4 ms·

Because he's not a business genius, he's just a guy who has made a few big bets and they've happened to work out (specifically PayPal and Tesla, and maybe Space

by enkid 4y ago

Because he's not a business genius, he's just a guy who has made a few big bets and they've happened to work out (specifically PayPal and Tesla, and maybe SpaceX eventually). After that, he thought he had a magic touch and started putting money into companies that caught his fancy because it worked for him in the past. Before twitter it was the Boring Company.

culi 4y ago
The Boring Company is absolutely a success and imo it's the best example of Elon's tried and true strategy: convince government officials of some idea only the government could buy. Boring Company is a money making machine just like SolarCity, Tesla, and SpaceX even though not a single one of those companies could be profitable without the heavy subsidization they receive. Good Jobs First track how much subsidies are given out to specific companies. Tesla's racked up $2.5 billion from states and the federal government and another half billion in loans/bailouts[^0] (for comparison, Tesla' net income in 2022 was $11.19B). SpaceX is all government contracts where NASA basically pays a private company to do the things they could and want to do but can't because of political impediments. We're still the ones funding it, we're just paying more and letting a private company take credit. Starlink's subsidized by the FCC, SolarCity's subsidized by a number of states as well as the federal gov'ts subsidization through tax credits for 30% of the cost of solar panels, etc. And people aren't dumb. He's been sued in a number of countries for subsidy fraud already. Remember when Tesla pretended to have rapid battery exchange ready to go and announced it was live? That was purely to take advantage of a poorly written subsidy package in CA that didn't actually stipulate they had to give people access to it. Tesla won that lawsuit too iirc. Elon Musk became the richest man on earth without ever running a profitable company. In fact, I'd say it's precisely by NOT running profitable companies that he got to where he is today [^0]: https://subsidytracker.goodjobsfirst.org/parent/tesla-inc https://subsidytracker.goodjobsfirst.org/parent/tesla-inc edit: grammar & typos
- earth2mars 4y ago
  Wow. Thank you for explaining so thoughtfully. Would you get banned if you say this in Twitter. Why no journalist asks these questions and make people realize it's their money in someone else's pocket.
  - kasey_junk 4y ago
    It’s pretty widely reported how much Elon makes in subsidies. https://www.businessinsider.com/elon-musk-list-government-subsidies-tesla-billions-spacex-solarcity-2021-12?amp https://www.businessinsider.com/elon-musk-list-government-su... https://www.cnn.com/2021/12/07/tech/elon-musk-wsj-government/index.html https://www.cnn.com/2021/12/07/tech/elon-musk-wsj-government... https://www.latimes.com/business/la-fi-hy-musk-subsidies-20150531-story.html https://www.latimes.com/business/la-fi-hy-musk-subsidies-201... https://www.mic.com/impact/elon-musk-build-back-better-tesla-subsidies https://www.mic.com/impact/elon-musk-build-back-better-tesla...
- lambic2 4y ago
  The Boring Company is a money making machine?? Any evidence of this? It looks like a disastrous failure to me: https://www.carscoops.com/2022/11/elon-musks-the-boring-company-leaves-cross-country-trail-of-broken-promises-undug-tunnels/ https://www.carscoops.com/2022/11/elon-musks-the-boring-comp... https://www.curbed.com/2022/01/elon-musk-las-vegas-tunnel-ces.html https://www.curbed.com/2022/01/elon-musk-las-vegas-tunnel-ce... https://www.forbes.com/sites/johnbbrandon/2021/04/13/elon-musks-the-boring-company-is-starting-to-look-like-a-dumb-idea/?sh=1066b7647562 https://www.forbes.com/sites/johnbbrandon/2021/04/13/elon-mu... https://www.jumpstartmag.com/what-we-can-learn-from-elon-musks-disastrous-las-vegas/ https://www.jumpstartmag.com/what-we-can-learn-from-elon-mus...
  - culi 4y ago
    A disastrous failure worth $6b! That's my point. Neurolink and SolarCity are also disastrous failures. But Boring Company has gotten contract in Las Vegas, Chicago, LA, and more. And despite all these failures Miami, amongst a few other FL and CA cities, is still in talks about a contract. That's the business. Continue selling a dream. Talk to any actual engineer with relevant knowledge and they'd likely tell you it was a terribly thought out idea from the start. But those engineers aren't the ones signing gov't contracts
    - krainboltgreene 4y ago
      > A disastrous failure worth $6b! Valued at $5.9B, not worth, a massive difference.
scaramanga 4y ago
Boring company was just a scam to undermine high speed rail and prop up demand for tesla.
- deleted 4y ago
  [deleted]
- Pxtl 4y ago
  Iirc that's Hyperloop, not Boring.
  - macrael 4y ago
    it's both!

by enkid 4y ago

culi 4y ago

The Boring Company is absolutely a success and imo it's the best example of Elon's tried and true strategy: convince government officials of some idea only the government could buy. Boring Company is a money making machine just like SolarCity, Tesla, and SpaceX even though not a single one of those companies could be profitable without the heavy subsidization they receive. Good Jobs First track how much subsidies are given out to specific companies. Tesla's racked up $2.5 billion from states and the federal government and another half billion in loans/bailouts[^0] (for comparison, Tesla' net income in 2022 was $11.19B). SpaceX is all government contracts where NASA basically pays a private company to do the things they could and want to do but can't because of political impediments. We're still the ones funding it, we're just paying more and letting a private company take credit. Starlink's subsidized by the FCC, SolarCity's subsidized by a number of states as well as the federal gov'ts subsidization through tax credits for 30% of the cost of solar panels, etc. And people aren't dumb. He's been sued in a number of countries for subsidy fraud already. Remember when Tesla pretended to have rapid battery exchange ready to go and announced it was live? That was purely to take advantage of a poorly written subsidy package in CA that didn't actually stipulate they had to give people access to it. Tesla won that lawsuit too iirc. Elon Musk became the richest man on earth without ever running a profitable company. In fact, I'd say it's precisely by NOT running profitable companies that he got to where he is today [^0]: https://subsidytracker.goodjobsfirst.org/parent/tesla-inc https://subsidytracker.goodjobsfirst.org/parent/tesla-inc edit: grammar & typos

earth2mars 4y ago
Wow. Thank you for explaining so thoughtfully. Would you get banned if you say this in Twitter. Why no journalist asks these questions and make people realize it's their money in someone else's pocket.
- kasey_junk 4y ago
  It’s pretty widely reported how much Elon makes in subsidies. https://www.businessinsider.com/elon-musk-list-government-subsidies-tesla-billions-spacex-solarcity-2021-12?amp https://www.businessinsider.com/elon-musk-list-government-su... https://www.cnn.com/2021/12/07/tech/elon-musk-wsj-government/index.html https://www.cnn.com/2021/12/07/tech/elon-musk-wsj-government... https://www.latimes.com/business/la-fi-hy-musk-subsidies-20150531-story.html https://www.latimes.com/business/la-fi-hy-musk-subsidies-201... https://www.mic.com/impact/elon-musk-build-back-better-tesla-subsidies https://www.mic.com/impact/elon-musk-build-back-better-tesla...
lambic2 4y ago
The Boring Company is a money making machine?? Any evidence of this? It looks like a disastrous failure to me: https://www.carscoops.com/2022/11/elon-musks-the-boring-company-leaves-cross-country-trail-of-broken-promises-undug-tunnels/ https://www.carscoops.com/2022/11/elon-musks-the-boring-comp... https://www.curbed.com/2022/01/elon-musk-las-vegas-tunnel-ces.html https://www.curbed.com/2022/01/elon-musk-las-vegas-tunnel-ce... https://www.forbes.com/sites/johnbbrandon/2021/04/13/elon-musks-the-boring-company-is-starting-to-look-like-a-dumb-idea/?sh=1066b7647562 https://www.forbes.com/sites/johnbbrandon/2021/04/13/elon-mu... https://www.jumpstartmag.com/what-we-can-learn-from-elon-musks-disastrous-las-vegas/ https://www.jumpstartmag.com/what-we-can-learn-from-elon-mus...
- culi 4y ago
  A disastrous failure worth $6b! That's my point. Neurolink and SolarCity are also disastrous failures. But Boring Company has gotten contract in Las Vegas, Chicago, LA, and more. And despite all these failures Miami, amongst a few other FL and CA cities, is still in talks about a contract. That's the business. Continue selling a dream. Talk to any actual engineer with relevant knowledge and they'd likely tell you it was a terribly thought out idea from the start. But those engineers aren't the ones signing gov't contracts
  - krainboltgreene 4y ago
    > A disastrous failure worth $6b! Valued at $5.9B, not worth, a massive difference.

scaramanga 4y ago

Boring company was just a scam to undermine high speed rail and prop up demand for tesla.

deleted 4y ago
[deleted]
Pxtl 4y ago
Iirc that's Hyperloop, not Boring.
- macrael 4y ago
  it's both!