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Google Discloses $94.1B in SpaceX Stock, Marking 6% Stake

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Re: Google Discloses $94.1B in SpaceX Stock, Marking 6% Stake

#251
post #126

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I don't think companies expanding their business should be the only reason to sell. Apple was a desktop and laptop computer company when they released the iPod. Nokia was a company making rubber products when they started making cellular equipment in the 1970s. Amazon was a ecomm company when they released AWS. Etc. Sure, I'm cherrypicking the success stories but I don't think it's the only signal people should use.

SpaceX had adult leadership for a long time. I suspect there was a tacit agreement with Musk about a bit of separation. He broke through that professional firewall when he merged xAI with SpaceX and then pushed it to go public as he did. I also posit that Gwynne Shotwell is weirdly undervalued for what she's accomplished and what she's put up with, and I think that will show up some time in the future. There was enou…

I wouldn't say Shotwell is "undervalued, weirdly or not. She's a household name among space enthusiasts.

Without looking, can you tell me who the COO of ULA is?

Re: Google Discloses $94.1B in SpaceX Stock, Marking 6% Stake

#252
post #146

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Tesla is making two big R&D plays into humanoid robotics and cyber taxi. That’s just as bold and requiring innovation as the SpaceX AI and starship stuff. That plus Tesla/SpaceX/Intel are together putting big money into Terafab to make semiconductors in Texas for those platforms.

> Tesla is making two big R&D plays… The funniest thing you can write… Can’t believe people still write “Robotaxi” after 12+ years of failed promises… wild wild stuff

Just like OpenAI/Anthropic vs open models it's way too early to call winners or losers in the self-driving market. I called it a Tesla R&D project on purpose. They are at least in 2nd place to Waymo but it's barely a market in 2026, Waymo has been very conservative with expansion the last 5yrs for a good reason. It was still R&D.

Ramping up Cybercab production is definitely high risk play. Which is counter to OP's point that Tesla is now just some boring non-visionary company, especially combined investments in humanoid robots and semiconductors.

If Tesla was just looking to make safe easy money they wouldn't be making huge gambles on new markets.

Re: Google Discloses $94.1B in SpaceX Stock, Marking 6% Stake

#253
post #215

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Envy is a hell of a drug

This is the weakest retort to critique of the wealthy. "Youre just jealous". Lame.

It doesn't rise to the level of critique. Just baseless accusations and conspiracy theories. Success speaks for itself and the mental gymnastics of those that deny it screams "envy" as loudly as if it was written on the accuser's forehead.

Re: Google Discloses $94.1B in SpaceX Stock, Marking 6% Stake

#254
post #65
post #49

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Remember this was also when SpaceX was actually about space, instead of mostly AI and Twitter. Long-term shareholders that were sold on the space, have to be thinking about how to get out once their lockups expire.

Not just that, but private investors were sold shares that all had the same voting rights. Since just before the IPO SpaceX now has dual class shares, Elon and a few insiders have class-B shares with 10x the voting power, while everybody else (including private investors) have class-A shares with 1x the voting power

How do you think googles stocks are set up?

Re: Google Discloses $94.1B in SpaceX Stock, Marking 6% Stake

#255
post #234

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Putting the principal idea of “publicly owned” in its head.

Not at all. Ownership and voting rights are two different things. Musk can't, for example, declare a dividend that pays his shares out more than the common shares.

He absolutely can, but would expect to be sued in court. In Texas, where we don’t know what shareholder protections exist because the case law is so immature compared to Delaware.

But Texas is making a push very specifically around giving less shareholder protections.

Re: Google Discloses $94.1B in SpaceX Stock, Marking 6% Stake

#256
post #151

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Which corruption exactly? NASDAQ giving them fast entry so the biggest IPO in history is done on NASDAQ and not on NYSE who was also competing for it? Both are fighting for OpenAI and Anthropic listings as well which likely influenced their choice to get in early with SpaceX

fortunately the passive investor bagholding didn’t work, the price sliced straight through their forced buying pressure and only created more shortable shares, as people without share lending sold to passive funds that do Corruption that stands out to me would be regarding starlink, Elon got the FCC to change power emission rules to hamper competitors with better satellites, but the competitors were able to comply an…

> Elon got the FCC to change power emission rules to hamper competitors with better satellites

Didn't SpaceX petition to lessen the rules around geostationary power limits? Why would less rules be corruption? Because it disfavors legacy incumbents? Amazon also benefited from the new rules.

Re: Google Discloses $94.1B in SpaceX Stock, Marking 6% Stake

#257
post #65
post #49

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Remember this was also when SpaceX was actually about space, instead of mostly AI and Twitter. Long-term shareholders that were sold on the space, have to be thinking about how to get out once their lockups expire.

Not just that, but private investors were sold shares that all had the same voting rights. Since just before the IPO SpaceX now has dual class shares, Elon and a few insiders have class-B shares with 10x the voting power, while everybody else (including private investors) have class-A shares with 1x the voting power

Eh meh.

If you're investing in an Elon company you better believe in the man because he's always ran them however he wants. Seems fine for the voting shares to reflect that since he's been running companies for decades; you had the opportunity to know what you're getting into.

If for some reason you're invested into some total market index or the like and you don't like the companies that it invests into then maybe you shouldn't invest according to those rules.

Re: Google Discloses $94.1B in SpaceX Stock, Marking 6% Stake

#258

It seems obvious that the deal Google signed to rent compute from xAI just before the IPO was specifically to goose the IPO, giving xAI nice looking growth. They could have paid a lot more for that deal and still made it all back on the IPO. I don't believe for a second Google needs the compute. They've got their own AI inference hardware, the biggest data centers in the world, and they don't make any of the most pop…

Also the agreement can be can be terminated with only 90 days notice

Re: Google Discloses $94.1B in SpaceX Stock, Marking 6% Stake

#259

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Not at all. Ownership and voting rights are two different things. Musk can't, for example, declare a dividend that pays his shares out more than the common shares.

He absolutely can, but would expect to be sued in court. In Texas, where we don’t know what shareholder protections exist because the case law is so immature compared to Delaware. But Texas is making a push very specifically around giving less shareholder protections.

Well, okay, he can do lots of illegal stuff that's going to get punished in the courts. There's no way something like that would survive SEC scrutiny, I don't care what state you're in.

Re: Google Discloses $94.1B in SpaceX Stock, Marking 6% Stake

#260
post #110

Alphabet is the modern day berkshire hathaway. Alphabet’s investment holdings (eg, spacex, anthropic..) are worth in the same order of magnitude of BRK’s (~$300B) The track record of google’s M&A is pretty good. Except for search and cloud, many of Google’s important products were from M&A - Maps, Docs, android, doubleclick, youtube , deep mind, etc.

The companies you listed have great synergy with Google's core business. What's Google's play with SpaceX? Data centers in space?

YouTube is probably one of the few companies that could benefit from data centers in space.

Rather than co-locating media servers into ISPs you can stick them into space so they're just closer.

Space in NYC isn't cheap. Space in space is free.

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