“This is a genuine scandal”: The SpaceX IPO and why it matters

Elon Musk’s SpaceX debuted on the Nasdaq in June with the largest IPO ever, raising a record $86 billion. But the stock has been on a wild ride ever since. Kara sits down with a panel of experts—including Ed Elson, Bethany McLean, and Tim Higgins—to assess SpaceX after its first post-IPO earnings report. They break down where SpaceX is actually making money (spoiler: it’s Starlink) and what its massive AI spending, xAI acquisition and increasingly expansive ambitions reveal about Musk’s long-term strategy. And they answer the ultimate question: why should it matter to you? Also: Come see Kara for a live taping of On at the Odoo Experience conference in San Francisco on September 2. Register for the conference on ⁠Odoo's website⁠: https://www.odoo.com/event/odoo-exper... Chapters 00:00 Bullish case for SpaceX 05:38 Biggest IPO ever 11:25 Explaining the share unlock 15:28 Breaking down SpaceX’s business 19:53 Falcon 9 rocket moon crash 22:28 Starlink as an engine of growth 27:48 Expert question from NYU Stern professor Aswath Damodaran 33:54 Pushback against data centers on Earth 38:23 Will SpaceX and Tesla merge? 41:27 Ranking Musk’s predictions 46:21 Why the Nasdaq changed its rules before SpaceX IPO 48:14 What SpaceX IPO means for Anthropic and OpenAI 54:40 Is SpaceX the next Enron? — Subscribe: https://goo.gl/FRleYo Apple Podcasts: https://podcasts.apple.com/us/podcast... Spotify: https://open.spotify.com/show/42ntT7X... FOLLOW US Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/onwithkaras... TikTok: https://www.tiktok.com/@onwithkaraswi... LinkedIn:   / kara-swisher-b7213   Threads: https://www.threads.com/@onwithkarasw... Bluesky: https://bsky.app/profile/onwithkarasw...