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Starlink has achieved breakeven cash flow

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Re: Starlink has achieved breakeven cash flow

#91

Post by suoduandao3 »

rootusrootus wrote: post #55
Tepix wrote: post #39

Earlier quoted context omitted.

2 examples: He's accelerated the switch to electric cars. He's made transport to space a lot cheaper, saving a lot of taxpayer's money.

He didn't create Tesla, though I'll grant him some credit for creating a combination of product and hype that made for a popular EV. Gwynne gets all the credit for SpaceX IMO. Elon gets credit for letting her succeed.

Do you think she could have done it without him?

Everyone loves the Teslas and hates the Edisons, but the world does need Edisons.

Re: Starlink has achieved breakeven cash flow

#92

Post by JumpCrisscross »

rootusrootus wrote: post #46
next_xibalba wrote: post #14

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Why does it matter to you? I am fascinated by people who have such strong opinions about Musk, particularly on the negative side. The vast majority have never met him and, if they were honest, have probably been positively impacted by him (or not at all). Personally, I hope it’s true. Starlink is good for the world.

Equally, I'm fascinated by people who white knight for him. I assume to some extent it must just be ideology. Objectively, he has a history of making bold claims about his products that either never come to fruition, or are delayed for years. Being skeptical of what he says is the rational choice. > have probably been positively impacted by him Well, every time my Model 3's wipers go batshit insane, I get a little ir…

> he has a history of making bold claims about his products that either never come to fruition

To my knowledge, he has never lied about the present financial state of his companies. That gives him credibility in a way e.g. Yaccarino bullshitting about what fraction of Twitter’s advertisers have returned does not.

Re: Starlink has achieved breakeven cash flow

#93

Post by inemesitaffia »

itslennysfault wrote: post #80
theultdev wrote: post #54

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Digital colonialism... you can't be serious? You really think giving villages or tribes with limited or no internet service is a bad thing? There were quite a few tribes given Starlink to fix their school computers so their children could get a proper education. You shoved in a lot of other nonsense in there too, but I'd thought I'd call out the most ridiculous first. > Starlink was intentionally curtailed during the…

I certainly wouldn't argue that providing internet to anyone is a bad thing, and I'd love to see as much of the world as possible have access. However, I do think it's a little comical that in doing so he is enabling the spread of the "woke mind virus" to new regions and people. So, it's conceivable that he will eventually think it was a bad thing.

No reason to believe the influence won't be in reverse though.

Re: Starlink has achieved breakeven cash flow

#94

Post by fortyseven »

LargeTomato wrote: post #70
rburhum wrote: post #28

Earlier quoted context omitted.

[flagged]

That's interesting to me that you think criticism of Starlink means I'm wrapped up in the culture war. I suspect that you may be wrapped up in the culture war.

The dudes entire pseudo-intellectual overnight tone reeks of being Musk fanboy.

Re: Starlink has achieved breakeven cash flow

#95

Post by lolinder »

nimbius wrote: post #50
next_xibalba wrote: post #14

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Why does it matter to you? I am fascinated by people who have such strong opinions about Musk, particularly on the negative side. The vast majority have never met him and, if they were honest, have probably been positively impacted by him (or not at all). Personally, I hope it’s true. Starlink is good for the world.

[flagged]

> to just remind readers Starlink was intentionally curtailed during the Ukraine war in order to provide tactical advantage to Russian forces

I'm not a fan of Musk, but this is a weird take. Starlink was provided for free to the Ukrainians, and was instrumental in maintaining communication during the early part of the invasion. That Ukraine survived that crucial month is in part due to Musk's freely offered support.

The incident being referred to here was reported on incorrectly by several news outlets, but the facts are that Starlink was never turned on in Crimea at all and the Ukrainians knew it and were presumably planning around that fact [0].

Whether you agree with his reasoning for avoiding turning it on in Crimea or not, it's hard to claim that this is "aiding the enemy". The worst framing you could cast on it is that he isn't all-in on supporting Ukraine in regaining all of their stolen territory.

[0] https://www.snopes.com/news/2023/09/14/musk-internet-access-...

Re: Starlink has achieved breakeven cash flow

#98

Post by RC_ITR »

drannex wrote: post #6

I don't trust a single thing he says at this point without evidence, I just can't possibly see it as breakeven without it, which we likely won't receive as they are a private corp.

The "trick" here is that he is likely speaking of operational cashflows (i.e. the 'correct' metric for low CAPEX companies).

The rub, of course, is that most of the cost for something like Starlink is designing, building, and launching the satellites, which shows up in investing cashflows.

Put differently, if the company was actually generating more cash than it consumes on all levels, start the IPO right now and SpaceX will be a $1tn+ company (instead of a $100bn+ company that people expect will one day generate cash and then be a $1tn+ company).

Re: Starlink has achieved breakeven cash flow

#99

Post by theultdev »

itslennysfault wrote: post #80
theultdev wrote: post #54

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Digital colonialism... you can't be serious? You really think giving villages or tribes with limited or no internet service is a bad thing? There were quite a few tribes given Starlink to fix their school computers so their children could get a proper education. You shoved in a lot of other nonsense in there too, but I'd thought I'd call out the most ridiculous first. > Starlink was intentionally curtailed during the…

I certainly wouldn't argue that providing internet to anyone is a bad thing, and I'd love to see as much of the world as possible have access. However, I do think it's a little comical that in doing so he is enabling the spread of the "woke mind virus" to new regions and people. So, it's conceivable that he will eventually think it was a bad thing.

Let's say I build airplanes.

Let's also say I think communism is a mind-virus (I do).

I can still build airplanes knowing that communist leaders use them to spread their mind-virus.

That's because in my view, the benefit of connecting non-ideological people far outweighs the negatives of what the communist leaders spout off.

(ie, you're not only spreading that mind virus, but all thoughts, including the ones that CHALLENGE the mind virus. The biggest threat to an ideology is DISSENT)

Re: Starlink has achieved breakeven cash flow

#100

Post by JumpCrisscross »

fdaslkjlkjklj wrote: post #7

For those who don't know, capital expenses are depreciated over their useful lifetime (for StarLink sats, estimated at 5 years) and aren't accounted for by cashflow. Cash flow positive tells you they're not going to go broke, at least until they need more capital expenses (5 years...), which is a milestone, sure. But profit is a better measure of a business's value as a going concern. What happens in 5 years when the…

> capital expenses are depreciated over their useful lifetime (for StarLink sats, estimated at 5 years) and aren't accounted for by cashflow

This is incorrect. Cash flow is cash flow. Net income smooths capital expenditures. Cash flow does not. What that means is if you have a ten-year capital asset, year 0 cash flow will suck while year 1 will be exaggerated. (Starlink is currently in year 0 as it’s building out its constellation. Presumably, capex will fall when it’s in maintenance.)

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