CycleBearly Thin
9.2K posts
@CycleBearly
Exploring the future. One ride at a time.
Do you know what fueled Elon Musk to found SpaceX with $100 million of his own money? In 2002, Elon Musk traveled to Russia with one goal: to buy two decommissioned ICBM (Intercontinental Ballistic Missile) and use them to launch a greenhouse to Mars The Russians were not interested in selling and The Russian rocket chief designer told him, “This is a machine of war. This is not a toy for some young kid from Silicon Valley. And this is not internet bullshit. We are talking about life and death” Then he spat on Elon’s shoe. On the flight back, Musk opened his laptop, built a cost spreadsheet from scratch, and showed his travel companions that he could build a rocket himself for less than what Russia was asking. He was not angry. He was calculating. That is the part most people miss. The insult did not motivate him emotionally. It clarified the economics. Three of SpaceX’s first four launches failed. Musk split his last $40 million between SpaceX and Tesla. He later said he thought both companies might fail. The fourth launch succeeded. Shortly after, NASA awarded SpaceX a $1.6 billion contract. Most people leave a bad meeting and complain. A few leave and start building
The next @Grok Imagine release will be epic. We are doubling down.
🚨 Tesla, SpaceX, and xAI are going vertical on chips. Terafab is the clearest signal yet that Elon Musk thinks future AI demand will break the existing supply chain. • Terrestrial AI5/AI6 for Tesla vehicles + Optimus swarms • Rad-hardened D3 for space-grade orbital compute runs hot, cuts radiator mass, game-changer for Starlink/xAI training in orbit One for Tesla vehicles and Optimus. One for space-grade AI compute. And Tesla is already hiring.
Do you know what fueled Elon Musk to found SpaceX with $100 million of his own money? In 2002, Elon Musk traveled to Russia with one goal: to buy two decommissioned ICBM (Intercontinental Ballistic Missile) and use them to launch a greenhouse to Mars The Russians were not interested in selling and The Russian rocket chief designer told him, “This is a machine of war. This is not a toy for some young kid from Silicon Valley. And this is not internet bullshit. We are talking about life and death” Then he spat on Elon’s shoe. On the flight back, Musk opened his laptop, built a cost spreadsheet from scratch, and showed his travel companions that he could build a rocket himself for less than what Russia was asking. He was not angry. He was calculating. That is the part most people miss. The insult did not motivate him emotionally. It clarified the economics. Three of SpaceX’s first four launches failed. Musk split his last $40 million between SpaceX and Tesla. He later said he thought both companies might fail. The fourth launch succeeded. Shortly after, NASA awarded SpaceX a $1.6 billion contract. Most people leave a bad meeting and complain. A few leave and start building
The next @Grok Imagine release will be epic. We are doubling down.
Tesla Beat #139: Terafab, Family Vehicle & Tesla News w/ @_sftahoe @sjvtesla @futureaza x.com/i/broadcasts/1…
