Elon Musk, Happy With Tesla, Says SpaceX So Difficult, ‘I Wonder Whether We Can Do This’ – GOBankingRates

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Elon Musk, the richest person on the planet, who just tweeted he was thinking about quitting his job, made headlines this week when he criticized the governments effort to encourage electric-vehicle adoption, including clauses in the Build Back Better Act. The criticism was viewed by many as a way to signal Teslas maturity and success.

See: Tesla Tops Delivery Expectations Despite Global Supply Chain IssuesFind: Experts Say SpaceX Might Make Musk a Trillionaire, But Tesla Just Boosted His Worth $25 Billion

Thinking of quitting my jobs & becoming an influencer full-time wdyt, Musk tweeted on Dec. 9.

However, its his other company, SpaceX, that seems to be giving him more trouble. Speaking remotely at the Wall Street Journals CEO Conference, Musks remarks on how difficult a task its been to develop Starship the next-generation vehicle the company plans to use to take humans to the Moon and Mars sounded a lot like Teslas early difficulties with the Model 3, Bloomberg reported.

Starship absorbs more of my mental energy than probably any other single thing, Musk said Monday, according to Bloomberg. It is so preposterously difficult, there are times where I wonder whether we can actually do this.

In November, Space Explored reported an email Musk sent to employees in which he said that what it comes down to, is that we face a genuine risk of bankruptcy if we cant achieve a Starship flight rate of at least once every two weeks next year.

See: Elon Musks SpaceX Valuation Hits $100 Billion, Becomes Second Most-Valuable Private Company WorldwideFind: 10 Productivity Tips From Elon Musk That Can Put You on the Road to Success

Space Explored reported that Musk had planned to take a break over Thanksgiving weekend, but Raptor production issues changed that:

Unfortunately, the Raptor production crisis is much worse than it had seemed a few weeks ago. As we have dug into the issues following the exiting of prior senior management, they have unfortunately turned out to be far more severe than was reported. There is no way to sugarcoat this, he said in the email. I was going to take this weekend off, as my first weekend off in a long time, but instead, I will be on the Raptor line all night and through the weekend.

In contrast, Tesla has been on a tear this year, from exceeding deliveries despite chip shortages and supply chain disruptions, to its stock soaring, bringing the company to a $1 trillion market cap. In turn, Musk said earlier this month that he would participate in Teslas fourth-quarter earnings call to take place in January 2022 following his statement, made in July, that he would not be on the calls anymore unless theres something really important that I need to say.

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Yal Bizouati-Kennedy is a former full-time financial journalist and has written for several publications, including Dow Jones, The Financial Times Group, Bloomberg and Business Insider. She also worked as a vice president/senior content writer for major NYC-based financial companies, including New York Life and MSCI. Yal is now freelancing and most recently, she co-authored the book Blockchain for Medical Research: Accelerating Trust in Healthcare, with Dr. Sean Manion. (CRC Press, April 2020) She holds two masters degrees, including one in Journalism from New York University and one in Russian Studies from Universit Toulouse-Jean Jaurs, France.

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Elon Musk, Happy With Tesla, Says SpaceX So Difficult, 'I Wonder Whether We Can Do This' - GOBankingRates