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SpaceX makes money in four ways[0], billion dollar contracts with NASA for rocket design and manufacture, cargo and supply services for NASA, contracts with the US Department of Defense, and the US Air Force Space and Missile Systems Center. Most of its income is taxpayer money. And StarLink, though we might wonder if StarLink would be around without the taxpayer, and what SpaceX valuation would be if it was just Starlink.

Fidelity estimates X (Twitter) is worth 80% less than when Musk bought it[1].

The Boring Company has raised ~$795M of investment valuing it at $5.6Bn and in 7 years it has delivered a 2.4 mile tunnel under Las Vegas which cost $48M and $4.5M/year. It was going to use self driving Teslas but actually they pay drivers to drive the cars, to move 1-3 people at ~40 miles per hour, and The Boring Company subsidises it by another couple of million per year. This money could have bought a lot of buses which would move more people more cheaply. Bus Rapid Transit, but worse.

[0] https://seekingalpha.com/article/4487247-how-spacex-makes-mo...

[1] https://edition.cnn.com/2024/10/02/business/elon-musk-twitte...

[2] https://fortune.com/2023/11/20/elon-musk-boring-company-las-...

[3] https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Boring_Company#Inactive_an...




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