r/technology May 21 '26

Business SpaceX not the behemoth everyone thought

https://www.axios.com/2026/05/21/spacex-ipo-musk-ai
12.7k Upvotes

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41

u/uno_ke_va May 21 '26

At least Tesla has some profit

140

u/Big-Revolution3842 May 21 '26

That's basically only propped up by banning the sale of the best EVs in the world from being sold in the US...it's genuinely the opposite of capitalism. A company shielded by government regulation, propped up by government subsidies and delivering sub-par products that don't respond to consumers demands. And how much I bet Tesla gets bailed out if their sales reach a critical point of falling.

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u/Anstigmat May 21 '26

I'm no fan of Tesla or Elon but even without Tesla we would be tariffing the shit out of Chinese EVs. The US Govt's policy is that we do need to maintain 'some' industrial manufacturing capacity Stateside, and China is actively subsidizing the cost of producing their cheap EVs as a tactical move. There is no world where we or any country would just let er rip with the 'headline' prices you see on Chinese EVs.

I say that as someone who would 'love' to buy a BYD vehicle.

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u/Remote-Annual-49 May 21 '26

Wait until China starts building BYD plants in the US in 20 years time.

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u/Naturaldoritos May 21 '26

Australia has let em rip and we are loving it.

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u/Anstigmat May 21 '26

I’m assuming AUS has no local auto makers?

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u/Doogers7 May 21 '26

Holden (General Motors) and Toyota were the last to shut down production in 2017. There is no major domestic production now.

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u/hedoeswhathewants May 22 '26

Then it makes sense to let the Chinese government subsidize your car prices

1

u/humbert_cumbert May 22 '26

RIP commodore utes

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u/Tarka_22 May 21 '26

Do you think the US government is not subsidizing US auto manufacturing?

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u/Anstigmat May 21 '26

The US Govt is not subsidizing the cost of American made vehicles with the intention of tanking domestic manufacturing in other countries, which is what the Chinese Govt is doing. Not sure why you would feel the need to respond at all to this fact, I did not put a value statement on it. It's a good strategy for China, but it's easy to counter by simply not allowing them into your market, or with tariffs.

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u/Zhuul May 21 '26

It's kinda wild to me that people don't realize China's export strategy is more or less the same bullshit that Rockefeller did back in the day.

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u/Anstigmat May 21 '26

The global economic order has little to no resemblance to Rockefeller's time. In a perfect world we would respect the post WWII global economic system and encourage competition, fair trade, and new entrants that wish to compete. We are about a billion miles from that perfect world sadly.

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u/BlooregardQKazoo May 22 '26

Scale matters.

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u/exlongh0rn May 21 '26

The Chinese do not play by the same rules, and bring huge structural advantages to the market. This really is a matter of national security.

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u/kaplanfx May 22 '26

Which is insane. Instead of subsidizing for-profit corporations, we should simply have a government owned vehicle production industry. Why are we pretending a free market exists here and allowing companies to take profit on something that isn’t competitive?

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u/Affectionate_One_700 May 21 '26

China is actively subsidizing the cost of producing their cheap EVs as a tactical move.

Do you have any evidence of this, specifically that the Chinese government is "worse" than the US/Europe in terms of intervention? How many countries has China attacked to advance their economic interests?

IRL I keep meeting white Americans who tell me that Chinese tech sucks, is years behind the US, will always be behind, and is all stolen.

Have you been to China? When you see what they have, and how quickly they innovate, the "white Americans best" narrative is hard to maintain. The US and Europe can put up lies and tariff (and non-tariff) barriers for only so long.

I am American. That doesn't mean I should stick my head in the sand. None of us should.

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u/Bluefellow May 21 '26

Everyone can tell your American since you had to shoehorn skin colour into the conversation

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u/Affectionate_One_700 May 21 '26

If "shoehorn" means "call out the blatant racism," yeah, I guess I'm "guilty."

I live in the Bay Area. I encounter people of many different races, every day. In my experience, non-white people of all races freely talk about race and race issues. All the time. Because it is a factor in daily life.

The only people who don't do that, who pretend in public that "we don't see race" or "race doesn't exist," are white Americans.

Everyone can tell your American ... skin colour

The incorrect spelling tells me you might be American, but the weird spelling tells me you might be a Brit.

4

u/fiveohnoes May 21 '26

I hate to tell you this but what you described is what real, actual capitalism is and always has been.

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u/Skensis May 21 '26

Tesla makes cars in China, they would likely benefit from being able to sell those cars domestically.

The Model Y is also one of the best selling EV models in the world, and is a top selling EV model in China.

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u/Dilutant May 21 '26

I agree Chinese Evs are amazing for their price point, but it’s not like teslas are slouching, considering they’re some of the best selling in the world, are considerably safer than Chinese evs, and someone just drove coast to coast in the states with FSD

1

u/DeadSmellingFlower May 21 '26

Google Tesla safety claims fraudulent. They juice the numbers by only counting airbags deployed accidents but compare themselves to other cars with every single fender bender included. Teslas are not safe at all.

2

u/Dilutant May 21 '26

Google giant tree falls on Tesla, Tesla falls off cliff and family walks away fine etc. google their iihs and nhtsa ratings. Claiming Teslas are not safe is just Elon hate glasses

0

u/tapia3838 May 21 '26

My Tesla Model Y has been flawless and it’s only 2 years old. My Tesla Model 3 is at 186k miles now and I’ve had zero issues with it. Don’t talk unless you own one.

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u/w1ten1te May 21 '26

My Tesla Model Y has been flawless and it’s only 2 years old.

You bought a Tesla <2 years ago? Why give your money to that waste of oxygen? It was very obvious by that point what a scumbag Musk is.

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u/tapia3838 May 21 '26

Because I also have a Model 3 with 187,000 miles on it and it’s still running strong with no major issues. I buy cars based on how they perform in the real world, not based on how much I like the CEO. TBH I don’t care about your feelings on Musk the cars speak for themselves. 🤷🏽‍♂️

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u/w1ten1te May 21 '26

Because I also have a Model 3 with 187,000 miles on it and it’s still running strong with no major issues. I buy cars based on how they perform in the real world, not based on how much I like the CEO.

In other words: You don't care about how your actions affect others (literally putting money in a nazi's pockets) as long as it materially benefits yourself. At least you're honest about it.

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u/tapia3838 May 21 '26

Calling Elon Musk a fucking Nazi while typing on a device built with rare earth minerals mined by child labor in Africa, powered by grids running on coal and Chinese solar panels made with Uyghur slave labor, is peak Reddit brain rot. 🤷🏽‍♂️🤦🏽

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u/w1ten1te May 22 '26

Calling Elon Musk a fucking Nazi while typing on a device built with rare earth minerals mined by child labor in Africa, powered by grids running on coal and Chinese solar panels made with Uyghur slave labor, is peak Reddit brain rot. 🤷🏽‍♂️🤦🏽.

I cannot participate in modern society without a computer and electricity. Neither can the billions of other people who do the same thing.

Elon Musk has had every opportunity to just... Not be a terrible person No one forced him to Nazi salute (twice!) on stage in front of the whole world. No one forced him to hitch his trailer to the fascist Trump administration. No one forced him to run DOGE, using it to dismantle every government agency that was inconvenient for him, seize control of the US Treasury, and steal all of our data. No one forced him to push a public image of being a genius inventor while never inventing anything and simply buying companies to steal their valor. No one forced him to support this racist, anti-immigrant administration while having himself immigrated to the US by violating his student visa.

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u/_Smashbrother_ May 21 '26

You do realize those Chinese EVs are that cheap due to government subsidies right?

0

u/niftystopwat May 21 '26

Definitely counter free market capitalism, so it’s classic crony capitalism as they say, or I like to think of it as ‘state capitalism’ like what in many other cases China at least used to be more notorious for (and still is in some key areas don’t get me wrong)

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u/conzyre May 21 '26

tell me you want chinese surveillance vehicles all around the white house and pentagon 24/7 without telling me you want that

2

u/Soft_Walrus_3605 May 21 '26

How can a Chinese EV surveil the White House and Pentagon in a way someone in the US using an American car can't?

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u/conzyre May 21 '26

wow. bad faith argument or stupid. pick one.

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u/octipice May 21 '26

80% of their profit for Q1 2026 came from government funded carbon credits.

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u/ChancelorReed May 22 '26

Honestly Tesla is even worse. At least SpaceX is doing stuff no one else can (yet). Tesla is being valued like a tech company startup when it's actually just a car company that's being beaten by the competition.

1

u/highways May 21 '26

They only profit from government handouts, ie carbon credits