Latest / Elon Musk Podcast / Elon Musk poised to reclaim title of world’s richest person + SpaceX MASSIVE Test - February 11, 2023

Transcript

Elon Musk poised to reclaim title of world’s richest person + SpaceX MASSIVE Test - February 11, 2023 · Elon Musk Podcast

• 0:02
  Hi and welcome back to the Elon Musk Podcast where we cover
• 0:05
  Tesla, SpaceX, Twitter, Neurolink, Boring Company, and
• 0:09
  everything else Elon Musk. So please take a second hit the
• 0:13
  subscribe button so you can get daily updates about everything
• 0:17
  Elon Musk on your podcast. Player of choice Elon Musk, the
• 0:21
  billionaire entrepreneur behind SpaceX and Tesla, is poised to
• 0:25
  reclaim the title of the world's richest person after a surge in
• 0:29
  Tesla stock price. Musk has earned $45 billion this
• 0:33
  year, and on Thursday, Tesla's shares rose for the 8th
• 0:36
  consecutive day, putting Musk within touching distance of
• 0:40
  overtaking French luxury magnate Bernard Arnault.
• 0:44
  In December, Arnault surpassed Musk as the world's richest
• 0:47
  person when investors lost confidence in Tesla and grew
• 0:51
  concerned about Musk's focus on Twitter, which he acquired for
• 0:54
  $44 billion in October of last year.
• 0:57
  However, Tesla shares have rallied in recent weeks and have
• 1:00
  almost doubled since the beginning of the year, reversing
• 1:03
  most of the 65% drop they suffered in 2022.
• 1:08
  And on Thursday, the shares climbed by almost 5%, putting
• 1:11
  Musk's net worth at over $185 billion compared to our nose
• 1:17
  $187 billion. And the rise in Tesla share
• 1:21
  price comes after the company unveiled better than expected
• 1:25
  quarterly results last month, and other high growth stocks
• 1:28
  have also jumped due to the prospect of lower than expected
• 1:32
  interest rates. Despite selling off billions of
• 1:35
  dollars to Finance's acquisition of Twitter, Musk remains Tesla's
• 1:39
  largest shareholder and is pledged not to sell his shares
• 1:42
  for approximately 2 more years. In addition to Tesla's recent
• 1:47
  success, Musk also announced this week that he will soon
• 1:51
  present the third version of Tesla's master plan, which will
• 1:55
  outline the path to a fully sustainable energy future for
• 1:59
  Earth. Previous version of the planet
• 2:01
  have focused on taking electric cars, mainstream autonomous
• 2:05
  technology and home energy storage.
• 2:08
  The company has also cut vehicle prices while it plans to start
• 2:11
  manufacturing its long-awaited cyber truck by the end of the
• 2:15
  year. Tesla's rising stock price
• 2:17
  suggests that investors has shrugged off concerns about
• 2:21
  Musk's management of Twitter, which had been seen as a
• 2:24
  distraction in the social network, experiencing hours of
• 2:27
  glitches earlier this week as it attempted to introduce new
• 2:30
  features. But Musk's 13% stake in Tesla is
• 2:34
  the largest source of his wealth, which is also made-up of
• 2:36
  shares in SpaceX and Twitter. He recently claimed that Twitter
• 2:40
  was on a course to profitability after cutting thousands of staff
• 2:43
  last year, saying that he had to save Twitter from bankruptcy.
• 2:48
  Space XS Starship Super Heavy Booster 7 conducted A preflight
• 2:54
  test, a static fire test of 31 of the 33 Raptor engines
• 3:00
  recently, and the hot fire demo started about 4:14 PM and lasted
• 3:07
  for about 10 seconds. It's considered a full duration
• 3:12
  test of these engines. Musk pointed out in a tweet that
• 3:16
  the team turned off one of the engines prior to the mass
• 3:19
  ignition and 1 engine stopped itself.
• 3:22
  That only 31 engines fired out of the 33.
• 3:26
  Elon said, but still enough engines to reach orbit.
• 3:29
  So this is a success on Spacex's part because they didn't know
• 3:34
  exactly what was going to be happening during the static fire
• 3:37
  test. They knew everything down to
• 3:40
  what was going to happen to the engines, how they were going to
• 3:42
  fire it, how everything was going to work up until the
• 3:46
  engines actually static fired. But after that, they had some
• 3:49
  calculations that they ran. They figured it would work,
• 3:52
  right? But you never know with
• 3:54
  rocketry. It's literally the hardest
• 3:56
  engineering task on the face of the Earth.
• 3:59
  And the next step for this rocket, possibly orbit.
• 4:03
  SpaceX didn't disclose much information beyond what's going
• 4:07
  to be happening after the static fire of the 33 engines of the
• 4:10
  Raptor 2 engines. But we're assuming if everything
• 4:14
  went right, the next step for booster 7 is to stack the
• 4:18
  Starship on top of it. This is the physical stuff
• 4:21
  that's happening. Stack the Starship ship on top
• 4:24
  of it. That's about 160 feet tall,
• 4:27
  meaning that the whole stacked ship will be about 400 plus feet
• 4:31
  tall all together. And they're going to be doing an
• 4:34
  orbital flight test in March or April.
• 4:37
  Now, what happens between now and March or April?
• 4:40
  Well, they have a deluge system at Starbase that just came in
• 4:44
  from Florida and they're building it out as we speak,
• 4:47
  night and day, 24/7. This static fire only lasted 10
• 4:51
  minutes, but they're doing clean up for the next few hours
• 4:54
  afterwards and the next few days they're making sure that all the
• 4:57
  data points have been reached and have been sent out to the
• 5:00
  appropriate committees. Well, it may be NASA, and it is
• 5:04
  most positively the FAA, because the FAA will comb through this
• 5:08
  data and make sure that SpaceX is going to have a safe and
• 5:12
  reliable flight when they do the orbital flight test.
• 5:16
  Doesn't seem to be a problem with the FAA, doesn't seem to be
• 5:19
  a problem with any of these Raptor engines.
• 5:21
  So it seems like the FAA is probably going to push this
• 5:25
  thing straight through. Now, if you think about it, the
• 5:29
  Raptors have about 51 or 510,000 lbs of thrust each.
• 5:35
  The whole rocket, £15.8 million of thrust in the SLS rocket.
• 5:42
  The Space Launch System, NASA's most powerful rocket, only has
• 5:47
  £8.8 million of thrust on lift off.
• 5:51
  So Spacex's Starship is about double that.
• 5:55
  And there's a series of clamps and restraints that held this
• 5:59
  rocket down during the Starship's static fire test.
• 6:04
  Now, SpaceX has been known to do crazy things at Star base.
• 6:09
  They've launched Starships into a suborbital flight and landed
• 6:14
  them and also exploded them when they landed.
• 6:17
  But now they're going a little bit more cautious.
• 6:19
  We have Gwynn Shotwell, who's the COO of SpaceX, She's also
• 6:24
  the president of SpaceX, said she didn't expect the pad to
• 6:27
  have the same issues that they had with the 14 engine static
• 6:31
  fire test. And because the company
• 6:33
  performed some work on the pad and she didn't really tell
• 6:36
  exactly what that was. But she from things that we've
• 6:39
  seen, they've added new reinforced concrete to the pad.
• 6:43
  And from what we saw from the videos from numerous sources,
• 6:47
  the blast from behind the launch mount shows that there was about
• 6:51
  a, there was a huge mass of smoke that billowed out of this
• 6:56
  thing. And it didn't blow up the
• 6:58
  launchpad though. And that's a success because
• 7:02
  every static fire before this, the 11 engine static fire and
• 7:05
  the 14 engine static fire ripped that thing to shreds.
• 7:09
  And there was concrete flying for miles from that pad all
• 7:14
  around * base and all around the Boca Chica area because it's so
• 7:19
  powerful. These rockets are so powerful
• 7:22
  that it would basically an ignite the the concrete and
• 7:26
  blast it up into the air. Numerous birds.
• 7:30
  There was a huge flock of birds in front of this booster right
• 7:34
  before they blasted it in the environmental study that was
• 7:37
  happening last year. They put a precaution in there
• 7:41
  saying that we can't control wildlife.
• 7:43
  They do their own thing and this is not going to be a stopper for
• 7:47
  SpaceX in the future. And locally, some people had to
• 7:51
  leave their homes. There's an over pressure notice
• 7:53
  that's handed out to the people of Boca Chica Village.
• 7:56
  And during the static fire test, everybody has to leave the area.
• 8:02
  And if it's a long duration test, if there's if they're
• 8:04
  going to be a couple days, they'll put them up in a hotel.
• 8:08
  But this didn't happen to be a long test.
• 8:12
  It was only 10 seconds. And at about 4:00 in the
• 8:15
  afternoon, everything was good to go after a 10 second static
• 8:19
  fire test. So the FAA, everything looks
• 8:23
  good, the locals, everything looks good.
• 8:25
  Everyone's back in their homes. And now we just have to wait for
• 8:29
  the FAA to approve SpaceX for the orbital flight test of the
• 8:34
  Starship. Now, when I was talking about
• 8:36
  this earlier, the the gigantic smoke cloud that happened during
• 8:41
  this static fire test, gigantic exhaust, it dissipated pretty
• 8:48
  easily into the Texas sky. And this is the methane, you
• 8:52
  know, it's methane fuel in this. There's some carbon dioxide and
• 8:55
  water vapor, and these are the byproducts of that.
• 8:59
  And there is more water vapor than there is methane in the air
• 9:03
  from these things. So it didn't really damage
• 9:05
  anything in the environment. So this is a partial test,
• 9:09
  though this isn't a full test of all 33 Raptor engines.
• 9:13
  So we're not exactly sure what the environmental impact will be
• 9:17
  or if it will affect any of the clouds nearby or any of the
• 9:21
  wildlife nearby with any of this carbon dioxide and water, water
• 9:25
  vapor. But the area is wide open.
• 9:29
  So I believe it's going to dissipate more than it in a in a
• 9:34
  closed area. So we'll see what happens with
• 9:37
  the first environmental checks after this with the FAA.
• 9:40
  If they approve them, then SpaceX should in theory be able
• 9:45
  to watch this Starship in the next few months.
• 9:47
  And this is a massive, massive deal because this is literally
• 9:51
  the most powerful rocket that will ever be built.
• 9:55
  Blue Origin, Jeff Bezos's company, is building something
• 9:58
  similar, but not quite as big, not quite as powerful.
• 10:02
  SpaceX fully reusable. Blue Origin kind of wants to
• 10:06
  make it fully reusable. They're on that path, but they
• 10:09
  haven't shown anything it to the public that shows that they're
• 10:13
  on the right path to make it fully reusable.
• 10:17
  Now, Spacex's COO, Gwynn Shotwell said something
• 10:20
  interesting the other day at a conference.
• 10:23
  She said before they fly people, they want to have 102 hundred
• 10:28
  plus of these launches of these test launches before they put
• 10:32
  people in the Starship. So they're going to ramp up
• 10:35
  production of these starships and they can only do five of
• 10:39
  these launches per year in Texas, if I'm not mistaken.
• 10:44
  I may be a little bit off there, but I'm, I think there's 5 to 15
• 10:49
  launches per year. I'll have to get back to you on
• 10:52
  that one. So if they need to do hundreds
• 10:55
  of launches, if they can prove that they can do 5 successful
• 11:00
  launches per year, 10 successful launches per year, they may move
• 11:04
  the production and everything else over to Kennedy Space
• 11:08
  Center in Florida, where they could have a, a faster cadence,
• 11:12
  a faster turn around for these ships.
• 11:14
  And once they start catching these on the robotic gigantic
• 11:18
  meccazilla arms on the launch tower, it's going to be a turn
• 11:22
  around time of hours, not days. And they'll be able to launch
• 11:27
  numerous rockets per day if they have flight clearance, because
• 11:33
  they could possibly have the the Kennedy Space Center for the
• 11:37
  whole day. They could sanction off for a 24
• 11:41
  hour period to have Kennedy Space Center reserved for
• 11:45
  launches of the rocket. And that's usually how it goes.
• 11:48
  If there's a Falcon 9 rocket launching from Kennedy Space
• 11:50
  Center, more than likely it's the only rocket launching that
• 11:54
  day. So if they have numerous
• 11:56
  rockets, they could possibly work with NASA and work with the
• 12:00
  FAA to get numerous flights per day.
• 12:04
  And if that's going to happen, they're going to get to 100
• 12:06
  flights relatively quickly. And Artemis 3, that's going to
• 12:11
  be the first time that people go back to the moon since the
• 12:15
  Apollo program. SpaceX has to be ready.
• 12:17
  So they're going to do hundreds of flights before that.
• 12:21
  And in a few years, Artemis 2 will be going around the moon
• 12:25
  and coming back with people inside.
• 12:27
  And SpaceX by that time should have had at least 50 to 100
• 12:33
  flights and get ready. Because when people get inside
• 12:36
  of the Starship and start orbiting the Earth, it's going
• 12:39
  to be a amazing, amazing change in spaceflight.
• 12:45
  Twitter is reportedly making millions of dollars from just a
• 12:48
  small number of its most notorious users, according to a
• 12:51
  recent study by the Center for Countering Digital Hate, the
• 12:54
  CCDH. The report estimates that the
• 12:57
  social media giant could generate up to $19,000,000 in
• 13:01
  annual advertising revenue from just 10 accounts that were
• 13:05
  previously banned from the platform for promoting hateful
• 13:08
  content and dangerous conspiracies.
• 13:10
  The study analyzed the engagement of these 10 accounts,
• 13:13
  which include prominent figures associated with the extremism
• 13:17
  and conspiracy theory groups such as Andrew Tate, Andrew
• 13:22
  Anglin, Robert Malone, and The Gateway Pundit.
• 13:26
  Over a 40 day period in December and January, the CCDH analyzed
• 13:30
  nearly 10,000 tweets from these accounts and found that they
• 13:33
  received a combined total of 54,000,000 impressions on an
• 13:37
  average day. Projecting this average across a
• 13:41
  year, the accounts could potentially reach nearly 20
• 13:44
  billion impressions. To determine the ad revenue
• 13:47
  these impressions might generate for Twitter, the CCDH created 3
• 13:51
  new Twitter accounts that followed only the 10 users named
• 13:54
  in the report. The authors found that the ads
• 13:57
  appeared about once every 6.7 tweets, and using data from
• 14:01
  analysts firm Brandwatch estimated that Twitter ads cost
• 14:06
  an average of $6.46 per 1000 impressions.
• 14:10
  Based on this information, the CCDH calculated that the 10
• 14:13
  accounts could generate up to $19,000,000 in annual ad
• 14:18
  revenue. And the report highlights the
• 14:20
  value that a small number of highly polarizing accounts can
• 14:23
  have for a platform like Twitter.
• 14:25
  It also sheds light on the potential profits Twitter can
• 14:28
  make by reinstating even more controversial users, as the
• 14:32
  company has recently announced plans to allow previously banned
• 14:36
  users to appeal their suspensions.
• 14:38
  However, Twitter's advertising business has suffered majorly
• 14:42
  since the takeover by Elon Musk, with high profile advertisers
• 14:46
  pulling back from the platform and revenue down by as much as
• 14:50
  40%, according to Platformer. The report also notes several
• 14:54
  instances when ads from prominent advertisers appeared
• 14:57
  next to offensive and inflammatory posts from the
• 15:00
  users, in which raise questions about Twitter's commitment to
• 15:04
  responsible advertising. So the CCDH report confirms that
• 15:08
  Twitter is displaying ads next to toxic accounts that promote
• 15:12
  hateful views and falsehoods, despite the fact that these
• 15:15
  individuals are well known for their harmful content.
• 15:18
  And the findings highlight the need for social media companies
• 15:20
  to be more accountable and responsible when it comes to the
• 15:24
  content they promote and the ads that they display.
• 15:27
  Thank you so much for listening to the Elon Musk Podcast.
• 15:30
  Brought to you by Stage 0 Productions.
• 15:32
  My name is Will Walden, I'm the host of the show.
• 15:35
  And if you want to help support the show, please take a second
• 15:38
  and subscribe on whatever podcast platform that you're
• 15:40
  listening on right now. And also, if you want to help us
• 15:43
  even further, we have a Patreon, so you can check out the link
• 15:47
  down below and help us out in a more significant sense.
• 15:51
  Thank you so much for listening and I'll see you in the next
• 15:53
  one.