4 ms·

Great, another pipe-dream to sell to his investor fan club.

toomuchtodo 11y ago
As opposed to current pipe dreams: * gigafactory under construction * freemont factory producing ~50K vehicles/year * spacex successfully, repeatedly delivering payloads to orbit (and successfully demonstrating their crew escape vehicle recently)
- savage_platypus 11y ago
  Just because something is being built with other people's money does not make something a success. None of the companies Elon has been involved with have ever actually generated a profit -- they have largely just taken advantage of speculative investors and their willingness to buy into his ideas.
  - aarongray 11y ago
    I think PayPal was kinda profitable and stuff.
  - silntbob 11y ago
    Last time I checked SpaceX was profitable... Just saying...
  - BinaryIdiot 11y ago
    > None of the companies Elon has been involved with have ever actually generated a profit Bullshit; there are companies he's been involved in that have turned a profit. Zip2 made a good profit and a great exit - http://news.cnet.com/Compaq+buys+Zip2/2100-1023_3-221675.html http://news.cnet.com/Compaq+buys+Zip2/2100-1023_3-221675.htm... X.com / Paypal generates first profits in 2002 - http://www.ecommercebytes.com/cab/abn/y02/m04/i18/s02 http://www.ecommercebytes.com/cab/abn/y02/m04/i18/s02 SpaceX is profitable - http://www.bloomberg.com/news/articles/2015-03-04/spacex-profitable-as-musk-pulls-in-nasa-contracts-google-cash http://www.bloomberg.com/news/articles/2015-03-04/spacex-pro... Don't forget SolarCity is turning itself around and will likely turn a profit in a few years (http://www.fool.com/investing/general/2015/02/17/what-to-look-for-when-solarcity-reports-earnings.aspx http://www.fool.com/investing/general/2015/02/17/what-to-loo...). The same for Tesla which is expecting to turn a profit in 2020 (http://www.marketwatch.com/story/tesla-wont-turn-profitable-until-2020-musk-2015-01-14 http://www.marketwatch.com/story/tesla-wont-turn-profitable-...).
    - Scoundreller 11y ago
      zip2 would be quite viable even today without much "re-invention".
  - deleted 11y ago
    [deleted]
  - ridgeguy 11y ago
    "Just because something is being built with other people's money does not make something a success." It doesn't preclude it, either. Pretty much every business larger than one or two person operations uses Other People's Money to grow to profitability. See Facebook, etc. Use of OPM doesn't guarantee success, but for industries that have large capital entry and operating costs, it's necessary. Musk is working in fields that manipulate matter, not just bits - so it will take longer to see if Tesla and SpaceX reach profitability ("success") than it would for a generic software startup. Be patient. You may not know whether a company or a child is successful for a couple of decades, at least.
  - dylanjermiah 11y ago
    SpaceX profitable for ~7+ years now. Tesla could be, but every cent is being pumped into growth, research and dev.

As opposed to current pipe dreams: * gigafactory under construction * freemont factory producing ~50K vehicles/year * spacex successfully, repeatedly delivering payloads to orbit (and successfully demonstrating their crew escape vehicle recently)

savage_platypus 11y ago
Just because something is being built with other people's money does not make something a success. None of the companies Elon has been involved with have ever actually generated a profit -- they have largely just taken advantage of speculative investors and their willingness to buy into his ideas.
- aarongray 11y ago
  I think PayPal was kinda profitable and stuff.
- silntbob 11y ago
  Last time I checked SpaceX was profitable... Just saying...
- BinaryIdiot 11y ago
  > None of the companies Elon has been involved with have ever actually generated a profit Bullshit; there are companies he's been involved in that have turned a profit. Zip2 made a good profit and a great exit - http://news.cnet.com/Compaq+buys+Zip2/2100-1023_3-221675.html http://news.cnet.com/Compaq+buys+Zip2/2100-1023_3-221675.htm... X.com / Paypal generates first profits in 2002 - http://www.ecommercebytes.com/cab/abn/y02/m04/i18/s02 http://www.ecommercebytes.com/cab/abn/y02/m04/i18/s02 SpaceX is profitable - http://www.bloomberg.com/news/articles/2015-03-04/spacex-profitable-as-musk-pulls-in-nasa-contracts-google-cash http://www.bloomberg.com/news/articles/2015-03-04/spacex-pro... Don't forget SolarCity is turning itself around and will likely turn a profit in a few years (http://www.fool.com/investing/general/2015/02/17/what-to-look-for-when-solarcity-reports-earnings.aspx http://www.fool.com/investing/general/2015/02/17/what-to-loo...). The same for Tesla which is expecting to turn a profit in 2020 (http://www.marketwatch.com/story/tesla-wont-turn-profitable-until-2020-musk-2015-01-14 http://www.marketwatch.com/story/tesla-wont-turn-profitable-...).
  - Scoundreller 11y ago
    zip2 would be quite viable even today without much "re-invention".
- deleted 11y ago
  [deleted]
- ridgeguy 11y ago
  "Just because something is being built with other people's money does not make something a success." It doesn't preclude it, either. Pretty much every business larger than one or two person operations uses Other People's Money to grow to profitability. See Facebook, etc. Use of OPM doesn't guarantee success, but for industries that have large capital entry and operating costs, it's necessary. Musk is working in fields that manipulate matter, not just bits - so it will take longer to see if Tesla and SpaceX reach profitability ("success") than it would for a generic software startup. Be patient. You may not know whether a company or a child is successful for a couple of decades, at least.
- dylanjermiah 11y ago
  SpaceX profitable for ~7+ years now. Tesla could be, but every cent is being pumped into growth, research and dev.