tech
Elon Musk repeatedly one-upped his execs on SpaceX's first earnings call
Musk kept inflating the already-big promises being made by SpaceX CFO Bret Johnsen and Gwynne Shotwell on the company's first call.
TL;DR
- Elon Musk made significantly more ambitious claims than his executives on SpaceX's first earnings call.
- Musk predicted Starlink could deliver a majority of the world's internet within 10 years, while COO Gwynne Shotwell suggested it would represent a "significant portion" of global internet traffic.
- SpaceX CFO Bret Johnsen projected reaching $100 billion in annualized revenue run rate by year-end, but Musk stated this was a minimum and could be higher.
- Musk accelerated SpaceX's internal projection for reaching $1 trillion in revenue from 2031 to 2030, with a chance of achieving it in 2029.
- Musk claimed the heat shield problem for Starship was solved, despite Shotwell focusing on NASA-mandated milestones for lunar missions.
- The article draws parallels to Musk's past unfulfilled promises, such as sending humans to Mars, and notes that SpaceX's public status and Texas incorporation might affect investor recourse.
- SpaceX is leveraging its compute-leasing business to generate significant revenue, with $6.7 billion contracted in cloud services revenue over six months.