The Hidden Risk Inside SpaceX

Elon Musk’s SpaceX debuted on the Nasdaq in June with the largest IPO ever (wsj.com/business/spacex-ipo-elon-musk-legacy-9…), raising a record $86 billion. But the stock has been on a wild ride ever since.

Kara sits down with a panel of experts to assess SpaceX after its inaugural post-IPO earnings report and the first in a series of lockup expirations that released more than 900 million shares for trading. They break down where SpaceX is actually making money (spoiler: it’s Starlink) and what its massive AI spending, xAI acquisition and increasingly expansive ambitions reveal about Musk’s long-term strategy.

Ed Elson (podcasts.voxmedia.com/host/ed-elson) is an analyst, writer, and co-host of the Prof G Markets podcast (podcasts.apple.com/us/podcast/prof-g-markets/i…) from the Vox Media Podcast Network. Tim Higgins (wsj.com/news/author/tim-higgins) is a business columnist for The Wall Street Journal, a CNBC contributor, and the author of books including iWar: Fortnite, Elon Musk, Spotify, WeChat, and Laying Siege to Apple’s Empire (harpercollins.com/products/iwar-tim-higgins?va…). Bethany McLean (x.com/bethanymac12?lang=en) is a contributing editor at Vanity Fair, a columnist at Yahoo Finance, a CNBC contributor, and the author of books including The Smartest Guys in the Room: The Amazing Rise and Scandalous Fall of Enron (penguinrandomhouse.com/books/291133/the-smarte…).

Questions? Comments? Email us at on@voxmedia.com or find us on YouTube (youtube.com/@onwithkaraswisher), Instagram (instagram.com/onwithkaraswisher/?hl=en), TikTok (tiktok.com/@onwithkaraswisher),Threads (threads.com/@onwithkaraswisher), and Bluesky (bsky.app/profile/onwithkaraswisher.bsky.social) @onwithkaraswisher.

Come see Kara for a live taping of On at the Odoo Experience conference in San Francisco on September 2. Register for the conference on Odoo's website (odoo.com/event/odoo-experience-2026-americas-1…).

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