Taylor Lorenz’s Power User
Taylor Lorenz’s Power User

The Riskiest Bet in Tech History: Elon Musk's Most Dangerous Company Yet

June 24, 2026

AI Summary

5 min read

In the summer of 2024, Elon Musk was worth roughly $250 to $300 billion. By the time of this conversation, after SpaceX went public in the largest IPO in history, his net worth had nearly quadrupled, making him the world’s first trillionaire. The company that got him there is no longer just a rocket launcher. SpaceX has become a critical piece of global infrastructure—governments, militaries, financial markets, and tech giants all depend on it. And now, Elon Musk is betting trillions on a new idea: putting AI data centers in orbit.

From a Failed Russian Rocket Deal to a Trillion-Dollar Company

SpaceX was founded in 2002, born from a practical problem. After selling PayPal, Musk wanted to send plant life to Mars to test whether life could survive there. But when he tried to buy a rocket from the Russians, they laughed him out of the room. Existing launch costs were prohibitively expensive. His response, as Ryan Mack recounts, was: “I’m just going to create a company by myself. How hard could it be to make rockets?”

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What you'll learn

  • 1 (02:04) **SpaceX's Rise to Global Infrastructure** - Company transforms from mocked startup into critical launch provider with massive recent IPO
  • 2 (03:22) **Founding of SpaceX in 2002** - Elon starts company after PayPal sale to solve expensive space access
  • 3 (04:38) **Early Failures and 2008 Breakthrough** - Three failed test launches nearly bankrupt the company
  • 4 (06:13) **NASA Contracts and Dragon Capsule** - Secures government work to ferry cargo to ISS
  • 5 (07:17) **Starlink Concept Emerges** - Elon develops satellite internet around SpaceX's own cheap launches
  • 6 (08:10) **How Starlink Actually Works** - Constellation of low-Earth orbit satellites beams signal to ground terminals
  • 7 (11:11) **Starlink's Role in Musk's Public Image** - 2016-2017 period cements Musk as visionary beyond Tesla

+ Full timestamped outline available in the app

Show Notes

SpaceX just pulled off the biggest IPO in history and made Elon Musk the world's first trillionaire. But is it all built on a fantasy?

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In this week's episode of Power User, I sit down with Ryan Mac, the main New York Times reporter covering SpaceX and co-author of Character Limit: How Elon Musk Destroyed Twitter, to unpack how SpaceX went from a startup mocked by aerospace veterans to a $2+ trillion company that governments, militaries, and your retirement fund now depend on.

We trace the full story from the early rocket explosions, the near-bankruptcy before Falcon 1 reached orbit in 2008, the NASA contract that saved the company, and how reusable rockets and Starlink turned SpaceX into an unstoppable money machine with 10,000 satellites in orbit. 

We dive deep into Elon's trillion-dollar bet on "orbital data centers," his plan to move AI infrastructure into space, the acquisition of xAI, the Cursor deal, a possible Tesla–SpaceX merger, and his 82% voting control that makes him almost impossible to challenge.

Is Elon Musk now too big to fail? Has he escaped the gravity of accountability? Or will his dreams of putting data centers in space come crashing back to Earth? And if/when that happens, who's left holding the bag? Ryan and I get into all of it.

In this episode:

– How SpaceX was founded and almost died

– Why Starlink became the company's cash engine

– Reusable rockets, barge landings, and the "chopsticks" catch

– The plan to put AI data centers in space (and why experts are skeptical)

– Inside the record-breaking SpaceX IPO

– How index funds and 401ks got pulled into SpaceX

– Elon's 82% control and the road to "Elon Inc"

– Whether Musk is now the most powerful man on Earth


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