Houston, We Have a Trillion
That’s one small step for man, one giant leap for the Manosphere. One day you’re heiling at a post-inauguration celebration, cutting aid to starving children, supporting racist far right politics, amplifying hateful and violent messages, and allowing deep fake nudes to spread on your social network, and the next day you’re the world’s first trillionaire, proving, yet again, that it’s never been a better time to be bad. This is like the Make-A-Wish era for evil Bond villains. Of course, it helps if they’re talented, business savvy, market makers, politically astute, future-focused, and in the AI industry. And thus, this message just in from Ground Control to Major Elon: Rocket Man just became Deep Pocket Man. “SpaceX, Elon Musk’s rocket and artificial intelligence company, blasted through records as it began trading on the stock market on Friday, making the world’s richest man its first trillionaire and signaling a new era of ultra-affluence and widening wealth inequality. The stock opened at $150 per share, more than the price finalized in its initial public offering Thursday at $135 a share. It rose to $165 in the first 30 minutes of trading.” NYT (Gift Article): Live Updates: Elon Musk Becomes World’s First Trillionaire as SpaceX Starts Trading. “Musk was worth around $350 billion in November 2024 shortly after he helped elect Donald J. Trump as president. His net worth has more than tripled in less than two years.” At this point, the only thing that had a faster exit velocity than a SpaceX rocket is the puke that just hit my laptop screen.
+ “The streets of black-and-white houses are blocked off by electronic access gates that encircle the city like a medieval moat. I watched a man who made the mistake of wandering inside the minimart get escorted out by armed guards in tactical gear. In this town, almost every communal space is private property. A company controlled by the world’s richest man owns nearly all of it. He shapes its future.” Amy Gamerman in the NYT (Gift Article) on Starbase, Texas, the city that Elon Musk built on America’s ragged hem at the southern border. Elon Musk Is Colonizing Earth. “Locals describe a highly secretive environment overseen by a company-affiliated city commission that rubber-stamps Mr. Musk’s vision, a place where even kindergartners are guided by his philosophies. Starbase is the newest manifestation of Mr. Musk’s political power. It is a beta test for a rising oligarchy that seems intent on transforming America from the inside out.” (In retrospect, ET got out just in time…)
+ Reuters: SpaceX demolishes IPO records. Of course, we’ve got some big competition on the IPO horizon. And some investors have stakes in all of them. WSJ (Gift Article): See the VCs and Family Offices at the Core of the Mega IPO Wave.
+ With those kinds of returns, these folks might even be able to afford the new VIP membership package at Erewhon.
