[–] JohnPaulJones 3 points -3 points 0 points (+0|-3) ago
Government hand outs..... http://archive.is/MG17i
Much of his personal wealth has been driven by the government heavily subsidizes his businesses (after paypal).
[–] CrustyBeaver52 0 points 1 point 1 point (+1|-0) ago
He also received a huge influx from the stock markets.
Love him or hate him, he has brought several solid developments into the market place - the cars are a big deal - but I think the rockets are the biggest so far - cutting the launch costs dramatically. This didn't happen without huge help from NASA - but it still happened through his organization. This is the type of innovation that drives American progress - it is never a smooth road to travel - repeated failure is the cost of success.
The man has vision and he acts on it - that is the American way. Is he subsidized? You better believe it... massively subsidized, but that only happens because people believe he might pull it off. Investing here is pure gambling.
[–] JohnPaulJones 0 points 1 point 1 point (+1|-0) ago
I'm not saying what this guy does isn't valuable but to answer the question where does he get his money the answer is clearly government subsidies. Both Tesla and Solar City are losing money with market evaluations that make no sense and have largely only been able to remain open by the use of government subsidy. Space X is a bit of a wild card because they aren't public yet but much of the funding there is once again public money.
Acting on vision is great but pretending that what this guys career has amounted to is the "American Way" is BS. The American way unitl recently has been creating value and bringing products to market that people want to buy above the cost of bringing those products to market. Subsidies by the way aren't investments. We aren't going to get that money back. It's a transfer of money from public taxes to a private entity. There are plenty of firms working on many of the same issues (private space travel included). It turns out that this guy just gives the government the warm fuzzies.
[–] CrustyBeaver52 ago (edited ago)
Warm fuzzies:) Don't get me wrong - he is a big time insider - plenty of top contacts in inner circles - access to top classified materials - the whole nine yards.
The big thing about Space X is the lifting costs - space shuttle was something like $10,000 per kilo to lift an object into orbit - SpaceX does the same thing for $500 right now, and that is projected to drop to $50 - $50 opens the door to private industry in outer space - not unlike how the steam engine and steel rails opened the American interior to industrialization away from rivers - it is a really big deal - much more so than people realize. What private industry is waiting for right now is a reliable, low cost, heavy lift work horse - to do the heavy lifting that is required to enable the industrialization of space. That is what Musk is building - and the rocket is reusable.
The electric car thing is a different aspect - electric is dramatically more powerful and more efficient than oil in every way except for a few key areas - the big ones being storage and transmission. Production of electricity is practically free, totally green, and virtually unlimited... on the large scale. Smaller scale is entirely a different matter. Most of our vehicles now use oil because it is stored in barrels - it is easy to transport. Electricity storage and transport requires expensive batteries and expensive transmission lines.
Now the guy wants to mass produce cars but there are not enough batteries on the entire planet to do that - so he is building a battery factory to supply the batteries. These cars can serve a duel purpose as both transportation and energy storage - recharging at stations is time consuming and impractical - so better to charge them when they are parked - at home and at work - hence the investment in solar. Produced energy is stored in the car batteries, and also the same batteries at home and at work. It makes sense - and again, once it is scaled up it cuts costs dramatically. More importantly, it addresses the storage and transportation issues for electricity, and allows the elimination of the power grid to a decentralized and more robust power system. Big energy doesn't like that - but if Musk doesn't build it, somebody else will - the tech is already here. Oil will still be used - just not for transportation - we still need it for materials.
On the surface, Musk's ideas seem pie in the sky - but if you dig down into it you do find an actual business case for each part of what he is doing - a real financial competitive advantage exists here - and that is the path to real profit - THAT is what is attracting the heavy investment - they are not giving him the money because they like the way he cuts his hair.
Another thing to note about this - I don't know the Solar city guys - but Tesla is really Mitsubishi and they know how to build excellent cars - and SpaceX is pretty much really NASA - and they know how to build rockets as well as anybody on the planet - it's not like Musk is just pulling this shit out of his ass. There is a huge collection of the world's leading engineers involved in these projects. Yes he has insider contacts, and yes he has money coming in from all over the place - but these guys are building transformational technologies here - just like the invention of Railways transformed the world - Musk's inventions have the promise to achieve the same types of forward leaps.
Think Howard Hughes, Henry Ford, The Wright Brothers - this kind of thinking is totally, completely, iconically American - as is the usual public disbelief that goes hand in hand with this kind of entrepreneurship.
[–] ditch-digger 2 points -2 points 0 points (+0|-2) ago
Don't honestly know, but I can say he is a science fiction cult leader like the world has never seen. Hyperloop, so much money donated down the drain.