SpaceX

Mentioned 6 times across 6 podcasts this week

This Week's Pulse

SpaceX has dominated the aerospace news cycle this week, successfully launching a Falcon 9 rocket to the International Space Station on May 15, followed by the deployment of 24 Starlink satellites and preparations for the Starship Flight 12 test mission.

While the hardware keeps flying, the podcast world is fixated on the company's financial trajectory. Kara Swisher reported on Pivot that "SpaceX chip-making project in Texas will have an initial price tag of at least fifty-five billion dollars." Meanwhile, The Journal host Alex Ossola noted that "Google is in talks with SpaceX for a rocket launch deal that would help Google put its own data centers in space." Both hosts agree that an IPO is the central driver for these high-stakes corporate maneuvers.

Beyond finance, the company's technical infrastructure is gaining praise. Krishna Rao of Anthropic confirmed on Invest Like the Best a new partnership for the "Colossus facility in Memphis," highlighting the demand for compute. On the same show, Brian Chesky lauded the firm's engineering rigor, noting it is a prime example of applying first principles to design. Jean-Baptiste Kempf added on the Lex Fridman Podcast that even the software stack relies on VLC for mission monitoring, stating it "fills you with joy."

Looking ahead, Chamath Palihapitiya warned on All-In that once the company goes public, "you're going to see a litany of these lawsuits back and forth." The tension between rapid expansion and the scrutiny of public markets will likely define the next phase of the Elon Musk empire.

Where it's discussed

Midterm Map Wars, AirPods Revamp, and Trump Phone Grift

Pivot

Kara Swisherneutralfrom “Tech Giants, AI Strategy, and SpaceX Expansion

The company is launching a massive chip-making project in Texas and preparing for an IPO.

That's the thing. So I think this is really interesting. Another interesting piece of tech, and we're very tech-heavy today. SpaceX chip-making project in Texas will have an initial price tag of at least fifty-five billion dollars and could eventually grow to

Trump and Xi to Meet in China: What’s at Stake

The Journal.

Alex Ossolaneutralfrom “Trump-Xi Summit, Inflation Surges, and Corporate Moves

Negotiating with Google for a launch deal and preparing for an IPO.

[chimes ringing] In other business news, we're exclusively reporting that Google is in talks with SpaceX for a rocket launch deal that would help Google put its own data centers in space. A deal like this would have Google and SpaceX working together, even as

Krishna Rao - Anthropic's CFO on Compute, Scaling to $30B ARR, and the Returns to Frontier Intelligence - [Invest Like the Best, EP.472]

Invest Like the Best with Patrick O'Shaughnessy

Krishna Raoneutralfrom “Anthropic's Compute Strategy and Scaling

Partnered with Anthropic for the Colossus facility in Memphis.

We announced a partnership with SpaceX for their Colossus facility in Memphis. Really excited about that. It's gonna allow us to continue to expand, especially on the consumer and prosumer side. But that's just one example of us just, as you said, looking for

Trump-Xi Summit, Benioff: "Not My First SaaSpocalypse," OpenAI vs Apple, Multi-Sensory AI, El Niño

All-In with Chamath, Jason, Sacks & Friedberg

Chamath Palihapitiyaneutralfrom “Global Food Security and Corporate Governance

Used as an example of a company that should go public to avoid issues with layered SPVs.

By the way, I, and I will guarantee you this, once SpaceX goes public, once Anthropic goes public, once OpenAI goes public, you're going to see a litany of these lawsuits back and forth between the purveyors of these SPVs.

#496 – FFmpeg: The Incredible Technology Behind Video on the Internet

Lex Fridman Podcast

Jean-Baptiste Kempfpositivefrom “The Impact and Reach of FFmpeg and VLC

Uses VLC to monitor rocket launches.

... uh, tweets for people using, um, VLC in weird places. Uh, a lot of the people doing Formula 1 are i- in all the paddocks, they use VLC to play the live feed. Uh, we've seen, uh, the European Space Agency. We've seen SpaceX, like, monitoring the, the launch

Brian Chesky - AI Founder Mode - [Invest Like the Best, EP.470]

Invest Like the Best with Patrick O'Shaughnessy

Brian Cheskypositivefrom “Brian Chesky on Founder Mode and Product Design

Used as an example of a company that applies first principles to design and engineering.

And before I say, just to say who Hiroki is, everyone knows Jony Ive. Hiroki is a bit of an unsung hero. I always heard about him. He's like this legendary, mythical figure that, like, was elusive. He- there's, like, almost no photos of him online. There's, li