Daily Archives: July 5, 2021

Elon Musk, the world's second-richest man, told Twitter he rented a $50,000 house in Texas.

He's speculated to be living in a prefabricated home made by the housing startup Boxabl.

The billionaire appears to be keeping a promise he made in May last year to "own no house."

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Tesla CEO Elon Musk - the world's second-richest man, with a net worth of about $185 billion - said in a tweet in June that he rented a home in Boca Chica, Texas, that costs $50,000.

On Thursday, Musk provided some more context about his housing situation. In response to a tweet showcasing a prefabricated home by the housing startup Boxabl, Musk wrote, "I do live in a $50k house, but not this specific one."

Teslarati, a media company that follows Tesla news, reported last week that it had received a tip that Musk's home was a Boxabl Casita, a 375-square-foot house with a kitchen, a bedroom, and a bathroom that starts at $49,500.

In November, Boxabl posted a video of a unit it was building in Boca Chica. The home was for a "top-secret customer," the company said. It had a poster of a Falcon 9, a partially reusable rocket built by Musk's SpaceX, on its door.

Boxabl, based in Las Vegas, aims to mass-produce low-cost housing. It creates homes that are delivered in a box and can be set up in a day.

Musk appears to be keeping a promise he made in a tweet in May 2020 to "own no house." Weeks later, five of his homes were listed for sale on Zillow. In late December, the Los Angeles Times reported that Musk had sold three of his adjacent mansions in Bel Air for a combined $40.9 million.

The SpaceX CEO said in June that he had only one house left in the San Francisco Bay Area that he rented out for events and was waiting to sell. It "needs to go to a large family who will live there," he said, because "it's a special place."

Boxabl and a representative for Musk did not immediately reply to Insider's requests for comments for this story.

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Elon Musk, the 2nd-richest man in the world, told Twitter ...

Space travel is wild. Electric cars are neat. Crypto is cool. But if you really want to understand Elon Musk (he's the subject of my free e-book, Elon Musk Has Very Big Plans, by the way, download here), I'd look to a specific tweet from 24 days ago.

Most ofMusk'sTwitterpostsdrown in engagement, but not this one; itfloated in relative obscurity until people finally began to connect the dots.

Here's the tweet, fromJune 9, in whichMusk described where and how, exactly, he's decided to live:

My primary home is literally a ~$50k house in Boca Chica / Starbase that I rent from SpaceX. It's kinda awesome though.

Only house I own is the events house in the Bay Area. If I sold it, the house would see less use, unless bought by a big family, which might happen some day.

(To set the context, Musk was replying to a Twitter user who had praised him for using "less resources than most multi-millionaires despite working way harder.")

By Musk's standards--he routinely posts things that get 100,000 or more likes--this was pretty low Twitterengagement. Most ofthe replies were about whether he really does live modestly compared to other ultra-wealthy people.

But it wasn't until recently that people started to ask:Wait, tell us a little more about this $50,000 house?

My friends, I think that is the bigger story.

It turns out, Musk is almost certainlyliving ina 380-square-foot, tiny,foldable house-in-a-box, which was manufactured by acompany called Boxabl, delivered to the SpaceX launch facility in Boca Chica, TX on a flatbed truck, and set up on-site in less than a day.

The secret was hiding in plain sight, actually, given that Boxabl posted a YouTube video last November that offered a tour.

Boxabl co-founder Galiano Tiramaniexplained in the video how the housewas built and transported--and teased that it had been delivered for the use of "a top-secret customer" located in (you guessed it): Boca Chica, Texas.

I'veembedded the video at the end of this column.You'll note that Tiramanisits next to a giant poster of a SpaceX rocket inside the tiny homewhile he talks about his "top-secret customer," so this didn't exactly require Sherlock Holmes levels of deductive reasoning.

Now, the big question is what kind of kind of investment Musk or Tesla might have madein Boxabl. It's a private company, and so far they're not saying.

And of course, I can't vouch for Boxablespecifically. It'sa startup that I hadn't heard of until Musk subtly spilled the beans, and it surely faceshuge manufacturing, distribution, and even marketing problems.

(Musktweeted back in May,before anyone seems to have connected the dots about his housing situation: "Prototypes are easy, production is hard." Giramani retweeted him.)

Now, of course, there's a certain quirkiness to this story that makes it fun.But consider: mass-produced, foldable housing withcomponents that can fit current standard shipping containers?

That's a big idea.In fact, it'squite possibly evenbigger than electric cars and space travel, at least during our lifetimes.

We live in an era in whichhousing affordability is a huge and growing problem almost everywhere--and then we find out that Musk, with a reported net worth as I write this of $167.7 billion--literally lays his head at night inside the prototype for a possible home of the future?

It could be a life-changing idea for a lot of people if it ever really took off.

Now, if only we can get Musk to revisit his idea of super-quiet leaf blowers.

Here's the video tour of Musk's house.Don't forget the free ebook, Elon Musk Has Very Big Plans, which you can download here.

The opinions expressed here by Inc.com columnists are their own, not those of Inc.com.

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Elon Musk Just Tweeted a Life-Changing Decision, and ...

On Tuesday, Elon Musk appeared via video for an interview at Mobile World Congress in Barcelona. I was there, along with a few hundred other people, to hear Musk talk mostly about the growth and rollout of Starlink.

If you aren't familiar, Starlink is Musk's plan to carpet the heavens with low-orbit satellites to reach sparsely populated areas with high-speed internet. "There's a need for connectivity in places that don't have it right now, or where connectivity is very limited and very expensive," Musk said during the interview. That's an understatement, but it is clear Musk has ambitious plans for the company.

"We are on our way to having a few hundred thousand users--possibly over 500,000 users within 12 months," he continued. As Musk talked about the company's goal of signing up a half-million subscribers within the next 12 months, something occurred to me. I don't know if it was the casual way Musk talked about it, but I couldn't help but think that Starlink isn't Musk's main thing. It's really just a side project.

Actually, to be accurate, it's a side project within another of Musk's side projects--SpaceX, the rocket ship company for which Musk serves as CEO. Sure, SpaceX and Starlink are both doing interesting things--like sending people to the International Space Station. And, clearly, Musk is passionate about all things Space and rockets and satellites, but that doesn't change the fact that it's basically a side hustle.

The more I thought about it, the more it seemed clear to me that really everything Musk does is just a side project, and I don't mean that in a bad way. I guess you could argue that Tesla, the electric vehicle and solar manufacturer, is his main thing. It is, for sure, the thing that made him one of the three wealthiest people on the planet, but Musk isn't even a full-time CEO at Tesla.

Some people are able to dedicate themselves entirely to one cause or mission. That's noble, but it certainly isn't the way everyone is wired up, and it might not even be the best option for many people--especially entrepreneurs.

Entrepreneurs tend to have more big ideas than they can ever fit into one company or project. It comes with the territory of being creative and having thedrive to bring ideas out of your head and into the world. A lot of really great things came into the world first as side projects. Gmail. Pixar. Slack. Even Nike.

Look at Musk's primary rival for the title of "world's wealthiest man," Jeff Bezos. Sure, Bezos is best known as the founder and--at least for few more days--CEO of Amazon, but he's also the owner of Blue Origin, another space-focused endeavor, as well as The Washington Post. One of the primary reasons he cited that he was stepping down as CEO was so that he could spend time on other interests.

Sure, you can argue that billionaires like Musk and Bezos have an advantage here because they have enough money to be choosy, but I'd argue that it's their choice that made them so successful in the first place. That's because having a side project has several advantages. In Musk's case, he amplifies those advantages because he treats everything like it's a side project.

Here's the emotional intelligence part. When something is your side project, you treat it differently than you do your day job. Mostly that's because it's usually something you do not because it's a job, but because it's something you love.

That's importantbecause when you do something because you love it, it gets your best effort. You're willing to sacrifice and take risks and pour yourself into it.Of course, it's great if your side project makes money, but then there's always the risk that you start treating it like a job. Don't.

The beautiful thing about having a side project is that it gives you an outlet for the urge to be doing something different. It gives you a place to direct your creative energy, which makes it easier to focus on the things you have to do.

That brings us back to Musk, who is clearly one of the most innovative entrepreneurs of his generation. I don't think there's any question that's largely the result of the fact that he treats everything he does not like a job, but like a creative outlet and a labor of love. Or, said another way, as aside project.

The opinions expressed here by Inc.com columnists are their own, not those of Inc.com.

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For Elon Musk, Everything Is a Side Project. Why That's Pure Emotional Intelligence - Inc.

Popstar Britney Spears has been under the comprehensive conservatorship of her father Jamie Spears since her breakdown around 12 years ago. The pop star's fans have been demanding her father to free Britney. The latest support comes from billionaire and Tesla CEO, Elon Musk.

Britney Spears, 39, had recently made her demand for freedom from 'abusive conservatorship' that was placed around 12 years ago. In 2008, the court had provided the conservatorship to Britney Spears' father as well as the then court-appointed lawyer Andrew Wallet. The decision was taken after multiple mental health breakdowns.

Reportedly, the American singer and songwriter Britney Spears' had called 911 to report conservatorship abuse one night prior to presenting her testimony in court.

On June 23, she phoned into a downtown Los Angeles courtroom, to speak publicly about the conservatorship for the first time, expressing her desire for it to be terminated.

"It is my wish and dream for all of this to end. I want my life back. I truly believe this conservatorship is abusive ... I want to end the conservatorship without being evaluated. I want to petition to end the conservatorship," Spears told Judge Brenda Penny.

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Elon Musk comes out in support of Britney Spears, tweets 'Free Britney' - Mint

CNBC.com's MacKenzie Sigalos brings you the day's top business news headlines. On today's show, CNBC.com space reporter Michael Sheetz explains which companies are ahead in the commercial space race. Plus, Robinhood officially files to go public on the Nasdaq.

Elon Musk calls rocket launch regulations broken after aircraft delays SpaceX launch

SpaceX was seconds away from launching its 20th mission of this year Tuesday when the countdown was halted due to an aircraft entering the launch range, delaying the mission by at least a day.

Elon Musktook to Twitter to voice his frustration about the delay, reiterating prior criticisms he has made about regulations around the business of launching rockets.

"An aircraft entered the 'keep out zone', which is unreasonably gigantic," Musk wrote in a tweet.

"There is simply no way that humanity can become a spacefaring civilization without major regulatory reform. The current regulatory system is broken," he added.

Krispy Kreme shares rise 23% despite disappointing pricing, opening trade

Krispy Kreme shares closed Thursday up more than 23% despite a disappointing opening trade for the company's return to the public markets.

On Wednesday night, the doughnut chain priced its initial public offering at $17 per share,well below its planned range of $21 to $24 per share. The stock's first trade on Thursday afternoon was $16.30 per share, but shares quickly rebounded. When the markets closed, the stock was trading for $21 a share.

The share offering raised $500 million for the company and gave it an implied valuation of $2.7 billion. Krispy Kreme, which also owns Insomnia Cookies, is trading on the Nasdaq under the ticker "DNUT."

Robinhood has 18 million accounts with $80 billion in assets after rapid growth, IPO filing shows

Robinhood Markets filed for one of the most anticipated initial public offerings of the year on Thursday, revealing rapid growth resulting in 18 million retail clients and more than $80 billion in customer assets.

Unlike many recent IPOs, Robinhood was profitable last year, generating a net income of $7.45 million on net revenue of $959 million in 2020, versus a loss of $107 million on $278 million in 2019, according to Robinhood's S-1 filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission.

However, the brokerage lost $1.4 billion in the first quarter of 2021 tied to emergency fundraising-related losses during January's GameStop trading mania. The company generated $522 million in revenue in the first quarter if 2021, up 309% from the $128 million earned in the first quarter of 2020. Options trading accounts for about 38% of revenue while equities and crypto are 25% and 17% of revenues, respectively.

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Why Elon Musk is winning the billionaire space race in 2021: CNBC After Hours - CNBC

ProcureAM CEO Andrew Chanin discusses the potential impact of the Pentagon's UFO report on space stocks.

SpaceX founder and CEO Elon Musk is continuing his criticism of the United Launch Association for accepting government money.

Musk's criticism came in a Wednesday tweet when he responded to a comment from ULA President and CEO Tony Bruno, who suggested that ULA's Vulcan Centaur rocket could compete with SpaceX's reusable rockets.

JUDGE ORDERS SPACEX TO COMPLY WITH DOJ SUBPOENA ON ITS HIRING PRACTICES

"ULA would be dead as a doornail without the two launch provider DoD requirement," Musk tweeted, referencing an Air Force contract called the EELV Launch Capability (ELC) payment worth hundreds of millions of dollars per year.

Musk continued: "If this is not true, then you wont have a problem removing it. Your parent company, Lockheed, darkened the skies with lobbyists to ensure F-35 was single source."

ULA had accepted multiple ELC contracts until the payment was discontinued in 2019 when the Air Force said it would start awarding funds to commercial companies, according to SpaceNews.

Boeing and Lockheed Martin Space own ULA in a 50-50 joint venture.

AFTER DELAYED SPACEX LAUNCH, MUSK SAYS REFORM NEEDED FOR HUMANITY TO 'BECOME A SPACEFARING CIVILIZATION

The Tesla CEO claimed that while "this sort of nonsense happens all the time with government contracts in this case, it is money diverted from making life multiplanetary, which is the goal of SpaceX, vs the ULA goal of maximizing dividends to Lockheed & Boeing."

Musk has previously condemnedULA's acceptance of the contract as anticompetitive since the Air Force did not award the contract to commcerical companies, though Bruno denies his claim.

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"Competition is healthy for the industry and customers," Bruno responded. "Our Nation is better off for having the broader industrial base we now enjoy as a result. I congratulate you on your considerable accomplishments. We are also proud of ours."

In 2014, SpaceX sued the Air Force over its contract given solely to ULA; the two entities reached a settlement in 2015.

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Elon Musk takes aim at ULA, says parent company Lockheed 'darkened the skies with lobbyists' - Fox Business

Tesla CEO Elon Musk congratulated his electric vehicle-making company on building and delivering more than 200,000 cars in the April-June quarter despite many challenges. During the same period last year, Tesla produced about 82,000 vehicles and delivered 90,650. The release of Tesla's second-quarter numbers suggested just how fast the once-struggling electric vehicle (EV) segment was making inroads into a market dominated by vehicles that run on fossil fuels. This also showed Tesla was quickly ramping up its production capacity to meet the rising demand as the world shifts towards cleaner energy sources.

Tesla built 206,421 vehicles and delivered 201,250 a record for the company despite the COVID-19 pandemic unravelling several economies and subduing the demand.

In a statement, the company praised its employees for doing an outstanding job in navigating the supply chain and logistics challenges, including a global shortage of semiconductors.

Tesla currently manufactures the Model S sedan and Model X SUV only at its factory in California, US, and the smaller Model 3 and Model Y at its plant in Shanghai. The bulk sales were of Model 3 and Model Y.

Tesla said their delivery count should be seen as slightly conservative and final numbers could vary by up to 0.5 percent or more. Nonetheless, the Q2 numbers showed a dramatic 150 percent year-on-year (YoY) improvement in Tesla's production.

Many congratulated Musk and Tesla on achieving this feat on Twitter.

One user,@eastmeetswest82, also thanked him for saving the green Earth.

Tesla is set to make its India entry soon. In a two-word tweet in January, Musk confirmed Tesla's plan to open centres in the country. Responding to a tweet that said Tesla was preparing for a robust entry into India, a multi-billion dollar market, he said, As promised.

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Elon Musk Congratulates Tesla on Producing, Delivering 200,000 Cars and Achieving 150 Percent YoY Rise in... - Gadgets 360

Um, there is some truth to this. Rats to Cats

Elon Musk tweeted a fascinating and frankly unsettling theory last night about how a brain parasite might be forcing all humans to create advanced AI.

The Tesla CEO was responding to a story from National Geographic about how toxoplasmosis, a common parasite often found in cats, seems to be causing hyenas to be reckless around predators such as lions. In a staggering and perhaps facetious leap of logic, Musk suggested that the parasite is actually whats causing humans to create advanced artificial intelligence.

Toxoplasmosis infects rats, then cats, then humans who make cat videos, Musk tweeted on Friday. AI trains achieves superhuman intelligence training on Internet cat videos, thus making toxoplasmosis the true arbiter of our destiny.

At first blush, this might seem like just another meme tweet weve come to know, love, and hate from the billionaire SpaceX founder but theres a nugget of truth to it.

Toxoplasmosis is a single-celled parasite that typically infects rats and mice. The parasite, scientists believe, affects the minds of rodents and causes them to lose their fear in predators such as cats and humans. These newly brave rats will approach cats, get eaten, and pass on the parasite to the cats who then pass it on to people a symbiotic relationship with cats, essentially.

But does it affect humans as well? Maybe. Studies have suggested that people who test positive for toxoplasmosis can exhibit more risk-taking behavior, according to LiveScience.

In fact, a study looking at almost 600 people in the Czech Republic and 370 people in Turkey found that those who tested positive for toxoplasmosis were, overall, more likely to experience a car crash.

At the end of the day though, its incredibly unlikely that a brain parasite is causing humans to create superhuman AI. For one, not everyone has a cat. Also, theres no evidence that toxoplasmosis makes us want to create advanced computer science projects.

But it might cause us to take more risky behavior like, oh, I dont know: investing billions into an electric car company, or attempting to colonize Mars, or trying to control the entire cryptocurrency market by sending off meme tweets.

Or to make outrageous jokes about parasites on Twitter.

More on Elon Musk: Elon Musk Tweets About Dogecoin Knockoff, Sending It Skyrocketing

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Elon Musk Suggests That a Brain Parasite Is Forcing Humans to Create Superhuman AI - Futurism

Pieces of Britney (Radio 4) | BBC SoundsElon Musk: The Evening Rocket (Radio 4) | BBC SoundsHuman Resources Broccoli Productions | SpotifyThe Essay: Caribbean Voices (Radio 3) | BBC SoundsThe Kindness Experiment (Radio 4) | BBC Sounds

Britney Spears has been in the news a lot over the past few weeks. Her recent court plea to be released from legal conservatorship was horrible and shocking; and also rejected. Judge Brenda Penny ruled last Wednesday that the current situation where Britneys father Jamie is a co-conservator, even though hes ill should stay in place. Pain, when expressed by a woman, is often disbelieved and ignored.

Which brings us to Pieces of Britney, a new eight-part Radio 4 series released all at once on Thursday, hours after the judges ruling which must have made for a nightmare editing scrabble. Do we need another Britney Spears show though? After all, theres been a New York Times documentary and a BBC one just in the past few months. I would say yes: we cant get enough of her. Plus, presenter Pandora Sykes is trying to do something different with this podcast: to present a sympathetic portrait, and locate Spears within a cultural context. An admirable ambition.

As Sykes points out, Spearss Baby One More Time released when Britney was just 16 landed when the US was obsessed with abstinence as a solution to underage sex. But the US was also sexually obsessed with teenage girls. What happens when a beautiful teenager who says shes a virgin becomes enormously famous in that environment? The obsession with Spearss sexual status was all-pervasive and revolting, as Sykes reminds us. She also recalls the immense power of the paparazzi in those days, as well as gossip magazines.

Theres some great archive, including a horrible section where a 10-year-old Spears is asked about boyfriends by a 70-year-old male talent-show judge. Oprah Winfrey doesnt always come off well either: interviewing Britney, she too joins in the push to find out if Spears and her then-boyfriend, Justin Timberlake, are having sex. (As ever, the acting parts real life reimagined and performed are cringey, mostly because theyre tame. The next BBC podcast to use this technique should just go full-swoon, chew-the-furniture dramatic.)

This is an absorbing podcast, and I recommend it. But I wanted Sykes to go darker, get angrier, not just ask reasonable questions. After all, Spearss life is about physical control. Who owns her body: Is it her? Her fans? Those who put her on stage? Is she allowed to use her body to express herself, whether through dancing, shaving her head, having sex or having babies ? Or is she only allowed to live when her body is legally controlled by others? Spears as a person is elusive because her body is not hers, and her mind has always been treated as second best.

Its interesting to contrast Pieces of Britney with another new Radio 4 offering: Elon Musk: The Evening Rocket, presented by American academic Jill Lepore. Lepore delves into the tech-bro millionaires childhood, and makes interesting links between Musks familys move to apartheid South Africa when he was little and his (and others) approach to where and how we should be living today. Musk is obsessed with creating a new community on another planet. Watch the rocket man go! And when he does create that brave new world, only special people will be allowed to join. His space colony is a new place for exceptional people to live. It is, as Lepore points out, a form of apartheid. Musk is discussed in terms of his mind, rather than his body, automatically awarded more dignity than Spears.

Questions of ownership of the body are always relevant when it comes to slavery, of course. Human Resources, a podcast that has been clocking up weekly since May, looks at how much slavery has, directly or indirectly, created contemporary British life used to create our buildings, our leisure activities, our food and drink, our cultural institutions. Presenter Moya Lothian-McLean grew up in Herefordshire, the daughter of a white British mother and a black Caribbean father who died young. Over the past few weeks she has examined Robert Peel, delved into the Greene King brewerys beginnings, and looked at how Liverpool is grappling with its slave-trading past.

In the latest episode, the second of a two-parter, Lothian-McLean discusses Welsh plain cloth. This was woven from Leicester wool, spun into yarn by Welsh women and children, and exported to be worn by Caribbean and American slaves. Human Resources wonders why the cloth was being used in such a way? There is much that doesnt make sense, little evidence to back up accepted fact. Later we learn how Jamaican enslaved women made lace from bark, reinvented dull cloth by dying it in bright colours, worked out how to wear their long skirts shorter so they could run away.

Whats great about this podcast is its nuance. Lothian-McLean, a clever and engaging presenter, simply uses her interviews as a means to get us to reconsider our assumptions. Any teenagers frustrated by working their way through history lessons on the second world war, or even the American civil war, should try Human Resources for another approach. As an aside, Radio 3s The Essay examined the old BBC radio show Caribbean Voices last week, including a cool-eyed reappraisal of writer Una Marson by Sara Collins. Another enlightening listen.

The Kindness Experiment is a short, sweet and simple series in Radio 4s after-lunch 15-minute slot. Ella Scotland-Waters, who lives in St Werburghs in Bristol, decides to see what a few kind acts might do and encourages other locals to join in. They love it: you can hear the delight in one man, James, when he bring gifts around to a grumpy older lady whod growled at him previously. Its lovely. Currently, kindness is a popular emotion, though it strikes me that Scotland Waters is simply being neighbourly. More power to her.

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The week in audio: Pieces of Britney; Elon Musk: The Evening Rocket; Human Resources and more - The Guardian