Why does SPACEX do the things it does?

fatpiggy

Heisman
Aug 18, 2002
23,452
21,843
113
Sorry you were right i meant revenue not cash flow.

Revenue this year expected to be $13 - $15 Billion from Starlink. Should hit 10 million subscribers in the spring.

If the whole SpaceX, and not just Starlink, were to IPO today I would not be shocked if it doubled. The Elon premium is real. It would also probably cause Tesla to sell off some imo.

I think they will spin Starlink off mid to late next year.
Almost double. Lucky guess I suppose.

Multiple sources. Waiting for Elon to confirm or deny



 
Last edited:
  • Haha
Reactions: Rastafarian

firegiver

Heisman
Sep 10, 2007
73,235
19,215
113
They do have full self driving cars, you just don't know it yet. I'm done arguing that point, I use it everyday. Just because you don't acknowledge it doesn't mean it's not there.

Hate Musk all you want. China is already doing it as posted above. Bezos is in on it. Huang is in on it. Nadella is in on it. Page and Brin are in on it. So forgive me if I dismiss your findings. I'm going with the smart people.
Data centers, in space, only make sense if its serving a functionality that cannot be done here on earth.

The costs, again, make NO SENSE. Saving on energy? Pfft how much do you think it costs to put that equipment into orbit?
 
  • Like
Reactions: Rastafarian

fatpiggy

Heisman
Aug 18, 2002
23,452
21,843
113
Data centers, in space, only make sense if its serving a functionality that cannot be done here on earth.

The costs, again, make NO SENSE. Saving on energy? Pfft how much do you think it costs to put that equipment into orbit?
I assure you they have done the cost analysis. It’s not like Fatpiggy is coming up with the numbers.
 

firegiver

Heisman
Sep 10, 2007
73,235
19,215
113
I assure you they have done the cost analysis. It’s not like Fatpiggy is coming up with the numbers.
and what are the numbers on the cybertruck?
Where are we with SpacX manned mission to the moon?
How about we weigh those numbers against what is being said. At no point have I heard an argument that actually makes any sense.
 

fatpiggy

Heisman
Aug 18, 2002
23,452
21,843
113
and what are the numbers on the cybertruck?
Where are we with SpacX manned mission to the moon?
How about we weigh those numbers against what is being said. At no point have I heard an argument that actually makes any sense.
The cybertruck doesn’t sell great, but that is irrelevant to this conversation.

SpaceX manned mission to the moon? I won’t pretend to know. Maybe it’s behind schedule, but at the same time they are ahead of almost everyon else. Maybe one other company is competitive with them. But competition is good.

Those ideas are irrelevant to space data centers. You are arguing against me, I get it because I’m presenting the argument, but im not the one making g the calculations. I could easily say “what about Starlink ?” Starlink is easily the most important because it pays the bills and it is a smashing success. Don’t leave those numbers out of your weighting. Cybertruck would have a very small weighting compared to Starlink. You don’t have to get a home run on everything, even the very best batters bat around .350

I’m just relaying the message that very bright people, much brighter than us combined, say that this is probably going to be the solution.

On the surface, to my simple mind, it makes sense to me.

We don’t have enough energy on earth for the data centers. Their calculations say it’s going to be better to do it in space. I won’t pretend to know if they are right or wrong (Musk,Bezos, Huang, Natella et al) but I would expect they have done the calculations to know that it is viable. I agree nothing is guaranteed and there is of course risk to everything.

edit: I suppose nuclear may be better but it’s 1) far riskier 2) time consuming and 3) probably more expensive
 
Last edited:

fatpiggy

Heisman
Aug 18, 2002
23,452
21,843
113
Side note, it’s insane how good it is. I can’t put it into words. 5 o’clock traffic? No problem.

 

fatpiggy

Heisman
Aug 18, 2002
23,452
21,843
113
Not good news for TSLA. TSLA trades around 200X FWD earnings and a lot of that is the Elon premium. Now that there is another vehicle to carry the Elon premium, perhaps a more exciting vehicle, it will be hard for TSLA to maintain the 200X fwd earnings.

For this reason i have exited almost all of my TSLA position.
 

fatpiggy

Heisman
Aug 18, 2002
23,452
21,843
113
No one has said it couldn’t work. It’s just stupid to even try. Even dumber than putting data centers in the ocean.
Fools are determined to be fools. Trying to stope them from being so is futile. - Elon

It's like he is speaking directly to you and firegiver.
 

Rastafarian

All-Conference
Aug 21, 2025
926
1,006
93

Totally wrong. He needs the cash to fund X ai because he can’t raise enough money for it to compete with OpenAI Anthropic and Google.

Notice that Twitter is amplifying all his sycophants. And those sycophants receive money from engagement. It’s like your boy Tim Pool. He will say whatever Russia wants his to say as long as those checks keep coming in.
 

fatpiggy

Heisman
Aug 18, 2002
23,452
21,843
113
Totally wrong. He needs the cash to fund X ai because he can’t raise enough money for it to compete with OpenAI Anthropic and Google.

Notice that Twitter is amplifying all his sycophants. And those sycophants receive money from engagement. It’s like your boy Tim Pool. He will say whatever Russia wants his to say as long as those checks keep coming in.
Dude, you were just amplifying the guy who was dead wrong yesterday. You were dead wrong on the Tim Pool thing.
 

firegiver

Heisman
Sep 10, 2007
73,235
19,215
113
Fools are determined to be fools. Trying to stope them from being so is futile. - Elon

It's like he is speaking directly to you and firegiver.
Well fool me once right?

"We will have FSD cars by the end of 2017. Im confident" Elon Musk
"We are building the new roadster NOW" Elon Musk 2017
"The cybertruck can withstand a bomb"
"Tesla Semi trucks will be more cost effective than rail" Elon Musk
"We will build a hyperloop from vegas to LA" **** became a fuckign tunnel people drive you through in cars... and its a 1 mile tunnel. https://www.popsci.com/technology/hyperloop-test/


and on... and on... and on...

https://www.maxim.com/rides/elon-mu...ctually-fly-and-hit-60-mph-in-under-1-second/
Now he says it will fly....
jesus guys... this dude's full of ****.
 
  • Like
Reactions: yoshi121374

fatpiggy

Heisman
Aug 18, 2002
23,452
21,843
113
FSD - He was wrong on the timeline. Same with roadster. But it is done now so i will give him leeway.

But you are almost as bad.

He never said cybertruck can withstand a bomb
He never said that about trucks and rail
and he never said he was going to build a hyperloop.

If I am wrong, please provide the direct quote where he said it so i can be corrected.

His timelines are off, and i forgive him for that. I am willing to look past his timelines not always being dead on. The feats he has accomplished are worth giving him leeway on the timeline.

So he may be a little late on space data centers but you an bet your bottom dollar they will happen.
 

Rastafarian

All-Conference
Aug 21, 2025
926
1,006
93
  • Like
Reactions: yoshi121374

fatpiggy

Heisman
Aug 18, 2002
23,452
21,843
113
This guy's only a PhD in machine learning. Where as fatpiggy quote tweets fanboys.
The fanboys like Bezos, Huang, Pinchar, Musk. Those fanboys have never done anything and probably messed up their calculations 😂😂😂😂

Bezos has never built anything so he probably has no idea.



 

firegiver

Heisman
Sep 10, 2007
73,235
19,215
113
NVDA is a **** company. They probably messed up their calculations


It's clear to me, that when MOST of your money is tied up in stocks, that it because VERY lucrative to hype up pie in the sky goals and pretend that its totally going to happen. Thus the stocks go up, thus you can get bigger loans for doing more things.
 

fatpiggy

Heisman
Aug 18, 2002
23,452
21,843
113

Watched the whole thing and he has some interesting points. But he does not say it won't work, he just points out the engineering challenges. And at the end (16:05) he says "I have a long history of consistently choosing the wrong tech companies to work for and missing the big boat, so you probably shouldn't trust everything i say"

He does a good job of illustrating the problems and it is a good video. Thanks for sharing.
 

fatpiggy

Heisman
Aug 18, 2002
23,452
21,843
113
Another analysis that comes to the conclusion:

"Here's the headline result: it's not obviously stupid, and it's not a sure thing. It's actually more reasonable than my intuition thought! If you run the numbers honestly, the physics doesn't immediately kill it, but the economics are savage. It only gets within striking distance under aggressive assumptions, and the list of organizations positioned to even try that is basically one.

That "basically one" point matters. This isn't about talent. It's about integration. If you have to buy launch, buy buses, buy power hardware, buy deployment, and pay margin at every interface, you never get there. The margin stack and the mass tax eat you alive. Vertical integration isn't a nice-to-have. It's the whole ballgame."


This analysis concludes you must be vertically integrated to make it make sense. SpaceX and Blue Origin come to mind.


Economics of Orbital vs Terrestrial Data Centers
 

firegiver

Heisman
Sep 10, 2007
73,235
19,215
113
Watched the whole thing and he has some interesting points. But he does not say it won't work, he just points out the engineering challenges. And at the end (16:05) he says "I have a long history of consistently choosing the wrong tech companies to work for and missing the big boat, so you probably shouldn't trust everything i say"

He does a good job of illustrating the problems and it is a good video. Thanks for sharing.
He says clearly in the opening he thinks they will fail.
Lets be honest, this isn't door dash, this is space computers. And for all the reasons he stated, its extermely unlikely the math makes sense. Remember, this is all predicated on future technology... Spaceshp hasn't carried ANY WEIGHT into low earth orbit, let along 100 tons.

The high earth orbit required, would mean the solar panels will fail quickly due to radiation. The cooling system will require energy, it wont be passive, and the GIANT monstrocity of array of panels will need a thruster system to maintain its orbit. Theres so many reasons why this complex feat will fail.

I'd compare it to the hyperloop. On the back of the napkin after a couple pints it sounds good. But when you actually realize how DANGEROUS it is and how prone to failure it will be, people back off. Hyperloop raised a lot of money and all these same people you are saying are 'experts' and have 'done the numbers', well they lost millions on the hyperloop. Which is officially a dead project now.
 

fatpiggy

Heisman
Aug 18, 2002
23,452
21,843
113
12:18 - "Do they have enough margins to make this viable? That's a good question."

13:00 - "That's not to say this can't happen, I'm just saying they need to think about scale if they are going to beat the data centers on the Earth."

13:40 - "This is largely predicated on current AI technology, maybe something changes."

14:35 - "I don't want you to take away from this I'm super negative on the whole thing because i would really like to see a future with space industry happening."

15:55 -"Would I invest in a company like Lumen Orbit, probably not because of the time scale for their work is too long"

He may say in the open he things they will fail (Lumen Orbit) but he sure has a lot of qualifiers as I have pointed out above. He is also only talking about Lumen Orbit and not a SpaceX or Blue Origin who have different cost structures.

As far as failure goes you point out a couple of projects that have failed (so far). Hyperloop failed but so did a Gaving Newsomes high speed rail project. But what about all the projects that have not failed? Self driving cars? (Waymo since you hate Tesla) Reuseable rockets? Satellite internet? Humanoids? Failure is OK. Shoot for the stars and you may land on the moon.
 
  • Like
Reactions: Rastafarian

Rastafarian

All-Conference
Aug 21, 2025
926
1,006
93
12:18 - "Do they have enough margins to make this viable? That's a good question."

13:00 - "That's not to say this can't happen, I'm just saying they need to think about scale if they are going to beat the data centers on the Earth."

13:40 - "This is largely predicated on current AI technology, maybe something changes."

14:35 - "I don't want you to take away from this I'm super negative on the whole thing because i would really like to see a future with space industry happening."

15:55 -"Would I invest in a company like Lumen Orbit, probably not because of the time scale for their work is too long"

He may say in the open he things they will fail (Lumen Orbit) but he sure has a lot of qualifiers as I have pointed out above. He is also only talking about Lumen Orbit and not a SpaceX or Blue Origin who have different cost structures.

As far as failure goes you point out a couple of projects that have failed (so far). Hyperloop failed but so did a Gaving Newsomes high speed rail project. But what about all the projects that have not failed? Self driving cars? (Waymo since you hate Tesla) Reuseable rockets? Satellite internet? Humanoids? Failure is OK. Shoot for the stars and you may land on the moon.
Honestly would be a much better bet to invest the capital in quantum computing instead of space data centers. But musk is an engineer at heart and will always want to do what’s cool instead of what makes the most money.
 
  • Like
Reactions: yoshi121374

fatpiggy

Heisman
Aug 18, 2002
23,452
21,843
113
Honestly would be a much better bet to invest the capital in quantum computing instead of space data centers. But musk is an engineer at heart and will always want to do what’s cool instead of what makes the most money.
He is worth $650B. Your last sentence does not compute.