Twelve Zeros
Elon, aka Harry Bōlz
Harry Bōlz Is A Trillionaire
If you don’t spend a lot of time on Twitter (x.com), you might not know that Elon occasionally calls himself Harry Bōlz.
It’s a bit of a recurring joke.
And in case you’re not keeping up on current events, we just made Mr. Bōlz a trillionaire who can now afford to buy all the ketamine and swords he wants.
One Trillion Dollars
Can you wrap your head around how much money a trillion dollars is?
A “trillion” is a one with twelve zeros after it, or 10 to the power of 12 for you science nerds.
For context, a trillion dollars is more than the United States’ average annual military budget.
US Military Spending Over Time
There are only 21 countries with a GDP of over a trillion dollars.
This means that Elon’s net worth puts him between the GDPs of Saudi Arabia and Taiwan and within striking distance of the GDPs of Poland and Switzerland.
Ironically, if Elon took the trillion dollars at his disposal now, thanks in large part to the SpaceX IPO, and converted it to pennies stacked on top of each other, that stack would reach far into space.
A stack of one hundred trillion pennies would actually be enough to reach Mars and back (at Mars’ closest point to Earth).
If you have a subscription to the Wall Street Journal, they put together some other fun visualizations of what one trillion looks like. If you don’t, you’ll just have to take my word for it that they were fun.
Crackin’ The Opening Bell
SpaceX Falcon 9 Launch
Elon might be a genius (might), but he’s also a bit of a dolt.
During his SpaceX opening bell speech at the Nasdaq, he said, “If people had told me this was going to happen, I was like, man, you must be smoking some really good crack.”
Elon, weeks shy of his 55th birthday, told staffers that in the company’s early days, he gave it a “less than 10% chance of succeeding.”
It is unclear if SpaceX’s chances of succeeding have improved. It is a growing but not yet profitable company. As SpaceX articulated in its SEC filing, its future depends on developing technology that doesn’t exist yet.
“If we are unable to successfully complete the development, testing, and deployment of Starship at scale in accordance with our anticipated schedule, or at all, or if we are unable to achieve sufficient launch cadence, reusability, and capability, our ability to execute our growth strategy (such as the deployment of our next-generation V3 satellites, V2 satellite-to-mobile connectivity, and providing orbital AI compute infrastructure) would be materially and adversely affected. The commercial deployment of Starship, particularly at scale, is subject to substantial risks and uncertainties inherent in the development of new and complex technologies and systems.”
Nevertheless, Friday’s historic event made SpaceX the largest initial public offering (IPO) in history and landed the company in the top 10 of the world’s largest companies by Market cap, ahead of Tesla by about half a trillion dollars, with a value of $2.2 trillion.
Maybe There Is Hope
Elon has been one of the richest people on the planet for a while.
But the bulk of his current wealth has only recently materialized.
His net worth actually doubled in just the last 12 months.
If nothing else, Elon has demonstrated it is possible to earn half a trillion dollars in a fairly short period of time.
Maybe There Isn’t
Armed with the wealth of an entire nation, it gets harder each day not to liken Elon to a James Bond villain.
His DOGE cuts to the USAID may have resulted in the death of hundreds of thousands of people and directly resulted in what may become the worst Ebola outbreak in Africa’s history.
He’s a fan of disregarding other countries’ laws, ignoring US judges, making his own rules, and generally manipulating courts for his own purposes.
He already likes to flex his influence on the global stage.
He gets to decide which nations do and don’t have access to SpaceX’s Starlink satellite network.
He’s got plans to expand Starlink into an orbiting data center consisting of over a million satellites.
And given how SpaceX’s business is structured, Elon owns 38% of the company, and he’s in charge until he decides he isn’t.
IMHO
There’s no question that Elon has changed the course of world history through the products and services the companies he’s founded or led have provided.
PayPal demonstrated that you could buy and pay for things online.
Tesla demonstrated that electric cars were viable (again).
SpaceX demonstrated that rockets could be reusable and that data services could be delivered from orbit.
These are no small feats.
I doubt that Elon’s done changing things on Planet Earth (while he still lives here).
However, Forbes gives Elon a Philanthropic Score of 1 out of 5. That means he’s donated less than 1% of his wealth to charitable or philanthropic endeavours.
Maybe he’s not donating because he still has to put his 14 children through college (that’s gonna be expensive).
For a man who could now provide clean drinking water to the entire world with his own petty cash and still have nearly a trillion dollars to his name, history will decide if Elon is a benevolent genius or the most notorious and deadly Scrooge in human history.
“We have a history of net losses and may not achieve profitability in the future.”
China’s Automotive Expansion
MG 07
MG pulled the covers off its latest and greatest coupe, the 07, and the images bear an uncanny resemblance to the Porsche Taycan. newatlas.com
Xiaomi delivers on Tesla’s decade-old vision for a robot charger with a new home robotic arm. electrek.co
BYD chairman says firm will be world's biggest automaker in 5 years. reuters.com
BYD announced plans to accelerate its conquest of the EU auto market by rolling out superfast Flash Chargers across the continent. theverge.com
BYD’s Dolphin G DM-i is the company’s first car specifically designed for Europe. With up to 65 miles of pure electric range and 646 miles combined, BYD said the plug-in hatch will redefine the segment as an affordable, efficient alternative. It’s now available to order, starting at under $22,000. electrek.co
China’s northeastern city of Changchun, home to the country's oldest automaker, FAW Group, has released a draft plan through 2030 to revamp its decades-old auto sector. reuters.com
Rise Of The Machines
Wing Drone Delivery
Wing, the Alphabet-owned company that delivers groceries and even coffee using autonomous drones, is pushing into seven more US cities through its partnership with Walmart. techcrunch.com
A humanoid robot has successfully reached the summit of Ecuador’s Chimborazo volcano. interestingengineering.com
A new ultra-tiny surgical robot, developed at Nanyang Technological University (NTU) in Singapore, can crawl across soft tissues, cut biological material, release drugs, collect tissue samples, and even generate therapeutic heat on demand. newatlas.com
Germany’s Neura Robotics raised a funding round of up to $1.4 billion. cnbc.com
An “infinite bowl-making” robot system can make 500 salads, Tex-Mex, and poke bowls with the exact ingredients you want, down to the personalized macros you’re tracking, in an hour. fortune.com
Energy
85% of Canada’s crude oil still flows to the US, making it our biggest export diversification opportunity. thehub.ca
Rongsheng Petrochemical Co., already the biggest buyer of crude from Canada’s sole West Coast pipeline, is weighing an agreement to buy oil from Alberta’s next project, a proposed million-barrel-a-day pipeline to British Columbia. bloomberg.com
The refurbishment of the Bruce Power Unit 3 reactor has been completed months ahead of schedule and millions of dollars under budget, the Ontario Government announced this week. ctvnews.ca
This week, GM made a series of announcements about EV batteries, energy storage, and grid resilience amid growing electricity demand from AI data centers and plans to activate new vehicle-to-grid capabilities for its current EV and home energy customers. theverge.com
Donut Lab’s claims about its solid-state batteries have been thoroughly debunked by Ryan Inis Hughes on his popular Ziroth YouTube channel. According to Hughes, Donut Lab has engaged in deliberate, calculated deception by claiming to have a solid-state battery ready for mass production. theverge.com
But Wait, There’s More
Boreham Motorworks Ford Escort Mk1 RS
The Boreham Motorworks reimagined Ford Escort Mk1 RS is a thing of beauty, and I want one. caranddriver.com
Ford’s $30K electric truck could be smaller than a Maverick. theverge.com
Honda Canada CEO Dave Jamieson warns tariffs, Chinese imports and policy conflicts threaten Canada’s auto sector. autonews.com
The Donald says his country doesn’t need anything from Canada and that he’s not even interested in renewing CUSMA. winnipegsun.com
Policy whiplash under the Donald’s administration has cost Japan’s carmakers $28 billion and counting, as they lick wounds from U.S. tariffs, EV headwinds and emissions rollbacks. autonews.com
An electric vehicle start-up backed by the Mexican government unveiled its first prototype in a ceremony featuring President Claudia Sheinbaum, who praised the project as an affordable mobility option and a showcase for homegrown engineering. bloomberg.com
VW is pressing ahead with sweeping job cuts and cost reductions. reuters.com
VW, Stellantis, and Renault, which account for about 60% of Europe’s car output, are urging the EU to adopt a simple “Made in Europe” rule and stronger incentives to boost local production. reuters.com
Mitsubishi plans to introduce the new Eclipse Sportback EV to the North American market as a 2027 model in the second half of this year. media.mitsubishicars.com
Mercedes-AMG aims to reach global sales of 200,000 by 2030 with new products and a new engine. autonews.com
BMW is pulling the cover off its new M performance concept built on its Neue Klasse next-generation architecture. theverge.com
Rivian’s R2 SUV starts landing in people's driveways this month. caranddriver.com, theverge.com, arstechnica.com
Lucid brings hands-free driving to its Gravity SUV. theverge.com
Waymo introduces $30-a-month premium tier for riders who want faster pickups. theverge.com
Waymo created a virtual hyperattentive driver to test against its own autonomous vehicles in a series of AI simulations to see which is better at crash avoidance (the Matrix has you, Waymo). theverge.com
Decart’s new world model can simulate hours of photorealistic driving. techcrunch.com
Uber, Wayve, and Waymo are headed toward a robotaxi showdown in London, England. techcrunch.com
Lyft joined Uber in suing New York City to block a new law they said would force them to keep bad drivers who threaten public and passenger safety on their platforms. reuters.com