SpaceX $38B in federal contracts
SpaceX receives approximately $38 billion in federal government contracts, yet its non-Starlink space launch business still loses money.
Snapshot · This Week in Tech (Audio)
TWiT 1086: The Great Beagle Migration - Pope Leo XIV's 1st Encyclical & Ferrari's 1st EV
Explore episode
May 31, 2026
Where this was said
SpaceX IPO: Musk Votes Shares He Doesn't Own Yet
At 7:10 · chapter starts 1:35
With SpaceX's IPO S-1 still fresh off the press, Gary Rivlin leads a sharp dissection of its most audacious provisions. The standout: Elon Musk retains voting rights on performance shares that haven't been granted yet, contingent on benchmarks like putting a million people on Mars — meaning he can vote equity he doesn't own. [1] — Gary Rivlin "SpaceX's S-1 IPO filing contains a provision allowing Elon Musk to vote performance shares that haven't been granted to him yet — shares co…" 03:30 Rivlin also highlights a $26.5 trillion actionable total addressable market for AI that he flatly calls fabricated. Sam Abuelsamid adds a crucial economic reality check: strip out Starlink and SpaceX's actual rocket-launch business loses money even after receiving roughly $38 billion in federal government revenue. The group notes that SpaceX's corporate governance would be scandalous at any conventional public company, but investors will likely pile in anyway, betting on the Musk halo effect rather than the underlying financials — treating it as a meme stock before it's even listed.
SpaceX IPO: Voting Shares He Doesn't Own Yet
SpaceX's S-1 IPO filing contains a provision allowing Elon Musk to vote performance shares that haven't been granted to him yet — shares contingent on impossible benchmarks like putting a million people on Mars. Gary Rivlin calls the entire document a masterclass in Muskian make-believe, with a $26.5 trillion AI market figure he calls 'made up.'
SpaceX S-1 cites $26.5T AI market
SpaceX's IPO S-1 filing claims a $26.5 trillion actionable total addressable market for AI, a figure Gary Rivlin called entirely made up.
Blue Origin's Spectacular Launchpad Explosion
Blue Origin's New Glenn rocket exploded during a hot fire test, destroying the company's only launchpad and setting back NASA's lunar program by at least a year. The explosion was so massive that Ring camera videos captured the sky lighting up miles away — and it puts the spotlight on how Blue Origin's failure creates a dangerous SpaceX monopoly on U.S. launch capacity.
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