TxSquarebody said:

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Because we're American AF!

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This is a plausible reason. Just to show the world what we could do.

Accepted.

BonfireNerd04 said:

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Ag with kids said:

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infinity ag said:

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94chem said:

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As SpaceX, and Musk, are now wealthier than most of the world's governments, yet SpaceX is publicly traded, it will be quite interesting to see how long it takes for SpaceX to abandon its purely altruistic bluster. While colonization of Mars is a useful R&D project because of the science that will be done, it is a total boondoggle of a business venture, one that shareholders of any Fortune 500 company wouldn't tolerate. StarLink is the cash cow here. How long will they be able to fool investors into something that won't happen for generations, if ever, and even if it does, will be a proof-of-concept?

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One thing I don't understand here.

Why do we want to go to Mars?

1. Just for fun to see if we can do it
2. To get raw materials/minerals that we are in short supply of on Earth
3. To get future H1Bs visas for Mars in case we get overrun by foreigners who will steal all our jobs so we can be the first to steal Martian jobs before the Indians do.

Why? What is the business case? Is this going to make money?

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Why did we go to the moon?

Why are we going to the moon again?

What's the ROI?

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Because it was the Cold War and the country wanted to show that it could technologically outdo the USSR.

I'm not sure what the reason to do it now is, though.

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Makes sense to me. We are in the same camp with not knowing why.
And from the replies here, no one else knows either, other than "we 'Murica" types.

If the goal is to push the boundaries of technology and discovery, then go for it, but let's make sure we know why.
Elon has money to burn but the country does not.

If a robot can build a city on Mars it can build a city on Earth. Thank you for coming to my TED Talk on why (more how) we go to Mars.

My Elon story (maybe).

Back in the late 90s, I was looking for jobs as I was about to graduate from A&M. Got a call from Netscape Communications for interview. They flew me to Mountain View, CA. I waited in the lobby area for some time before they called me upstairs. Did not get the job. A few months later, big layoffs and the company fizzled out.

Then some years ago, I read about Elon Musk, he registered for a PhD at Stanford and did a few classes but got bored and wanted to get a job at Netscape. So for months he'd go to the lobby area and sit there hoping that someone would ask him what he wanted and maybe give him a job. He was an introvert so he was scared to ask himself.

So I wonder, maybe the dude who sat next to me as I waited in the lobby was Elon Musk himself?!

I have no recollection but I might well have encountered the Trillion Dollar Man during the days when I probably had more money than he did (but both were lolpoors).

hph6203 said:

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If a robot can build a city on Mars it can build a city on Earth. Thank you for coming to my TED Talk on why (more how) we go to Mars.

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I like this idea!

An AI agent that builds a beautiful city. Nice.

Mars is the interplanetary goal of an eccentric founder. It's been the core thesis that spurred the foundation of SpaceX; when Russia wouldn't sell him a rocket.

Do we yet have a legitimate business case for it? Likely not.
Are we technologically capable of it? Also no.

Do we need to go to the moon again? That's a tougher question. This nation, whether we like it or not, is back in a new cold war of sorts. This time with China. Why is China looking to establish a permanent presence on the Moon? Why has China decided to build and maintain their own space station? I won't pretend to know all of those answers but I do know we should be cautious of falling behind them technologically.

SpaceX and others, Blue Origin, Lockheed, Boeing, Grumman, etc. will go to the moon if NASA wants them to. If SpaceX then parlays that into hardware for Mars then so be it. Maybe there will be economical mining opportunities on Mars. Maybe there are manufacturing capabilities on Mars. Maybe there is cancer research we can do there. Maybe it just becomes a giant landfill for wrecked F150s. I don't know.

The point is that right now SpaceX is not spending capital on Mars. They're spending it on other low earth and lunar projects where they will later parlay that experience and hardware. Mars is not currently costing them a penny. They'll go there, and then if and when a business case to be there arises they'll be the only company on the planet that can get you there and back. What they'll do with everything for that in the interim; that is what will set them apart. Or drive their demise.

Elon has talked many times about the imperative of making humanity interplanetary, fwiw. It's easy to look up.

Anyway, to the OP there is still some reasonable debate about Mansa Musa being the wealthiest man in history. African moslem slave dealer, fwiw, so that doesn't make most folks radars.

Quote:

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Key Takeaways

• African King Mansa Musa of the Mali Empire was possibly the richest man in history, worth $400 billion in today's dollars, surpassing Jeff Bezos' wealth.
• Mansa Musa's wealth came from highly productive gold fields, leading to opulent displays of gold in his court and a vast trade network connecting Africa to Asia, the Middle East and Europe.
• Mansa Musa's legendary pilgrimage to Mecca in 1324 with a caravan of 60,000 people, including 12,000 slaves, led to a significant devaluation of gold prices in Egypt, due to his lavish spending.

In Europe, the 1300s were dark days a period of religious insularity and superstition made even worse by the arrival of the Black Death, an outbreak of bubonic plague that killed an estimated 50 million people on the continent alone. Meanwhile, thousands of miles away in sub-Saharan Africa, the Mali Empire was experiencing a medieval flourishing of culture and learning fueled by unimaginable wealth.

At the center of it all was a West African king named Mansa Musa, who reigned over a vast Muslim empire stretching 2,000 miles (3,219 kilometers) from the Atlantic Ocean to modern-day Niger. But more important than the size of Mansa Musa's empire was the richness of his natural resources two highly productive gold fields renowned for producing the purest and most coveted gold in the world.

If the stories told about Mansa Musa are true that he and his court were bedecked in pure gold, and that he spent so much gold on a pilgrimage to Mecca that he devalued the price of gold for decades then he may have been the richest man to ever live. The website Celebrity Net Worth says he was worth $400 billion in today's dollars, making Mansa Musa nearly four times as rich as Jeff Bezos.

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He's still idealized by many, which would surprise me but I realize we live in a world where some people fantasize that Biden was still Potus in name.

TxSquarebody said:

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Because we're American AF!

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Really is a legit answer.

It's partially just to see if we can.

A process mechanical engineer looking for a stable job should look at the water/wastewater job openings. Maybe not as sexy and high paying as oil and gas, but it hardly ever has layoffs with the constant need to repair/replace aging infrastructure

The next oil is hiring in Brookshire, TX

Can hate him from the inside.

infinity ag said:

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94chem said:

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As SpaceX, and Musk, are now wealthier than most of the world's governments, yet SpaceX is publicly traded, it will be quite interesting to see how long it takes for SpaceX to abandon its purely altruistic bluster. While colonization of Mars is a useful R&D project because of the science that will be done, it is a total boondoggle of a business venture, one that shareholders of any Fortune 500 company wouldn't tolerate. StarLink is the cash cow here. How long will they be able to fool investors into something that won't happen for generations, if ever, and even if it does, will be a proof-of-concept?

---

One thing I don't understand here.

Why do we want to go to Mars?

1. Just for fun to see if we can do it
2. To get raw materials/minerals that we are in short supply of on Earth
3. To get future H1Bs visas for Mars in case we get overrun by foreigners who will steal all our jobs so we can be the first to steal Martian jobs before the Indians do.

Why? What is the business case? Is this going to make money?

---

What were the upsides to colonizing north America?

Anyone investing in SpaceX should know their core long term mission is to build a self sustaining city on Mars. You don't have to read the prospectus to know that. If you're not down for for a self sustaining city on Mars, DO NOT INVEST!

Most IPOs are: "maybe this app grows," "maybe this SaaS company expands margins," "maybe this biotech gets approval."

SpaceX is: what if one company becomes the transportation, logistics, communications, and industrial infrastructure layer for off-world civilization?

There are a lot of problems to solve but even before Mars becomes economically real, the company has already built the path:
Launch dominance - > Starlink cash machine - > Starship mass-to-orbit step change - > bigger Starlink/defense/AI infrastructure - > orbital logistics - > lunar/Mars cargo - > industrial space economy.

Mars is the goal, but the business may make $trillions just by building the infrastructure needed to get there.

TexAgs91 said:

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infinity ag said:

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94chem said:

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As SpaceX, and Musk, are now wealthier than most of the world's governments, yet SpaceX is publicly traded, it will be quite interesting to see how long it takes for SpaceX to abandon its purely altruistic bluster. While colonization of Mars is a useful R&D project because of the science that will be done, it is a total boondoggle of a business venture, one that shareholders of any Fortune 500 company wouldn't tolerate. StarLink is the cash cow here. How long will they be able to fool investors into something that won't happen for generations, if ever, and even if it does, will be a proof-of-concept?

---

One thing I don't understand here.

Why do we want to go to Mars?

1. Just for fun to see if we can do it
2. To get raw materials/minerals that we are in short supply of on Earth
3. To get future H1Bs visas for Mars in case we get overrun by foreigners who will steal all our jobs so we can be the first to steal Martian jobs before the Indians do.

Why? What is the business case? Is this going to make money?

---

What were the upsides to colonizing north America?

Anyone investing in SpaceX should know their core long term mission is to build a self sustaining city on Mars. You don't have to read the prospectus to know that. If you're not down for for a self sustaining city on Mars, DO NOT INVEST!

Most IPOs are: "maybe this app grows," "maybe this SaaS company expands margins," "maybe this biotech gets approval."

SpaceX is: what if one company becomes the transportation, logistics, communications, and industrial infrastructure layer for off-world civilization?

There are a lot of problems to solve but even before Mars becomes economically real, the company has already built the path:
Launch dominance - > Starlink cash machine - > Starship mass-to-orbit step change - > bigger Starlink/defense/AI infrastructure - > orbital logistics - > lunar/Mars cargo - > industrial space economy.

Mars is the goal, but the business may make $trillions just by building the infrastructure needed to get there.

---

Not to mention the "shorter" term goal of AI data centers in space. What seemed like a wild concept 5-10 years ago, as Space X improves their rockets, it becomes more and more realistic within the next 10 years as a stepping stone to Mars.

Another way to think of it is as a giant solar powered space station. We've already proven the space station model and see what can be with done on the communications side with StarLink. And Elons already proved he can build a bigger and better space product (rockets).

The orbital data centers are now extremely realistic and those alone will produce trillions for Space X. We've already seen what Google and others are willing to pay for data center AI cloud services on earth. Imagine what they'll pay for using the orbital data centers. Lots of revenue to Space X. That explains Elons recent comments about the revenue predictions for 2030.

Then the Moon, then Mars.

I'll take the first ship out of here especially on a one way trip.

Musk generating another big ass tax bill. Exercised 18 months (I believe) before expiration. Interesting timing.

Yesterday, Elon Musk exercised 304 million @Tesla stock options from his 2018 compensation package, according to a new SEC filing.

Tesla withheld 17.53 million shares at an average price of $404.66/share in connection with net share settlement. The transaction did not involve… pic.twitter.com/FkUijzWLSy

— Sawyer Merritt (@SawyerMerritt) June 17, 2026

Zombie Jon Snow said:

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I'll take the first ship out of here especially on a one way trip.

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The Dems and Libs will follow you.

hph6203 said:

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Musk generating another big ass tax bill. Exercised 18 months (I believe) before expiration. Interesting timing.

Yesterday, Elon Musk exercised 304 million @Tesla stock options from his 2018 compensation package, according to a new SEC filing.

Tesla withheld 17.53 million shares at an average price of $404.66/share in connection with net share settlement. The transaction did not involve… pic.twitter.com/FkUijzWLSy

— Sawyer Merritt (@SawyerMerritt) June 17, 2026

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How do these ultra rich people buy and sell? Do they have a dumb old Schwab account like I do? Or something else?

Large blocks like Musk and other institutions buy and sell like that are largely prearranged with another institutional buyer/sell so they don't have massive impacts on the market.

Brokerage companies have entire departments dedicated to high wealth individuals and smaller offices dedicated to the uber wealthy. I wouldn't be surprised if Elon has a small team dedicated to him alone.

Elon taught us that if you are a genius, have a passion about a goal that happens to be very profitable, willing to take huge risks, and work 18 hour days for years at a time, you too could become a trillionaire by the time you're 54.

lb3 said:

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Brokerage companies have entire departments dedicated to high wealth individuals and smaller offices dedicated to the uber wealthy. I wouldn't be surprised if Elon has a small team dedicated to him alone.

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Small? With his holdings? I'd wager he has more brokers and accountants than he does lawyers. And he has a crap ton of lawyers worldwide.

lb3 said:

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Brokerage companies have entire departments dedicated to high wealth individuals and smaller offices dedicated to the uber wealthy. I wouldn't be surprised if Elon has a small team dedicated to him alone.

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He absolutely does. We normies with FA's have our own teams, so I'm sure he has an entire phalanx of people handling his stuff.

Crazy crazy crazy.... the headline is Elon is a Trillionaire....

Having now passed that and the some he now has $1 Trillion MORE than 2nd place on the list.

He's now the richest in the world by a Trillion Dollars!!!!

So hold on. We're talking about that dumbass that ran Twitter into the ground right <derp derp>, lol, who uses Twitter or whatever he calls it now? <derp>

infinity ag said:

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94chem said:

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As SpaceX, and Musk, are now wealthier than most of the world's governments, yet SpaceX is publicly traded, it will be quite interesting to see how long it takes for SpaceX to abandon its purely altruistic bluster. While colonization of Mars is a useful R&D project because of the science that will be done, it is a total boondoggle of a business venture, one that shareholders of any Fortune 500 company wouldn't tolerate. StarLink is the cash cow here. How long will they be able to fool investors into something that won't happen for generations, if ever, and even if it does, will be a proof-of-concept?

---

One thing I don't understand here.

Why do we want to go to Mars?

1. Just for fun to see if we can do it
2. To get raw materials/minerals that we are in short supply of on Earth
3. To get future H1Bs visas for Mars in case we get overrun by foreigners who will steal all our jobs so we can be the first to steal Martian jobs before the Indians do.

Why? What is the business case? Is this going to make money?

---

He isn't doing it to make money. He's doing it because he truly believes that for humans to remain in existence we have to become a multi-planetary species in order to survive. If something happens here on earth, there is a second option. At least that is what he proclaims.

I also think he's just a generationally unique individual that has the foresight, intellect, ambition, and the means to achieve big things. Things that the ordinary person cannot even comprehend, much less attempt. He has a vision and he is going after it. I think everything else he is doing is a means to that end. He needs money to fund his dream, and he's exceptionally gifted and talented in his ability to figure out ways to generate revenue in ways that also forward and benefit his ultimate goal.

Everything he has done - electronics, automotive for better batteries, solar panels, rockets, satellites, communications, robotics, tunnel boring - all of it, is geared towards building a sustainable habitat on Mars.

Enjoy the view. We may never see another one like him in our lifetime.

Curious. What is the previous high net worth that anyone else ever hit?

Not talking about adjusted. But actual worth.

Like I know Rockefeller had a similar wealth when compared to the GDP at the time. Although I think even adjusted for inflation his peak was equal to around 500B in today's dollars.

But did Gates or Bezos or Walton or any of the others ever hit $500B or $400B even?

lb3 said:

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Brokerage companies have entire departments dedicated to high wealth individuals and smaller offices dedicated to the uber wealthy. I wouldn't be surprised if Elon has a small team dedicated to him alone.

---

So would it be through the usual places like Schwab and Fidelity? Or is it a different setup?
It does seem likely that he has employees just to manage his investments, but he still has to work with a brokerage.

Zombie Jon Snow said:

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Crazy crazy crazy.... the headline is Elon is a Trillionaire....

Having now passed that and the some he now has $1 Trillion MORE than 2nd place on the list.

He's now the richest in the world by a Trillion Dollars!!!!

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Bro... 1T is yesterday.. he is at the threshold of 2T.

By the time he does, he will touch 100T+.

Ag87H2O said:

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infinity ag said:

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94chem said:

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As SpaceX, and Musk, are now wealthier than most of the world's governments, yet SpaceX is publicly traded, it will be quite interesting to see how long it takes for SpaceX to abandon its purely altruistic bluster. While colonization of Mars is a useful R&D project because of the science that will be done, it is a total boondoggle of a business venture, one that shareholders of any Fortune 500 company wouldn't tolerate. StarLink is the cash cow here. How long will they be able to fool investors into something that won't happen for generations, if ever, and even if it does, will be a proof-of-concept?

---

One thing I don't understand here.

Why do we want to go to Mars?

1. Just for fun to see if we can do it
2. To get raw materials/minerals that we are in short supply of on Earth
3. To get future H1Bs visas for Mars in case we get overrun by foreigners who will steal all our jobs so we can be the first to steal Martian jobs before the Indians do.

Why? What is the business case? Is this going to make money?

---

He isn't doing it to make money. He's doing it because he truly believes that for humans to remain in existence we have to become a multi-planetary species in order to survive. If something happens here on earth, there is a second option. At least that is what he proclaims.

I also think he's just a generationally unique individual that has the foresight, intellect, ambition, and the means to achieve big things. Things that the ordinary person cannot even comprehend, much less attempt. He has a vision and he is going after it. I think everything else he is doing is a means to that end. He needs money to fund his dream, and he's exceptionally gifted and talented in his ability to figure out ways to generate revenue in ways that also forward and benefit his ultimate goal.

Enjoy the view. We may never see another one like him in our lifetime.

---

He is the only tech rockstar we have today who has a following. It used to be Bill Gates and Steve Jobs. One is dead, other is retired.

Dude is just 54. Just imagine what else he will do, he seems healthy enough. Steve Jobs died at 55 which seems surprising now.

Zombie Jon Snow said:

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Curious. What is the previous high net worth that anyone else ever hit?

Not talking about adjusted. But actual worth.

Like I know Rockefeller had a similar wealth when compared to the GDP at the time. Although I think even adjusted for inflation his peak was equal to around 500B in today's dollars.

But did Gates or Bezos or Walton or any of the others ever hit $500B or $400B even?

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Bezos is at his highest NW at 250B. Even after the money he gave his wife after the divorce.
Gates hit 130B a few years ago, now lower.

These seem like rookie numbers now after seeing a $1T.

infinity ag said:

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Zombie Jon Snow said:

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Curious. What is the previous high net worth that anyone else ever hit?

Not talking about adjusted. But actual worth.

Like I know Rockefeller had a similar wealth when compared to the GDP at the time. Although I think even adjusted for inflation his peak was equal to around 500B in today's dollars.

But did Gates or Bezos or Walton or any of the others ever hit $500B or $400B even?

---

Bezos is at his highest NW at 250B. Even after the money he gave his wife after the divorce.
Gates hit 130B a few years ago, now lower.

These seem like rookie numbers now after seeing a $1T.

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I've seen Page (Google) right around and even over $300B recently.

I think Elon might be worth 4x the highest anyone else has ever been. And going up.

infinity ag said:

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lb3 said:

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Brokerage companies have entire departments dedicated to high wealth individuals and smaller offices dedicated to the uber wealthy. I wouldn't be surprised if Elon has a small team dedicated to him alone.

---

So would it be through the usual places like Schwab and Fidelity? Or is it a different setup?
It does seem likely that he has employees just to manage his investments, but he still has to work with a brokerage.

---

He will have some dedicated team from someone like Goldman Sachs or maybe a boutique high net worth company.

He's not going to use a retail firm like Schwab.

infinity ag said:

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My Elon story (maybe).

Back in the late 90s, I was looking for jobs as I was about to graduate from A&M. Got a call from Netscape Communications for interview. They flew me to Mountain View, CA. I waited in the lobby area for some time before they called me upstairs. Did not get the job. A few months later, big layoffs and the company fizzled out.

Then some years ago, I read about Elon Musk, he registered for a PhD at Stanford and did a few classes but got bored and wanted to get a job at Netscape. So for months he'd go to the lobby area and sit there hoping that someone would ask him what he wanted and maybe give him a job. He was an introvert so he was scared to ask himself.

So I wonder, maybe the dude who sat next to me as I waited in the lobby was Elon Musk himself?!

I have no recollection but I might well have encountered the Trillion Dollar Man during the days when I probably had more money than he did (but both were lolpoors).

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Elon has so much money he bought a third arm!

Transaction is an internally handled transaction by Tesla. He exercises the options and gets voting rights access now. The stock is restricted until vesting in January of 2028. Tesla withholds the cost of the stock option exercise (7 million shares) at the contract price. In January it becomes a taxable event and Musk incurs a >$40 billion tax bill (nearing 1% of federal receipts). He has not sold anything yet, but he will have to.

Reason to do it now is if he wants voting rights of those shares for some reason. Speculation online has been that Musk will want to begin and complete the merger process of SpaceX and Tesla before a new administration comes into power in 2029. Wild speculation is that the merger could be announced as soon as the end of July. Musk would net out a majority voting share rights in a merger.

Zombie Jon Snow said:

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infinity ag said:

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Zombie Jon Snow said:

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Curious. What is the previous high net worth that anyone else ever hit?

Not talking about adjusted. But actual worth.

Like I know Rockefeller had a similar wealth when compared to the GDP at the time. Although I think even adjusted for inflation his peak was equal to around 500B in today's dollars.

But did Gates or Bezos or Walton or any of the others ever hit $500B or $400B even?

---

Bezos is at his highest NW at 250B. Even after the money he gave his wife after the divorce.
Gates hit 130B a few years ago, now lower.

These seem like rookie numbers now after seeing a $1T.

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I've seen Page (Google) right around and even over $300B recently.

I think Elon might be worth 4x the highest anyone else has ever been. And going up.

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You are right. Page is No 2 at $300B as of today.

YouBet said:

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infinity ag said:

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lb3 said:

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Brokerage companies have entire departments dedicated to high wealth individuals and smaller offices dedicated to the uber wealthy. I wouldn't be surprised if Elon has a small team dedicated to him alone.

---

So would it be through the usual places like Schwab and Fidelity? Or is it a different setup?
It does seem likely that he has employees just to manage his investments, but he still has to work with a brokerage.

---

He will have some dedicated team from someone like Goldman Sachs or maybe a boutique high net worth company.

He's not going to use a retail firm like Schwab.

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Ah yes.. GS etc likely would have some kind of unadvertised "private banking" for billionaires that riff-raff like us wouldn't have heard of.