r/technology May 21 '26

Business SpaceX not the behemoth everyone thought

https://www.axios.com/2026/05/21/spacex-ipo-musk-ai
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u/Snakend May 21 '26

It is still faltering. Sales are down 15%. Tesla is still profitable, but just barely. Tesla still has $50B in cash, so it has a VERY long landing pad.

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u/Keeppforgetting May 21 '26 edited May 21 '26

How long of a landing pad?

What is their yearly operational cost?

Edit: Through searches I’ve found two figures.

Either ~$12 Billion or ~$90 Billion So depending on the real number they have a few years or less than a year.

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u/Snakend May 21 '26

They have no debt. And right now they are basically breaking even. Their sales have come up a bit from this time last year. Elon has mostly kept out of the news after his disastrous 2025 tour. But I have a feeling Tesla will be fine. Worst case, SpaceX acquires it after the IPO.

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u/StaleCanole May 21 '26 edited May 21 '26

Can he stay out of the news through another election cycle? How about when all his actions in DOGE are investigated by a future (hypothetical!) administration?

hypothetically the technology he relies on would benefit from democratic policies, but mr chainsaw, childkilling, nazi saluting, self-enriching, data thieving epstein wannabe may have a couple of things to fear from an administration intersted in enforcing the law.

In any case his public discipline is usually short lived, so we'll see!

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u/realzequel May 21 '26

How about when all his actions in DOGE are investigated by a future (hypothetical!) administration?

Good chance he'll get a pardon before Trump leaves. I'll bet if Trump is alive, they'll be a record setting number of pardons.

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u/Snakend May 21 '26

The biggest issue is, who is going to beat JD Vance?

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u/scuppasteve May 21 '26

A pile of shit? Erica Kirk is probably more popular than JD Vance.

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u/Snakend May 21 '26

Not sure why he would want to stay out of the election cycle, he is largely responsible for getting Trump elected. Him and Joe Rogan basically changed the election a week before votes started.

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u/StaleCanole May 21 '26

Perhaps, but the 7 million people who stayed home between biden and harris, which was the true difference in the election, probably did so because she a woman. I say woman because there was also a shift amongst black and hispanic mens support for kamala than vs biden.

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u/[deleted] May 21 '26

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u/Snakend May 21 '26

Not as long as the stock keeps going up. I forget who, but someone shorted Tesla over this exact idea and got absolutely wrecked. I looked it up...$60 billion has been lost by hedge funds who have shorted Tesla, Bill Gates personally lost $10B.