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[return to "xAI joins SpaceX"]
1. Button+C4[view] [source] 2026-02-02 22:07:23
>>g-mork+(OP)
SpaceX is too big to fail. It's important for national security.

I wonder if Elon wants to tangle all his businesses into SpaceX so they are all kept afloat by SpaceX's importance.

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2. protas+J7[view] [source] 2026-02-02 22:18:52
>>Button+C4
Elon can't legally financially entangle Tesla to SpaceX due to Tesla being a public company, so his hands are tied.

Tesla is clearly benefiting from protectionism and its sales would collapse if BYD were allowed to openly sell in the US. Most people just want affordable, maintainable and reliable cars.

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3. beambo+Ud[view] [source] 2026-02-02 22:39:58
>>protas+J7
> Elon can't legally financially entangle Tesla to SpaceX

Bill Ackman has proposed taking SpaceX public by merging it with his Pershing Square SPARC Holdings, distributing 0.5 Special Purpose Acquisition Rights (SPARs) to Tesla shareholders for each share held. Each SPAR would be exercisable for two shares of SpaceX, aimed at enabling a 100% common stock capitalization without traditional underwriting fees or dilutive warrants.

With SpaceX IPO set to be one of the biggest of all time, this could have a pretty gnarly financial engineering impact on both companies -- especially if the short interest (direct or through derivatives) remains large.

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4. jedber+Jg[view] [source] 2026-02-02 22:50:44
>>beambo+Ud
Why would SpaceX go public? They already have a robust enough private market to give liquidity to all of their employees and shareholders who want it. They can get more private investment.

Going public would add a lot of hassle for little to no gain (and probably a negative of having to reveal their finances).

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5. spikel+Sl[view] [source] 2026-02-02 23:09:34
>>jedber+Jg
It has been widely reported for weeks that SpaceX is planning to go public in a few months. The reason is they have big plans to run a vast network of AI servers in orbit and will need to raise a massive amount of funding. xAI merger fits with that plan. I'd assume SpaceX still plans to go public.

Was ignored on HN but here's an article explaining:

https://arstechnica.com/space/2025/12/after-years-of-resisti...

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6. kortex+Wo[view] [source] 2026-02-02 23:24:16
>>spikel+Sl
lol WHAT?

AI datacenters are bottlenecked by power, bandwidth, cooling, and maintenance. Ok sure maybe the Sun provides ample power, but if you are in LEO, you still have to deal with Earth's shadow, which means batteries, which means weight. Bandwidth you have via starlink, fine. But cooling in space is not trivial. And maintenance is out, unless they are also planning some kooky docking astromech satellite repair robot ecosystem.

Maybe the Olney's lesions are starting to take their toll.

Weirdest freaking timeline.

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7. crote+Zu[view] [source] 2026-02-02 23:52:17
>>kortex+Wo
The shadow thing can be solved by using a sun-synchronous orbit. See for example the TRACE solar observation satellite, which used a dawn/dusk orbit to maintain a constant view of the sun.

Cooling, on the other hand? No way in hell.

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8. SJC_Ha+5I[view] [source] 2026-02-03 01:11:11
>>crote+Zu
> Cooling, on the other hand? No way in hell.

Space is actually really cold when the sun is blocked

So, solar panels on side, GPUs on the other, maybe with a big ass radiator ...

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9. kristj+EY[view] [source] 2026-02-03 03:08:11
>>SJC_Ha+5I
Space is empty, not cold.
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