2 comments

  • toomuchtodo an hour ago

    > The U.S. accounts for 55% of all the world's unicorns, or startup companies worth more than $1 billion, according to the UN's World Intellectual Property Organization. That includes Space X, which on Tuesday became one of the world's five most valuable companies following its initial public offering last week.

    Please, who cares if they're unicorns. China can build ~20M EVs per year, Europe ~4.6M, and the US can build ~2-3M. China now has reusable launch capabilities, which they can sell to customers who, for whatever reason, don't want to buy from SpaceX or Arianespace (who could also have a reusable capability if they invested in it). The US spent ~$500M on a munitions factory that didn't build a single munition [1]. Ignore enterprise value, focus on capabilities and capacity. Certainly, invest the €300B/year the EU was investing into US treasuries into domestic investments [2] (which will push up US treasury yields, forcing the US to deleverage sooner from a fiscal policy perspective), but don't chase shiny (which is all enterprise value and stock price is at this point in the hype cycle and capital market timeline).

    The US is like a kid who keeps wiping off a whiteboard and writing bigger numbers expecting praise while the other kids are building more and better tools that are fit for purpose.

    [1] Taxpayers Funded a $533 Million Artillery Plant That Made Nothing - https://hn.algolia.com/?dateRange=all&page=0&prefix=false&qu...

    [2] Macron says €300B in EU savings sent to the US every year will be invested in EU - https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=46722594 - January 2026 (207 comments)

    (as of this comment, China has sufficient EV manufacturing capacity to supply total global demand, per https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=49393566 and https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2PffKnEEY-E)

  • downrightmike an hour ago

    Bankers first