341–348 of 348 posts
Earlier quoted context omitted.
There are definitely influential people who believe social media platforms are also strategic assets. The DOJ did try to expropriate US TikTok that one time
WhatsApp’s acquisition was (partly) intermediated by a boutique investment bank which had former CIA-director George Tenet on its board of directors (or something like that). I’m surprised the strategic aspect of a major part of US’s tech industry is not given much thought in here.
Earlier quoted context omitted.
> Morgan Stanley only covers part of the total deal and Musk still needs to find a solid 21 billion from somewhere Is Musk’s reputation so bad that he, the owner of a car company that turned the car industry on its head (by proving that electric cars were possible) and pushed a massive paradigm shift in the lithium ion battery industry/market (maybe helped with the meteoric rise in demand mobile devices in the last d…
He is not 'the owner of a car company'. He is the majority shareholder at about 17%. Means 83% is not owned by him.
Earlier quoted context omitted.
He paid 40 million because he would have lost a lot more by Tesla going bankrupt, and I'm not talking about money. He cares about the success of Tesla and SpaceX at a psychological and emotional level. This is what makes Musk appealing. He doesn't care about the money. He cares about the future. Money is a means to an ends. As he's stated, the company only needs to make enough money to continue to grow. It doesn't ne…
> He cares about the future He has been talking about the future for 20 years right now with little to show for. Tesla accounts for 1.3% of all cars sold in 2021. In the same timeframe Microsoft put the future™ on every Americans desk, Apple put it in every pocket, Google created it on the web and Amazon delivered it to your door. But of course people take all of that for granted because those companies never tried t…
Little to show for??? It's kind of hard to completely change the world consumer car purchases. 1.3% of all cars is HUGE. https://www.statista.com/statistics/502208/tesla-quarterly-v... It takes a long long time to get this large, even if you're growing at over 50% to 100% per year which is a ridiculous growth rate.
> In the same timeframe Microsoft put the future™ on every Americans desk, Apple put it in every pocket, Google created it on the web and Amazon delivered it to your door.
You're comparing a company making real physical large objects to companies selling software. None of those companies even compare to Tesla.
> But of course people take all of that for granted because those companies never tried to substitute themselves to religion, in the sense that hope for the future™ is seen as a product to be pushed in the market to gain synchopants.
Because software, much as people like to tell you, will not solve all our problems. Software plays a key part of every industry and is integrating itself into more and more industries (like with Tesla and SpaceX with software being one of key aspects that make what they do work), but software itself will not change the future.
Earlier quoted context omitted.
It's also galvanized an entire industry that was basically completely stagnant before SpaceX. The number of space-related and space-adjacent startups is skyrocketing. People figured out, because of SpaceX, that you can actually make a profitable business out of space that isn't just government contracts. Also, SpaceX isn't done.
People figured out that, if you manage to pull of a Musk impression, investors are willing to part with shit tons of money for space start ups. Whether any of those will work out or not is still not answered. Nor is the question if there is enough actual demand for all those small payload launches, SpaceX is launching their own Starlink satellites (and may well dump that business on retail investors) and if the other…
Earlier quoted context omitted.
Are you implying that there are no wealthy people in South Africa? Not to sound “attacky” but that seems extremely naive. Truthfully, he comes from wealth, but not close to the wealth he has today; his father owned half of an emerald mine for example. He is quoted as saying (about his youth): "We had so much money at times we couldn't even close our safe"
No one on the planet at the time was as wealthy as the current crop of ultra-rich, including Musk. Perhaps no one in all of history, really, though that becomes a complicated comparison really fast. But yes, he absolutely comes from wealth. Just like most of them do.
If we were to translate 5% of the 2020 U.S. GDP today, that would be 5% of $20.807 trillion. Or about $1.404 trillion. So Bezos, with his $182.2 billion and Musk with his $264.6 billion, have A LONG way to go to catch up with Rockefeller.
Earlier quoted context omitted.
> This exact nonsense is why the autistic community was so displeased when he made a big show of having "asperger's" (which in the US under DSM-V is just autism, btw). Can we please stop justifying toxic and reckless behavior with "oh but they're autistic" as if we're talking about naive children not grown adults? There's no such thing as "the autistic community" (though I won't deny some people may self-proclaim the…
> It's just how he thinks. And I, as an autist, am telling you that this is a farcical caricature that is routinely used to excuse shitty behavior and at the same time deny us autonomy.
Earlier quoted context omitted.
A judge recently said he was a liar and it was so far beyond dispute that a jury would not be allowed to decide for themselves, as they might be influenced by Musk's ongoing public BSing such as with the TED talk. So, no, informed people are not "casually" calling him a liar.
> A judge recently said he was a liar I sincerely doubt that. Judges don’t tend to talk that way, regardless of the case at hand.
Earlier quoted context omitted.
He is not 'the owner of a car company'. He is the majority shareholder at about 17%. Means 83% is not owned by him.
17% is not a majority. I think you just mean he is the largest shareholder.