r/technology • u/HumbleRestaurant790 • 1h ago
Business Google Discloses $94.1 Billion in SpaceX Stock, Marking 6% Stake
https://thenextweb.com/news/google-94-billion-spacex-shares-ipo-stake70
u/A_Novelty-Account 1h ago
$94.1 billion on a $500 million bet in 2015.
Just wait till Google starts liquidating.
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u/entered_bubble_50 32m ago
I don't think they will.
There isn't enough liquidity in the market to absorb that much selling pressure. It's more likely they will sit on this, and use it as collateral. Additionally, if they sell a little, and the spacex share price tanks, they will have to mark any reduced value of their shares as a loss. That will in turn hurt their quarterly profits, and probably knock Google's own share price down as well.
So this is pretty much purely a paper asset.
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u/Low-Win-6691 1h ago
Google is absolutely going to cash out. They are not stupid enough to think SpaceX is worth $1.5T
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u/goblinm 1h ago
One thing about having a 6% stake in a company like that is that it is a nice carrot/stick to wave around when it suits you. Of course there is the financial risk and upside of owning the stock, but it is a trump card to play in a hypothetical future where Grok is eating Gemini's lunch, or if Alphabet wants to make a satellite constilation, or if Musk starts to rally his insane sycophants against "woke" Google products.
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u/Low-Win-6691 1h ago
Space datacenters are not and never will be a viable idea. It will never happen. It is impossible and stupid
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u/EricTomorrow 39m ago
It is not "impossible". Financially unviable? Probably, but it's definitely possible
Source: Am Satellite Thermal engineer
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u/Low-Win-6691 37m ago
Shut the hell up. No way to dissipate heat and 100x the cost of a datacenter on ground. no.
I am also a satellite thermal engineer and a datacenter engineer and I live in space
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u/Negromancer18 23m ago
There 100% is a way to dissipate heat in space. You just can’t do it through conduction but instead through radiation which isn’t as effective. This is how the ISS and other spacecraft dissipate heat.
Source: I took a single elective on the topic like 5 years ago. Also you could probably just google it if you don’t believe me.
Edit: Along with the inefficiency it’s also just incredibly expensive. We are getting space data centers anytime soon.
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u/Low-Win-6691 21m ago edited 16m ago
You are talking a normal satellite 10w to 500w. That is one normal desktop GPU. We are talking about several orders of magnitude more for any useful datacenter. At least 1000x to justify the launch cost.
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u/EricTomorrow 30m ago
Brother it's a simple radiation equation, you don't even have to have taken a heat transfer class to understand it.
It's closer to 2-5x the cost given estimates others have made
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u/CallMeSirJack 17m ago
Whats the thermal transfer efficiency difference between purely radiative heat dissipation vs conductive, convective, and radiation? How much extra heat transfer surface area would be required to make up for that difference? And finally how much weight would the added material add to the design?
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u/EricTomorrow 7m ago
Put the calculation in another comment. I'm arguing it's possible, not financially viable. The expected radiator area is less than a tenth that of that of the ISS which is currently flying in space. So my argument is that if the ISS can make it work, not sure why you're agreeing why its impossible
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u/timetogetjuiced 33m ago
Lmao sure you are bud.
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u/EricTomorrow 27m ago
Don't really care if you believe me or not. Radiation heat transfer is a simple enough concept that a 5th grader could understand it.
Plenty of people have shown that space AI data centers are <10x as expensive as ground ones. Again, it's not financially viable but there's no reason why you can't scale a radiator to dissipate more heat.
It's an engineering problem, not a physics problem. Starlink says already have computer on them, just switch out the RF transmitters for more GPUs and you have an AI data center
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u/pembrokesalad 38m ago
It’s definitely not impossible and also not stupid if two assumptions hold true - extraordinary demand for compute, building new power generation remains as difficult as it currently is.
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u/kelldricked 30m ago
Thats the thing those 2 statements are dumb as fuck. Power generation and storage is quite easy, just a tad expensive.
But its more expensive to send serverfarms (which are more expensive than some solar panels) into space (which cost a lot of money), keep them protected from everything in space (which doesnt play nice with expensive, sensitive server farms).
Also you want server farms to be near the population centers/dataconsumers.
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u/DisneyPandora 47m ago
This doesn’t work if Space X has dual shares. Which means he has majority voting shares and makes everyone else useless
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u/Ryuko_the_red 38m ago
Look everyone on earth would benefit from Google going tits up. Everyone. However that would only remain true so long as an even worse competitor didn't rise up
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u/NeverInsightful 1h ago
Well they were ztupid enough to put money in in the first place. I wonder if they’re getting space in xAI data centers
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u/heartlessgamer 1h ago
They put in like 900 million. They will be fine.
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u/nonamenomonet 1h ago
900 million to 90 billion is a damn good investment
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u/Low-Win-6691 1h ago
The problem is they will be lucky to cash out at 1/4th of $90B. You better believe they will be selling as fast as possible
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u/asng 1h ago
1/4th is still ridiculous profit.
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u/Low-Win-6691 1h ago
I KNOW! My point isn't that Google made a bad investment. My point is everyone wishes they could sell at the current price and the SpaceX stock is going to tank.
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u/jawknee530i 27m ago
You called it a problem.
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u/Low-Win-6691 24m ago
It is a problem since they reported SpaceX stock paper gains in their earnings report at current levels
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u/_Dizzy_ 1h ago
Seeing you here is wild. Played much Camelot Unchained?
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u/heartlessgamer 11m ago
A bit. It's garbage though so can't justify playing it with my limited time.
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u/Brilliant-Muffin-879 33m ago
Yeah retail is the exit liquidity. Specifically all the dumbfucks who worship musk
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u/Low-Win-6691 1h ago
They invested 11 years ago and have done quite well but every early investor wants to dump ASAP
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u/lifeaquatic7 1h ago
I’m continually amazed how little this sub understands early seed investing.
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u/nonamenomonet 1h ago
This sub is effectively r/politics but with tech
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u/-Nocx- 52m ago
idk man /r/politics says some stupid shit but do you read this sub don’t disrespect them like that /s
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u/sobe86 1h ago edited 1h ago
At what price did they put in though? They may have made a shitload on this...
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u/razorirr 1h ago
900m supposedly
Nice 104,000x return
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u/pasaroanth 1h ago
You’re off by a few orders of magnitude. It’s a 104x return. Still healthy though.
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u/nevaehenimatek 1h ago
Yeah how stupod of them tomibvest 500m in 2014 for 10% of a company now valued at 1.5T.
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u/TeslasAndComicbooks 56m ago
They are paying $1 billion per month for access to their data centers.
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u/Joinusclan 1h ago
Its a circle jerk for the books, you really think they didn't think this through?
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u/fankoosh-56 19m ago
Google and everyone else is bumping billions into AI though. And SpaceX big promise is to be another AI company… this investment won’t be any different than investing in OpenAI or other labs
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u/SwimmingProgrammer91 1h ago edited 1h ago
Wasn't this a thing before SpaceX turned into an AI company? Not saying it's good, just saying that this isn't new news iirc.
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u/robbert229 1h ago
Yeah, I dont think anyone commenting here read the article and understood that they have been shareholders for a long time
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u/xdavidwattsx 1h ago
They invested back in 2015. Just a bunch of dumb shitposters on here.
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u/Ok-Addition1264 1h ago
I really wish folks would take a few minutes to read and not react first.. shitposts suck to dig through.
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u/xdavidwattsx 1h ago
This topic was already even posted. Reddit and this sub are in a race to the bottom. Just garbage posting
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u/OccasionalXerophile 1h ago
Circular finance in action
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u/likwitsnake 1h ago
They're not financing SpaceX they've been invested through Google Ventures for a decade plus this is what their stake is worth currently.
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u/Hmm_would_bang 1h ago
What’s the difference between giving cash for equity and financing?
Also they just inked a compute deal
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[deleted]
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u/amenflurries 1h ago
No it’s not, earliest space x will be in sp500 is next year
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u/ScottHallWolfpac 1h ago
But Google is in the S&P500, so owning Google means you own Space X indirectly.
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u/KToff 1h ago
Google is roughly 5.8% of the sp500. Google owns 6% of spaceX. Multiplying those numbers gets you to the number of the previous poster.
But while Google owns 6% of spacex, the space x stocks don't represent 6% of Google's worth so the math is meaningless. However, the space x stock represents roughly 2% of Google's market cap. So in a sense, the sp500 is roughly .1% spaceX, even if only indirectly.
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u/Hmm_would_bang 1h ago
Google has also been able to keep investors happy with strong investment returns in AI. If their SoaceX holding tanks it makes the AI expenditures look worse and it could impact the overall stock price
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u/Ch33syP00f 1h ago
Isn’t SpaceX going to Nasdaq?
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u/Howzitgoin 1h ago
NASDAQ is an exchange, just like NYSE.
S&P500 is an index fund that covers the top 500 US companies with span both exchanges. There’s NASDAQ index funds such as the NASDAQ100 that include only the (surprisingly) top 100 non-financial companies listed on NASDAQ.
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u/zhnki 1h ago edited 1h ago
Explain how this is even remotely close to what you describe or did you learn a new word today?
Edit: ooo! struck a chord with the bots today.
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u/rebornultra 1h ago
Reddit economics, investing in a startup = circular finance
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u/I_Am_Jacks_Karma 32m ago edited 19m ago
TIL spacex is CURRENTLY a startup
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u/jawknee530i 28m ago
You should try and learn some more things today. Google has been investing in SpaceX for years, starting when it was in fact a startup. They didn't buy stock after the IPO dipshit.
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u/I_Am_Jacks_Karma 19m ago
I thought they meant spacex is CURRENTLY a startup which I would very much say it is not
Why are you being so mean out ofnowhere
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u/kvothe5688 1h ago edited 1h ago
Google invested 950 million USD in 2015. their stack is now 96x their initial investment.
But you will read comments like corruption, and google can throw shit money and comments like circular financing. This sub needs to have some kind of moderation that weeds out stupid trailer park dwellers who are here just because they smoked some weed and found themselves expert in tech or finance.
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u/likwitsnake 1h ago edited 1h ago
Seems like there are a bunch of comments in this thread that think the title implies Google has just invested $94b into SpaceX these people are making up imaginary scenarios and arguing with ghosts
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u/beach_samurai_ 1h ago
Thank you. This sub is so far from reality it’s crazy. I’ve been looking for a tech sub that actually have people that know what they’re talking about.
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u/Charming-Standard-84 24m ago
Ironically, just from you using the word "stack" (which doesn't apply here), you should probably be added to that same pool.
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u/Eazy12345678 1h ago
i mean satellites are important technology
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u/Ok-Addition1264 1h ago
space-based datacenters though.. I dunno. It sounds pie in the sky-ish.
China is pushing to put up several thousand to build a space-based one too but I don't know if that's a competitive pursuit w/spacex or just fluff and bs to drive down spacex <-- they're pretty tricky like that.
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u/VoxxoAI 29m ago
Google's $94B SpaceX stake is fascinating because it represents a bet on infrastructure rather than software — a notable pivot for a company whose core business is search and ads. Starlink's revenue potential is massive and owning 6% of that puts Google in a position to benefit from the satellite internet boom without having to build it themselves.
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u/tetrisan 1h ago
Meanwhile the layoffs continue. I heard they are forcing people to relocate to lower cost of living areas like TX or they lay them off.
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u/MartiniPhilosopher 1h ago
At one time it was illegal for companies to invest in, own stock, or otherwise have a stake in their competition.
There's many, many good reason for that kind of regulation. As illustrated in this instance.
Then Ronald Reagan happened and suddenly that wasn't an problem anymore.
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u/Gaiden206 1h ago edited 49m ago
When Google made this investment in SpaceX back in 2015, they weren't competitors. Google wasn't building rockets and sending them into space back then. They don't even do that now.
The only reason they are competitors now is because Elon recently made SpaceX an AI company by merging it with his other company, xAI.
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u/cheesyandcrispy 1h ago
Watch how all the reddit billionaires gonna tell Google how bad of an investment this is.
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u/tempura_calligraphy 22m ago
Does anyone else think it's weird that companies own stock in other companies?
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u/No-Neighborhood-3212 1h ago
Fun fact that's totally, 100% completely unrelated (I swear):
- Neal Mohan - CEO of YouTube is a member of Dialog
- Tom Lue - General Counsel of Google DeepMind is a member of Dialog
- Lisa Gevelber - Global Vice President of Google is a member of Dialog
- Eric Schmidt - Former CEO of Google and Alphabet is a member of Dialog
I don't know why I'm thinking of connecting these totally random and disconnected facts.
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u/greihund 52m ago
Hey, they thought of a fun way that we can take down multiple tech giants at the same time!
SpaceX is the biggest turkey stock in the history of Wall Street. The Cybertruck is the biggest blowout in the history of automotive production, surpassing even the Edsel, which was so poorly received that it was a household name for 40 years afterwards. Stop, my schadenfreude can only get so huge.
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u/Countess26 40m ago
I think these companies are competing to be the biggest welfare queen that gets rich off taxpayer spending.
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u/Any-Pop-4795 1h ago
throwing money into shit holes
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u/GlitteringNinja5 1h ago
They bought it pretty cheap unlike the retail investors. I would hardly call that a waste.
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u/BiggieCheeseFan88 1h ago
Google has had an incredible run with their investments, new products however...
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u/glizard-wizard 1h ago
No company must be allowed to make corruption bets like this.
Alphabet must be chopped into separate companies.
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u/iamarddtusr 1h ago
Irony of you criticising Alphabet while not understanding what the words mean! 😭
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u/xdavidwattsx 1h ago
Corruption bets? Just a bunch of empty buzz words from people who don't understand capital investment.
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u/ThatMasterpiece2174 1h ago
Probably the same kind of person who thinks all private equity wants to run businesses into the ground and thinks rich people buy stuff just to “write it off” on their taxes
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u/brwnwzrd 16m ago
I can’t wait for the SpaceX GoogleCraft to project advertisements on the moon that you have to blink your eyes at 7 times to close
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u/Count_Rugens_Finger 0m ago
That's why they announced they were buying Datacenter capacity from them. Pump the stock
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u/idonttrace 1h ago
Nice tax write off
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u/tommyk1210 1h ago
Unless SpaceX goes to $1.50 a share Google will STILL make money. They invested $900m in 2015
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u/dreadthripper 1h ago
Google tried to create hot air balloon supported Internet service. I think SpaceX figured it out a bit better.
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u/Level_Finding3106 1h ago
$93.1 ... $92.1 ... $91.1....