnels are dug is, very sharply, zero. Is it possible that they will? Sure. It's also possible that Britney Spears will. She still has the time, it's premature to say she wouldn't do it, right?
- TacoCommander 8mo ago
  They just work "underground"
deleted 8mo ago
[deleted]
rchaud 8mo ago
Regular IPOs usually have commitments from pension funds, mutual funds, private equity firms and other institutional investors secured in advance of going public. How many of those parties would be interested considering that SpaceX really only has one main customer whose business isn't guaranteed considering his political partisanship?
- alterom 8mo ago
  Unfortunately, enough for many regular people to be screwed when that stock crashes.
  - scottyah 8mo ago
    What do you base this on?
- NetMageSCW 8mo ago
  Their main customer is Starlink and it will continue to be cash printing machine. Their second customer is the Federal government and SpaceX has a monopoly on cheap reliable fast launch services that will overcome most politics. Even EU companies and Amazon and OneWeb have been forced to use them because there is no better option.
scottyah 8mo ago
He barely needs Tesla now, pretty much the only thing stopping electric cars from being ubiquitous are people in politics and media. The new mission statement is just to make everything for everyone, which I guess solves the people-on-earth problems he wanted to tackle. Next is a push for Mars (which again is mostly threatened by some politicians at this point).
habinero 8mo ago
His entire wealth is basically paper anyways.

Indeed. SpaceX in Merger Talks with xAI - https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=46814701 https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=46814701 - January 2026

burningChrome 8mo ago

Or the Boring Company which most people have also completely forgotten about.

hinkley 8mo ago
Because it’s boring.
- alterom 8mo ago
  Not in principle, mind you. It's just that the company has stalled every major project they started, and, so far, completed a rather shitty an uninspiring one in Vegas that has no reason to exist in the first place (it's subway but with Teslas instead of trains). Its only purpose is to prevent the money from being spent on viable public transportation projects, and in that sense, it's very interesting that it got so far.
  - ianburrell 8mo ago
    Not to mention that keep getting fined for improper disposal of waste material. Just dumping tunneling fluid into the sewer.
  - panick21_ 8mo ago
    Their mistake was to go from tunnels to transportation systems. I'm sure there are some innovations possible in tunnel boring. But that's not going to be some massive growth market. But trying to reinvent transportation was stupid.
    - alterom 8mo ago
      > But trying to reinvent transportation was stupid. It's not stupid, it's weaponized incompetence to divert funding from actual transportation infrastructure to their non-solutions which are all about the company owner's biggest money-making product (cars).
  - scottyah 8mo ago
    Or, digging tunnels is a lot harder than expected and there have been no big technical leaps to change that. The idea is great, but only if the cost goes down and digging speed goes up by a lot. I assume you got a cut of the $23bn my state took with the promise of a high-speed rail, which afaik is the only "viable(?!)" transportation project that could have been affected by this, or you just hate subways/subterranean transportation progress?
    - stephen_g 8mo ago
      The idea isn’t great, tunnels for cars or pods have really low throughput (low occupancy + safety margin headways, even at a high speed). And it hinged on them magically revolutionising an already highly mature field, which surprise, surprise didn’t work out. If it had been possible to speed up and reduce the cost of tunneling, the thing that would most make sense is running regular trains through them. But they never had any real ideas to actually make it cheaper or faster (apart for making it too small for proper emergency egress), just the idea that SV tech guys would be able to find a way to do it.
      - scottyah 8mo ago
        I disagree, tunnels for transport of both people and goods, especially in high-density urban areas is the best way to go. Walking and biking is great for their distance, but cars and trucks are still needed for larger and heavier items. Using shared transportation (like a train) is terrible for "The last mile". Doing everything at night just seems like a band-aid and sucks for all those workers. The idea of trying to solve the hard infrastructure problem of digging first also seems like a great idea. Build the aqueduct before you build the millions of houses and farms, and even let anyone do that part. It's still premature to say that they haven't revolutionized the field, people around the world are still digging tunnels so there's still a market. It wouldn't be the first time an already highly mature field got revolutionized, I still don't get why you're so anti-tunnel.
        alterom 8mo ago
        Because The Boring Company hasn't built any tunnels worth noting, perhaps, and stalled most of its projects. This isn't a case against tunnels, this is a case against The Boring Company. The tunnels aren't a great idea apriori. Good luck pitching the tunnels idea in Venice. The tunnels may be a good or a bad idea depending on many variables, and the tunnels that the Boring Company has actually built are worthless. As for the tunneling equipment: selling those machines isn't their core business, and there's no evidence these machines have, or may in the feasible future, do anything revolutionary in the tunnel industry (i.e., built radically better, radically cheaper, or radically faster). The idea of having such machines is good. They don't have such machines. > It's still premature to say that they haven't revolutionized the field It's never premature to say that. Read what you wrote. You can say a field has been revolutionized once a revolution takes place. It's hasn't. The impact of the Boring company on the way tunnels are dug is, very sharply, zero. Is it possible that they will? Sure. It's also possible that Britney Spears will. She still has the time, it's premature to say she wouldn't do it, right?
TacoCommander 8mo ago
They just work "underground"

deleted 8mo ago

[deleted]

rchaud 8mo ago

Regular IPOs usually have commitments from pension funds, mutual funds, private equity firms and other institutional investors secured in advance of going public. How many of those parties would be interested considering that SpaceX really only has one main customer whose business isn't guaranteed considering his political partisanship?

alterom 8mo ago
Unfortunately, enough for many regular people to be screwed when that stock crashes.
- scottyah 8mo ago
  What do you base this on?
NetMageSCW 8mo ago
Their main customer is Starlink and it will continue to be cash printing machine. Their second customer is the Federal government and SpaceX has a monopoly on cheap reliable fast launch services that will overcome most politics. Even EU companies and Amazon and OneWeb have been forced to use them because there is no better option.

scottyah 8mo ago

He barely needs Tesla now, pretty much the only thing stopping electric cars from being ubiquitous are people in politics and media. The new mission statement is just to make everything for everyone, which I guess solves the people-on-earth problems he wanted to tackle. Next is a push for Mars (which again is mostly threatened by some politicians at this point).

habinero 8mo ago

His entire wealth is basically paper anyways.