It's Elon Musk's World. We're Just Living In It.

KQED's Forum

KQED

News, Politics, News Commentary

4.2 • 726 Ratings

🗓️ 13 February 2026

⏱️ 55 minutes

🔗️ Recording | iTunes | RSS

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Summary

Elon Musk’s merger of SpaceX with his AI start-up xAI has created what the New York Times calls “the most valuable private company on earth,” allowing Musk to forge ahead with new plans to develop data centers in outer space and an IPO expected later this year. Musk’s companies hold billions in government contracts as his own net worth tops $800 billion, and his decisions affect not just his shareholders but global communications, national security and international politics. We talk about how so much power has aggregated in one person and the perils for the rest of us. Guests: Ryan Mac, tech reporter, The New York Times; co-author, "Character Limit: How Elon Musk Destroyed Twitter" Nitasha TIku, tech culture reporter Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

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1:04.6	Vermina Kim. It is hard to overstate how much reach Elon Musk already had before Donald Trump's second term.
1:14.3	He controls SpaceX, Musk, that is, which launches most U.S. satellites and provides internet
1:21.1	in war zones. Tesla, a publicly traded automaker that reshape the EV market, X a global social media platform,
1:29.5	and now XAI, his artificial company, recently folded into SpaceX like a Russian doll,
1:36.9	because he needs the operational cash to burn and because he can. That's private power at an
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