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"World's most valuable privately held companies". Sounds weird, no? What about Vitol (https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Vitol https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Vitol),
by dbosch 9y ago
"World's most valuable privately held companies".
Sounds weird, no?
What about Vitol (https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Vitol https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Vitol), Saudi Aramco, Koch Industries (https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Koch_Industries https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Koch_Industries) ... etc ?
- microcolonel 9y agoThis is what you call a fluff piece. HN and the broader computer technology industry is sycophantic for Elon Musk, and will ignore that all of his companies would be dead in the water if it weren't for the questionable appropriation of government funds, at least if they spent and marketed the way that they do. The products are great, but the money comes out of everyone's pockets. You're all paying for some guy's Model S.
- sien 9y agoSure. However, in space launch it's not like Lockheed Martin and Arianne didn't do the same. The difference with SpaceX is that for once a government got value for money on an Aerospace deal.
- microcolonel 9y agoI agree, I'm not against it at all. SpaceX is definitely improving the ROI of NASA, and I love it.
- nugga 9y agoThe old/print media likes to flaunt misleading headlines where Musks seems to be getting billion dollar subsidies from state and federal government but they're more like hit pieces if anything. http://www.cnbc.com/video/2015/06/01/musk-article-on-subsidies-misleading-deceptive.html http://www.cnbc.com/video/2015/06/01/musk-article-on-subsidi...
- perilunar 9y ago> You're all paying for some guy's Model S We're also paying for all the wars in the middle east that keep the oil flowing.
- oblio 9y agoWars, terrorism and many assorted niceties, both here and there.
- binarytransform 9y agoYou clearly have no clue how the rest of government contracting works.
- hariananth 9y agoYou're improperly editing... both the HN title and the NYT piece say "One of the (start your quote) World's most valuable privately held companies".
- strictnein 9y agoIt's still kind of implying that it's up there with the big boys, but it's really not. Especially since this is just based on a round of funding which creates unreasonable valuations by design.
- dbosch 9y agoYou're right. I should have edited my comment properly. I sincerely apologize. My point was to indicate that they are non startup companies, privately held, that are wayyy more valuable than SpaceX or Uber. Sorry about this.
- jpatokal 9y agoThe article says 7 venture-backed companies, but this awkward adjective was dropped from the title. Saudi Aramco is indeed much more valuable than the lot combined, but it's not exactly a startup.