Nvidia Hits $4T, Yaccarino Steps Down from X & SpaceX Eyes $400 Billion Valuation

Summary

Prof G Markets Podcast Summary

Episode: Nvidia Hits $4T, Yaccarino Steps Down from X & SpaceX Eyes $400 Billion Valuation
Release Date: July 10, 2025
Host: Ed Elson
Network: Vox Media Podcast Network

---

1. Market Overview

Ed Elson opens the episode by providing a snapshot of the recent market activities. The major stock indices experienced gains despite ongoing geopolitical tensions, including Trump's tariff letters to countries like the Philippines, Iraq, and Brazil. A significant rally in Big Tech stocks propelled the NASDAQ to a record high, and Bitcoin surged past $112,000 for the first time. Treasury yields saw a decline following a successful $39 billion sale of 10-year notes, which helped alleviate bond market concerns.

---

2. Nvidia's Historic $4 Trillion Valuation

a. Stock Surge and Market Impact

Nvidia made headlines by becoming the first company in history to reach a $4 trillion market capitalization. The stock saw a notable jump of approximately 2%, briefly breaching the $4 trillion mark before settling at $3.97 trillion. This meteoric rise marks a significant increase from a $600 billion valuation just two years prior, representing over a 500% growth. Impressively, the value Nvidia has added in the past two years surpasses the current market cap of Apple.

b. Insights from Gil Luria

To delve deeper into Nvidia's achievement, Ed converses with Gil Luria, Head of Technology Research at DA Davidson.

• Timestamp [04:05] Gil Luria:
  “They deserve it. Nvidia has created a tremendous amount of value in the economy, in the stock market, to its employees, to its shareholders, to Microsoft shareholders, to OpenAI shareholders. They are, they have the largest contribution to the AI revolution...”

Luria emphasizes Nvidia's pivotal role in the AI revolution, highlighting its collaboration with OpenAI and its substantial contributions across various sectors. He acknowledges that while Nvidia's current valuation is well-justified, future growth rates might moderate to 15-20% due to market saturation and increasing competition.

c. The Story of Jensen Huang

Ed takes a moment to honor Jensen Huang, the founder and CEO of Nvidia, sharing his inspiring journey.

• Timestamp [09:13] Jensen Huang:
  “I wouldn't do it. I know. ... Building a company has been a million times harder than I expected it to be... They don't know how hard it is, and they only ask themselves, how hard can it be?”

Huang reflects on the immense challenges of building Nvidia, attributing much of his success to the resilience and work ethic he developed early in life, including his time as a busboy at Denny's. His strategic pivots—from gaming chips to general-purpose computing—positioned Nvidia at the forefront of the AI boom.

• Ed Elson's Commentary [10:04]:
  “It's hard. It's grueling, as he says. ... When you ask him, would you do it again, the answer is no. ... It's a good reminder to keep things in perspective.”

Ed underscores the reality behind entrepreneurial success, highlighting the arduous journey that often goes unnoticed behind the impressive headlines.

---

3. Leadership Change at X

a. Linda Yaccarino Steps Down

Ed reports that Linda Yaccarino has resigned as CEO of X after a tenure marked by advertiser challenges and content moderation controversies. Under her leadership, ad revenues declined by 40%, and the platform grappled with backlash over its content policies. A recent incident involving XAI's chatbot, Grok, which posted anti-Semitic content, further complicated her position.

• Ed Elson's Analysis [14:38]:
  “Linda Yaccarino is out and the big question is why? ... She's a traditional media person... Her whole career before X was selling ads for the establishment media. ... She was given a very difficult job and also she managed to handle it poorly.”

Ed critiques Yaccarino's fit for leading a platform as volatile and unconventional as X, suggesting that her traditional media background was ill-suited for the platform's environment under Elon Musk's leadership.

b. Scott's Perspective

Scott joins the conversation to offer additional insights.

• Timestamp [19:14] Scott:
  “Linda Yaccarino is out. ... Advertising plummeted right after he purchased it... She was sort of given a very difficult job and also she managed to handle it poorly...”

Scott echoes Ed's sentiments, highlighting the mismatch between Yaccarino's traditional approach and the edgy, unorthodox nature of X. He points out that her leadership style did not resonate with the platform's new direction under Musk, leading to her departure.

• Scott on X's Future [21:45]:
  “Threads should not exist. And it exists because basically Twitter screwed up so badly and created such an opportunity.”

Scott argues that X has lost its unique position in the market, especially with the emergence of competitors like Threads, which capitalized on X's missteps and the subsequent advertiser exodus.

---

4. SpaceX Eyes $400 Billion Valuation

a. Valuation Milestone

SpaceX is poised to raise funds by selling insider shares at a new valuation of $400 billion, surpassing its previous record of $350 billion. This valuation positions SpaceX as the most valuable private company globally, exceeding the worth of giants like OpenAI, Johnson & Johnson, Bank of America, and Coca-Cola. If publicly traded, SpaceX would rank as the 22nd most valuable public company worldwide.

b. Insights from Sri Mupidi

Ed discusses SpaceX's robust valuation with Sri Mupidi, a reporter from The Information.

• Timestamp [25:26] Sri Mupidi:
  “SpaceX dominates the market for rocket launches... SpaceX has been able to diversify into commercial revenue as well through its Starlink business...”

Mupidi elaborates on SpaceX's dominance in both rocket launches and satellite deployments. She notes the company's resilience despite external challenges, such as the "Elon Trump drama," attributing its stability to long-term government contracts and limited competition from other aerospace firms.

c. Ed's Analysis with Statistics

Ed reinforces SpaceX's market dominance with compelling statistics:

• Launch Dominance:
  “There were 154 orbital launch attempts in the US last year, and SpaceX accounted for 87% of those launches.”

• Satellite Constellation:
  “Of the roughly 10,000 satellites actively orbiting Earth, SpaceX owns 60%, with plans to expand to 30,000 satellites.”

These figures underscore SpaceX's near-monopoly in the space industry, making it an irresistible investment despite potential political or economic headwinds. Ed suggests that the company's unparalleled market position justifies its soaring valuation, as investors remain confident in its continued dominance.

---

5. Conclusion

Ed wraps up the episode by emphasizing the transformative impact of AI on the stock market, highlighted by Nvidia's unprecedented growth. He reflects on leadership challenges within major platforms like X and lauds SpaceX's unrivaled position in the aerospace sector. The episode underscores the dynamic nature of capital markets, where innovation and strategic leadership can propel companies to historic valuations.

---

Stay tuned for the next episode of Prof G Markets, where Ed Elson will discuss the latest developments with David Rischer, the CEO of Ly Lifetime.

Transcript

[Sponsor Voice 1]

Support for the show comes from Intuit SMB Media Labs. Reaching the right small businesses starts with the right data. Intuit SMB Media Labs is a first of its kind small business ad network with access to audiences and insights from the makers of QuickBooks. You can target key decision makers by industry size, maturity, location and more. Your gateway to B2B SMB marketing success. Learn more at medialabs.intuit.com.

[Sponsor Voice 2]

Avoiding your unfinished home projects because you're not sure where to start. Thumbtack knows homes so you don't have to don't know the difference between matte paint, finish and satin or what that clunking sound from your dryer is. With thumbtack, you don't have to be a home pro, you just have to hire one. You can hire top rated pros, see price estimates and read reviews all on the app. Download Today.

[Adobe Voice]

Support for the show comes from Mercury. It's the fintech that brings all the ways you use money into a single extraordinary product. Now you can quickly and easily send money, pay bills, create and send invoices, issue reimbursements to your team and more without having to toggle between a dozen apps and services. Visit mercury.com to apply in 10 minutes or less. Mercury Banking that does more Mercury is a financial technology company, not a bank. Banking services provided through Choice Financial Group, Colum and Evolve bank and trust members FDIC.

[Ed Elson]

Today'S number 13%. That is the percentage of Americans who eat pizza on any given day. Put another way, pizza has twice as many daily active users in America as X. And the best part about pizza? No Nazis.

[Sponsor Voice 2]

Money market matter.

[Ed Elson]

If money is evil, then that building is hell. Welcome to Profit G Markets. I'm Ed elson. It is June 10th. Let's check in on yesterday's market vitals. The major indices rose, shrugging off Trump's latest tariff letters to countries including the Philippines, Iraq and Brazil. Investors were more excited about a rally in Big Tech, which pushed the NASDAQ to a record high. Bitcoin also hit a new record, surpassing $112,000 for the first time. Meanwhile, treasury yields fell after a successful $39 billion sale of 10 year notes that eased bond market jitters. Okay, what else is happening? Nvidia became the first company in history to hit a $4 trillion market cap. The stock jumped around 2%, breaching $4 trillion before it came back down and closed at 3.97 trillion. Just two years ago, the market cap was less than 600 billion and since then the ST more than 500%. Just remarkable. To put that in perspective, the value Nvidia has added in the past two years is actually greater than the current market cap of Apple. So this is a very historic moment. First company to hit a trillion dollars was Apple. The first to hit 2 trillion was also Apple. The first to hit 3 trillion was Microsoft. And now Nvidia is the first one to hit $4 trillion. So it's a big moment for the company, a big moment for AI, which is essentially carrying the stock market right now. Nvidia makes up 7% of the S and P at this point. It's up 74% since April. So when you're looking at your portfolio right now and things look good, and they do, just remember, as with last year, you have AI to thank once again. Once again, this is the year of AI, or at least it is so far. Let's bring in Gil Luria, head of technology research at DA Davidson. Let's see what he makes of this $4 trillion milestone.

[Gil Luria]

They deserve it. Nvidia has created a tremendous amount of value in the economy, in the stock market, to its employees, to its shareholders, to Microsoft shareholders, to OpenAI shareholders. They are, they have the largest contribution to the AI revolution. Combined with OpenAI, they are probably the two companies most responsible for all the innovation and breakthroughs that we've had. So it's very fitting that they would be the first ones to hit a milestone.

[Scott]

Nvidia's had an insane run up so far. It's up more than a thousand percent since the beginning of 2023. Do you think it can maintain that momentum or will it run out of steam at some point?

[Gil Luria]

So the company's actually trading at a relatively similar multiple than it was trading before the AI breakthrough. Let's, let's not forget that it's a huge market that was created out of nothing two and a half years ago. There was a big data center hyperscaler market that Nvidia was the leading supplier to before generative AI broke through and that supported the valuation they had up until the end of 2022. But this big incremental market of AI compute and the chips that facilitate AI compute has added so much revenue and profitability to Nvidia that that explains the entire appreciation of Nvidia's stock price. So it's very well justified based where we are today going forward is always a different question. Nvidia will not be able to continue to grow the growth rates that it had so far. In fact, it's much more realistic that the growth rates Next year will be more in the 15 to 20% range. And there's also a really big swing factor around China that we have yet to fully digest. But either way, law of large numbers the market is now for. The deployment of AI data centers is somewhat plateauing. The growth rates will not be the same, not to mention the fact there's going to be increased competition. And so going forward, it may be a different story than we've had over the last two or three years.

[Ed Elson]

That was Gil Luria, head of technology research at DA Davidson. Even at $4 trillion, sounds like he believes we are still not at peak Nvidia and that this isn't just hype. This is, you know, actual fundamentals driving this valuation. I have to say I would agree we'll be talking lots about Nvidia over the next few weeks, but for now, I would like to just take a moment to pay some respect to Jensen Huang, the founder and the CEO of Nvidia, because his story is, quite frankly, remarkable, and we don't talk about it that much. He was born in Taiwan, later moved to Thailand, and then when he was nine years old, his parents sent him to America to flee the Vietnam War. He went to Kentucky, where he was enrolled in what his family thought was a prestigious boarding school, but it turns out that it was actually a correctional boarding school for troubled children. So he had a really tough time there. He was bullied, he was physically threatened. He was dealing with constant racism. But he did get through it, and eventually he landed his first job, which was washing dishes at Denny's. That's right. The CEO of Nvidia was originally a busboy at Denny's. In fact, he actually credits a lot of his success to the principles of hard work and grit that he learned working that job. He later got an electrical engineering degree from Oregon State, then he got his master's from Stanford. And then in 1993, with just $40,000 in seed capital, he launched Nvidia. I'm not going to go over the full history of the company, but the long and short of it is this was basically a masterclass in bold bets. I mean, he started out making chips for video games, which at the time seemed a little bit ridiculous. The gaming industry was kind of just beginning, but, you know, no one was taking it that seriously. And then the industry just exploded. So he had a really good run for a few years, and then when that business started to kind of plateau, he decided to make another shift, and he got into general purpose computing, which, again, seemed a little out there at the time. And then, of course, 10 years later, AI happened, and the rest is history. So it's just a remarkable story. But before we wrap up, I just want to play you a quick clip of Jensen Huang reflecting on his career and his time at Nvidia. This is from the acquired podcast. The hosts were asking him about what he would do differently if he had a time machine, if he could go back in time and maybe start this company all over again. And this was his response.

[Jensen Huang]

I wouldn't do it. I know. And the reason for that is really quite simple. Building a company and building a video turned out to have been a million times harder than I expected it to be. Any of us expected it to be. And at that time, if we realize the pain and suffering and just how vulnerable you. You're going to feel and the challenges that you're going to endure, the embarrassment and the shame, and, you know, the list of all the things that. That go wrong. I don't think anybody would start a company. Nobody in their right mind would do it. And I think that that's kind of the superpower of a entrepreneur. They don't know how hard it is, and they only ask themselves, how hard can it be? And to this day, I trick my brain into thinking, how hard can it be?

[Ed Elson]

I just. I love that response. I just think we have this. This obsession with romanticizing entrepreneurship and the story, it always sounds so fun and so exciting. And now we're seeing this big number, $4 trillion. It feels incredible. But I just think it's worth remembering, in moments like this, we're only hearing the story once the success has happened. But up until that point, the journey is not romantic at all. I mean, it's hard. It's grueling, as he says. It's just extremely taxing. And I just think it's notable that when you ask the guy who really reached the top of the mountain, he hit the pinnacle of capitalism, the world's first $4 trillion company. When you ask him, would you do it again, the answer is no. And I'm not sure exactly what to make of that. I still want to work hard. I still want to make a lot of money. But I will say it is certainly something that I am thinking about, certainly something that I am carrying with me. And I just think it's a good reminder to keep things in perspective. So we'll be right back after the break with a major leadership change at X. Stay with us.

[Sponsor Voice 1]

Support for the show comes from ZBiotics. I love a good drink. Every now and then. But what I don't love is having to choose between having a great night out and a great next day. Zebiotics wants to help you have both. According to Zebiotics, here's how it works. Zebiotics Pre Alcohol Probiotic Drink is the world's first genetically engineered probiotic. They say it was invented by PhD scientists to tackle rough mornings after drinking. According to the company, when you drink, alcohol gets converted into a toxic byproduct in the gut. And they say it's a buildup of this byproduct, not dehydration, that's to blame for rough days after drinking Zebiotics. Pre Alcohol produces an enzyme to break this byproduct down. Just remember to make pre alcohol your first drink of the night. Drink responsibly and you'll feel your best tomorrow. So I use Zbiotics and I find I'm trying to drink less as I get older just because generally speaking, that's kind of the best strategy for improving your health. But I also do love to go out and drink and what I do is I start the evening with Zbiotics and I have found the next morning it reduces, I would say, somewhere between a quarter and a third of the that rough morning, so to speak. Go to ZBiotics.com propg to learn more and get 15% off your first order when you use propg at checkout. ZBiotics is backed with 100% money back guarantee, so if you're unsatisfied for any reason, they'll refund your money, no questions asked. Remember to head to zbiotics.com profg and use the code propg at checkout for 15% off. Support for the show comes from Grunds. You've heard me talk about these guys before, but let me refresh your memory. Grunds are a convenient, comprehensive formula packed into eight delicious gummies a day. This isn't a multivitamin, a green gummy, or a prebiotic. It's all of those things and then some at a fraction of the price. And bonus, it tastes great. And just in time for summer, Grunts has a limited edition raspberry lemonade flavor so you can upgrade your wellness routine with a fun and refreshing snack pack that couldn't be more convenient. Perfect to toss into your beach bag, your carry on, or wherever your summer travels take you. Our Grunds Daily Snack Pack is vegan, free of nuts, gluten and dairy, and made with no synthetic sweeteners or dyes. Gruens says their daily snack pack of eight gummies contains more than 20 vitamins and minerals and more than 6060 whole food ingredients. Grab your limited edition Raspberry Lemonade Grunds. Get up to 52% off when you go to Grunds Co and use the promo code PRPG. That's Gruns Co and use the promo code PROPG at checkout. Support for the show comes from Intuit SMB Media Labs. When it comes to small business marketing, reaching the right audience starts with the right data. Intuit SMB Media Labs is a first of its kind small business ad network that helps your marketing work way smarter. By leveraging exclusive audiences and insights from the makers of QuickBooks, you can connect with the right customers efficiently and effectively. With a scale of 36 million, Intuit SMB Media Labs puts your brand in front of the small businesses that you need most, targeting key decision makers by industry size, maturity and location. More than just an audience, it's your SMB Media partner. Learn [e-mail].

[Ed Elson]

Foreign we're back with Prof. G Markets. Linda Yaccarino is stepping down as the CEO of X. With some advertisers returning and the XAI merger complete, she said that now was a good time to step away. She served as the CEO for two years. During that time she dealt with many challenges, including advertiser backlash over the platform's content moderation policies. Those concerns have not really gone away. Just two days ago, xai's chatbot Grok posted a series of anti Semitic posts on the platform. And you know, I mean, I'm not gonna go over what exactly was said, but it was egregious, like praising Hitler. No ambiguity with this stuff. So Linda Aquarino is out and the big question is why? Why now? You know, could be to do with the Hitler ification of X's chat bot. That could genuinely be a reason they really coincided here. It could be. The business ad revenue is reportedly down 40% since Elon took over, but I think more likely it's just a combination of all of the troubles that she's had to face as the leader of this platform. And I've said it from the beginning, and Scott said it too, she was never cut out for this. I mean, Linda Yakarino, you have to remember this is a classically educated, traditional media person. This is not like a new media player. She worked at Turner, she worked on Late Night, she worked at NBC, she worked on Peacock. I mean, her whole career before X was, it was basically selling ads for the establishment media. And that is just a completely different ball game from being the CEO of this terminally online cesspool of edginess that is X. And let's be clear, like, that is what it is. It's kind of a news platform. That's what it bills itself as. But it's mostly a place at this point for memes and hot takes and political arguments. And now, after the Elon takeover, Nazism and porn. And that is not an exaggeration. We saw what happened with Grok, but we also saw multiple of these analyses that found a huge rise in Nazi content and also in pornographic content. That is what this platform is now. So the idea that this seasoned media exec was gonna come in and just do what she did at NBC, that, to me, was crazy. That was never gonna work. And you could even see it in the way she carried herself on the platform. I personally cringed every time she posted on X, because on the one hand, you've got Elon, who's shitposting these senators and talking about their private parts, and then on the other hand, you've got the CEO of the company who's talking about, like, catching the big game and wishing everyone a happy Thanksgiving. I mean, she was posting on X like it was LinkedIn. It was this very traditional corporate approach, and it showed us who she is. And that is a traditional and corporate executive. And there's nothing wrong with that. But that is why I never thought she'd lost. Because when you think about it, in a lot of ways, she was the embodiment of everything Elon hates. I mean, think about why he bought Twitter. It wasn't about free speech or the town square. All the stuff he said, that was bs. The reason he bought Twitter was basically to give a giant finger to the establishment. I mean, he just wanted to say screw you to the media, to cnn, to the New York Times, to NBC, to Wall street, to the Democrats. He wanted to say, look how much money I have. Look what I can do. That's what this was all about. And so, to put it simply, that is a very hard thing to sell ads against. And it's especially hard if you're coming from this more traditional establishment background. And then you have to pretend that you're now this edgy, jaded character and that you believe in all the same ridiculous, juvenile principles as Elon Musk. That is a very difficult act to pull off. And that is why I never believed that she was gonna stick around. And it is also my personal belief that that is why she left the company this week. But let's Hear from Scott. He's been talking about this for a long time. I'm sure he has lots to add. Claire hopped on the phone with him earlier.

[Scott]

Hi, Scott.

[Sponsor Voice 2]

How are you, Claire?

[Scott]

I'm well. How are you?

[Sponsor Voice 2]

I'm good. So Mr. Big Time doesn't have time for the guy who made his career. It's now. Yeah, it's you and me.

[Scott]

He's too important.

[Sponsor Voice 2]

There you go.

[Scott]

So, Scott, Linda Yaccarino is out. I'm sure you didn't see this one coming at all. What are your reactions?

[Sponsor Voice 2]

Well, it's one of those things. It's so obvious after it happens. I think Musk is becoming a Trump like figure and that is very few people. You know, it's like being in the ring with Mike Tyson. It's just very few people leave standing. You know, it's just, it's, in some ways it's shocking it took this long. She was never really the CEO of Twitter and by the way, I've always called it and will continue to call it Twitter, she was really just meant to be a heat shield. She was there to kind of go on an apology tour for advertisers, which she was not very successful at. Advertising plummeted right after he purchased it and I guess it's off about 40 or 50% since they purchased it. Initially she was sort of charged with brand safety and when you're dealing with Elon Musk and Twitter, which immediately saw an increase in hate speech by 50% that was tolerated. It was like setting up daycare at a strip club. I mean, it was just an oxymoron. It just didn't make, didn't make any sense or giving somebody like a flaming bag of raccoons and say, you know, build community now. So she, she was kind of given, she was given a very difficult job and also she managed to handle it poorly. I'd be very curious what she does next. I think her brand, it's interesting. Her brand, it'll be a real interesting test. But Umberto Eco, the Italian philosopher, said that in our era it's all about awareness, regardless of what you're known for. She is now a globally known name, but she's known as an ineffective manager that was basically CEO and name only and it does not have a very good reputation. But at the same time, everybody now in the business world knows who she is. So it'll be very interesting to see if and what her next move is.

[Scott]

Right. So just some data threads is catching up in terms of daily active app users, it's up 128% year over year to 115 million. Meanwhile, X declined 15% in the same time period, still in the lead at 132 million. And then Blue sky is way behind at 4.1 million daily active users. So do you have any predictions for X's future? Will it lose its lead in this market?

[Sponsor Voice 2]

So it's already lost it. I mean, to a certain extent. The biggest beneficiary of Musk's acquisition of Twitter was meta shareholders, and that is by kind of loosening up or basically getting rid of all content standards. You saw a 50% increase, immediate 50% increase in hate speech. Just most recently you had Xai, the kind of the chatbot from Grok, posts very anti Semitic content, some praising Hitler and advertisers. That's just a third rail for advertisers. So effectively this created an enormous opening for Threads. I don't think Threads would be as big as Twitter and in a year it'll be bigger if it wasn't for kind of the implosion and the white space that was opened up by Twitter basically declaring war on its advertising bills. And Elon Musk, who's obviously very intelligent and has an incredible feel for stakeholder value, has decided that the only way to rescue this is to rub kind of AI Vaseline over the Lansia and merge it with his AI startup and then do sort of a kind of a related party transaction that supposedly valued Twitter at 30 billion while valuing his own AI company at 80 billion, which is sort of an illusory mark, if you will. But I would say Twitter as a microblogging platform has kind of already lost a Threads. And that is Threads should not exist. And it exists because basically Twitter, Twitter screwed up so badly and created such an opportunity.

[Scott]

All right, well, thank you, Scott. That's all I've got for you. I'll send your regards to Ed.

[Sponsor Voice 2]

Sounds good, Claire. Have a good rest of the day.

[Scott]

Thanks, Scott. Bye. Bye.

[Sponsor Voice 2]

Bye now.

[Ed Elson]

Daycare at the nightclub. I think that pretty much sums it up. Well, we will miss Linda Akcarino. She was given an impossible job and we wish her the best of luck. SpaceX is planning to raise money by selling insider shares at a new valuation of $400 billion. This underscores their status as the most valuable private company in the world. The valuation breaks the previous record, $350 billion, which was also set by SpaceX. And this company has quickly become the largest source of Elon Musk's wealth, who owns a 42% stake in the business. The new valuation makes SpaceX more valuable than OpenAI, more valuable than Johnson and Johnson, more valuable than bank of America, and more valuable than Coca Cola. In fact, if SpaceX were a public company, it would now be the 22nd most valuable public company in the world. Just incredible. So nothing new here in terms of the business itself, but what we are seeing is a lot of demand for this company in the secondary markets. That demand is continuing to grow. And there were some questions about SpaceX when this Elon Trump drama started to unfold. Obviously that is putting pressure on Tesla stock, but it should arguably be putting more pressure on SpaceX stock, given the fact that SpaceX depends so heavily on government contracts. But this news appears to be telling us, actually, no, investors aren't worried about that Trump drama. Tesla investors might be worried the stock's down more than 20% year to date, but SpaceX investors, they are not worried. And that is why the valuation has increased as of the end of last year, as of the most recent valuation, 15%. So for more on this, we spoke with Sri Mupidi, a reporter at the Information.

[Sri Mupidi]

I would say that SpaceX and Tesla are different businesses. And I think you see the stock price reflect that with Tesla, particularly because the big beautiful bill got rid of a number of energy tax credits that initially benefited Tesla. And so while Tesla sales were already softening, I think this big push really sort of, you could see that pressure on Tesla stock. But in terms of SpaceX, SpaceX, as I said, dominates the market for rocket launches. And government agencies are less likely to switch. There's just a huge barrier to entry, huge amount of friction to be able to switch. And then also because it's been able to diversify into commercial revenue as well through its Starlink business, you really see sort of SpaceX to be more resilient than Tesla. And then I think more importantly is that just in terms of the market, there aren't as many competitors for NASA or the Defense Department to be able to switch to, for example, Blue Origin or Rocket Labs. They just aren't at the level that SpaceX is at in terms of rocket launches or just other capabilities. And so that's why I think that SpaceX has advantage in working with their existing set of government contracts versus a government agency, for example, switching away.

[Ed Elson]

That was Sri Mupiti from the information, and she makes a really great point. And that is, even if you don't want to do business with SpaceX, if you want to go to someone else, you don't really have any options, because SpaceX is just completely dominating this industry. And I think there are some stats here that really highlight the dominance that we're seeing from SpaceX. The first one I would point you to, there were 154 orbital launch attempts in the US last year, and SpaceX accounted for 87% of those launches. 134. That is up from 96 in 2023. It's also more launches than the rest of the world combined. It's all coming from SpaceX. So when it comes to getting payloads out into space, there is Simply no question. SpaceX is the undisputed number one. They're kind of your only option. So that's one part of the business, carrying stuff into space. The other part of the business here is satellites or Starlink. And on that side of the business, SpaceX is again, completely dominating. Here's the big stat. Of the roughly 10,000 satellites that are actively orbiting the Earth, SpaceX owns 60% of them. And that number is also expected to grow significantly over the next few years. SpaceX is planning to increase their constellation network to 30,000 satellites. We'll see if that's even possible. But that is what they're shooting for right now. The only viable competitor right now to the satellite network that is being developed by starlink is Amazon's satellite network, and that is Project Kuiper. And they are making some headway. But, you know, you look at the business, as of today, they're still not offering any Internet service. So it's a very similar dynamic to what we're seeing in the robotaxi industry, where it's kind of portrayed as maybe this competition between Waymo and Tesla. They are the two players in the space. But then you get down to it, you look at the data and you realize only one of them is actually playing here. In the robotaxi industry, it's. It's Waymo. But in the satellite industry, it is SpaceX, it is Stalin. So I think that would shed some light on the valuation. I think it also shed some light on why investors aren't so worried about what's happening in terms of Elon and his relationship with Donald Trump. It is possible that it's riding on some hype. You know, I think the fact that it is still a private company maybe makes it feel more exclusive. And so maybe you're willing to pay a premium just to be part of the club. And it is a pretty cool club. But you also can't deny the fundamentals here. $12 billion in ARR. The undisputed leader in space right now. They are essentially monopolizing the space industry. That is the reality of the situation right now, and it is unlikely that that is going to change anytime soon. Okay, that's it for today. Thanks for listening to Profit you Markets from the Vox Media Podcast Network. I'm Ed Elson. Join us tomorrow for our conversation with David Rischer, the CEO of Ly Lifetime. You happy and kind reunion.

[Adobe Voice]

Nobody knows your customers better than your team, so give them the power to make standout content with Adobe Express. Brand kits make following design rules a breeze, and Adobe quality templates make it easy to create pro looking flyers, social posts, presentations and more. You don't have to be a designer to edit campaigns, resize ads and translate content. Anyone can in a click and collaboration tools put feedback right where you need it. See how you can turn your team into a content machine with Adobe Express, a quick and easy app to create on brand content. Learn [e-mail] express business support for the show comes from Mercury. What if banking did more? Because to you, it's more than an invoice. It's your hard work becoming revenue. It's more than a wire, it's payroll for your team. It's more than a deposit, it's landing your fundraise. The truth is, banking can do more. Mercury brings all the ways you use money into a single product that feels extraordinary to use. Visit mercury.com to join over 200,000 entrepreneurs who use Mercury to do more for their business. Mercury Banking that does more.