Deep Dive: SpaceX

SpaceX lowered the cost of reaching orbit by 20x, then used that advantage to build Starlink. The next question is whether the same route can unlock something even larger: broadband, AI compute, & ...

SpaceX is about to become the largest IPO in history. That valuation is based on the thesis that SpaceX has opened the lowest-cost route into space, and that the largest opportunities are still ahead. What is that opportunity, and can SpaceX capture it? One useful analogy starts in 1497. For centuries, spices reached Europe over land, via routes controlled by Arab and Venetian middlemen. By the time pepper arrived, the price had been marked up 20-30 times. Vasco da Gama, a Portuguese mariner and explorer, found a sea path around the Cape of Good Hope, bypassing every middleman on that…