Earlier quoted context omitted.
I feel like we are going to relive the hyperloop-decline with the specs of proposed orbital datacentres. But the hyperloop was in one regard a success, in that it built temporary hype. Maybe it was even named after that.
It also achieved Musk's actual goal: derailing and delaying mass transit initiatives, the California High-speed Rail project, in particular. He knew it was bullshit. He's dumber than most people realize, but he's not dumb enough to actually believe all the bullshit he spouts.
We Think the SpaceX IPO Is Overvalued
101–110 of 301 posts
Re: We Think the SpaceX IPO Is Overvalued
#102I need to understand what possible benefit there is to doing DCs in space. The cost would be, no pun intended, fucking astronomical. The cooling situation would make no sense at all -- the major up-and-coming application of DCs, LLM training, has absurd cooling requirements even here on earth where convective cooling is an option, to the point where many DCs use open-loop cooling. Latency might be better, in some cas…
Re: We Think the SpaceX IPO Is Overvalued
#103Earlier quoted context omitted.
The video they posted today outlines their specs. They are gonna be smaller. About 100T. Based on Starlink architecture but with way larger radiators and solar panels. Apparently the design is simpler than existing Starlinks because it has fewer different parts. Specs: https://x.com/SawyerMerritt/status/2064108916611420273?s=20
I feel like we are going to relive the hyperloop-decline with the specs of proposed orbital datacentres. But the hyperloop was in one regard a success, in that it built temporary hype. Maybe it was even named after that.
Re: We Think the SpaceX IPO Is Overvalued
#104Earlier quoted context omitted.
It also achieved Musk's actual goal: derailing and delaying mass transit initiatives, the California High-speed Rail project, in particular. He knew it was bullshit. He's dumber than most people realize, but he's not dumb enough to actually believe all the bullshit he spouts.
He's sending the weirdest mixed signals. If we want to hit anywhere near 1 on the Kardashev scale we're gonna need a planet wide high speed rail system. They should just give the major tech companies naming rights to the stations for 35 years for like 2-3 billion a pop and scale up construction 5x. I don't get the slow roll on this thing. The stations in LA and SF are gonna end up sort of like Tokyo station for the S…
Re: We Think the SpaceX IPO Is Overvalued
#105And the prospectus says it plainly: "Mr. Musk will be able to control the outcome of matters requiring shareholder approval." Musk holds over 85% voting power through Class B super-voting shares (10 votes/share). Public investors combined will have 15%. What Musk Controls: - CEO removal = his consent. You can't fire him even if he destroys the company - Take business for himself. SpaceX gets a rocket deal? Musk can s…
Re: We Think the SpaceX IPO Is Overvalued
#106Everyone says SpaceX IPO price is too high, but it's the most interesting IPO in a long time, it's critical to the US government, and America is, frankly, addicted to gambling. I'm not convinced it's going anywhere but up for a long while.
Re: We Think the SpaceX IPO Is Overvalued
#107A lot (everything?) hinges on orbital data centers. If they don't work, SpaceX is overvalued. SpaceX plans to launch 120 kW satellites, each weighing 1.7 tons. Let's be conservative and say it ends up being a 100 kW satellite massing 2 tons. Let's be conservative and say Starship can launch 50 tons to orbit for $20 million ($5 million more than a Falcon 9 launch). 50 kW per ton x $400K per ton = $8,000 per kW = $8 mi…
Re: We Think the SpaceX IPO Is Overvalued
#108Re: We Think the SpaceX IPO Is Overvalued
#109Earlier quoted context omitted.
It also achieved Musk's actual goal: derailing and delaying mass transit initiatives, the California High-speed Rail project, in particular. He knew it was bullshit. He's dumber than most people realize, but he's not dumb enough to actually believe all the bullshit he spouts.
He's sending the weirdest mixed signals. If we want to hit anywhere near 1 on the Kardashev scale we're gonna need a planet wide high speed rail system. They should just give the major tech companies naming rights to the stations for 35 years for like 2-3 billion a pop and scale up construction 5x. I don't get the slow roll on this thing. The stations in LA and SF are gonna end up sort of like Tokyo station for the S…
Re: We Think the SpaceX IPO Is Overvalued
#110Earlier quoted context omitted.
The orbital data center thing is really strange. Without some kind of massive technological breakthrough the physics of an orbital data center make no sense. Napkin math for a single data center including solar panels, radiators, compute and structure is somewhere on the order of ~6500 tonnes. Let's say Starship can put 100-150 tonnes into orbit per launch, that is somewhere between 40-65 launches for just one single…
I think it comes down to scaling and removing the bottlenecks. If you build one data center on earth, you did just that. If you build one in space and make it work and cost effective, you can scale infinitely (which is why SpaceX is uniquely positioned), until you hit the next bottleneck (which is why Tesla is building a fab). Tangential: If you play Factorio or Satisfactory, this is _all_ you do. Removing bottleneck…
"If we can just keep consuming massive amounts of capital, at some point, we'll turn a profit. Maybe even a big one."
It's not 2019 anymore, but this mindset acts like it still is.
SpaceX, along with its wanna-IPO classmates OpenAI and Anthropic, are going public because there's basically no more private investor money left and there's no political will (outside of whatever the hell is going on in Donald Trump's head) to lower interest rates to what they were in the golden age of blitzscaling.
They have to ask the public for more money. They just don't have enough humility to do it on decent terms, as evidenced by the IPO deals they're floating.
If this fails to produce what you're talking about - which is likely given things like "speed of radio transmissions", "thermal conductivity in a vacuum" and other things governed by those pesky laws of physics - the game's over.