Is he actually selling shares? Imo this move might actually be more about gaining more control percentage wise.

Similar to how he increased his control when he folded Twitter into xAI (at a imo very favorable valuation for him), which gave him a larger share of the combined company.

If he merges space x and xAI (especially at a high valuation of the latter), he would own more of the combined company as he owns more of xAI then space x.

For me the only surprising thing is how existing shareholders seemingly just let him dictate these mergers and valuations. But I guess they face a dilemma where valuation depend so much on Elon that they have to play by his rules or risk loosing even more.

With iPhones i think it’s less about durability (and especially in the software department they were always great in terms of longevity), but more about repairability in case something does happen.

As far as lightbulbs go the issue with potential planned obsolescence doesn’t go way just because of the swap to LEDs. First there are a type of bulb even today that use some form of filament and second the part that gets damaged is usually some kind of capacitor or other electronic part that gets run with too much voltage and too hot. Don’t have time to watch it again, but i remember finding this video from a few years ago interesting.

I do agree with the notion that phones in todays society are hugely important and spending money on what for most people might be their most important computing device is valid.

But the thing is that you really don’t need to spend this kind of money to get all the performance 95% of people need. Unless you want a foldable phone or NEED the telefoto-lense that is often reserved for higher end models (but I assume even then there are cheap options),

As an example here in Germany you can get a pixel 9 for under 500€, if you get a cheap mobile contract even cheaper (I pay 15€/month over 2 years and got a free pixel 9 with the mobile plan). All the performance you need and makes great photos. And for anyone who wants lots of storage there are still phones with sd card readers

What I find particularly problematic is the conflict of interest between Tesla and xAI, especially because Elon has a higher percentage of ownership of the latter.

It’s clear that Tesla is priced not as a car manufacturer, but as a technology company with high (arguably delusional) hopes towards self driving, compute and robotics. However that kind of seems like a natural area to expand into for xAI as well. So why should Elon do it at Tesla where he has less ownership?

Btw xAI acquired X, so one less company. From what I remember at the time the purchase felt like Elon taking advantage of other investors and getting a very favorable deal for himself due to the company evaluations, which increased his ownership stake in the combined company.

Frankly, if the company you invested in does not give you dividends, then you are a fucking chump.

That’s just not true. There are plenty of reasons why fast growing/expanding young companies shouldn’t pay dividends, if they have better opportunities to put capital to work (if you disagree with their assessment you sell the stock).

And even in mature companies dividends aren’t always good. Just look at Intel and Berkshire. Intel should have cut the dividend way sooner and is now in a worse spot because they didn’t. Berkshire on the other hand is by all accounts a healthy and well run company. If you want to take profits you just sell some stocks and if Berkshire thinks that price is to low they repurchase some of that stock.

John Oliver (or alternatively other talkshow hosts like John Steward, Stephen Colbert, or Conan) could be another interesting choice.

I’d assume he is probably more intelligent than me and has already spent a lot of time presenting problems and thinking about solutions. He’d also have the right energy to get things done.

That said, I think without changes to the capabilities of the office, I actually don’t think they’d get that much done. Despite what it sometimes may look like, Trump can only do most of the things because others support it. This isn’t a one man show.

To be honest: I haven’t done a complete switch. I still lurk on reddit from time to time.

What I have done however is switched to only actively engage with Lemmy, which imo is the more important part. I sadly don’t have much original content to offer, but I try to engage in some comments (like just now)

Or an established player in the market that wants to keep competitors out (but I guess in a way that is someone who dislikes change). While legislation like this can sometimes be great (e.g. the recent changes forcing longer support for mobile phones) there comes a point where it cuts the other way and it becomes an entry barrier.

Imo the better solution would be to legislate what happens after support ends. Like forcing the disclosure of at least some documentation that allows others to continue servicing the product or at least transfer out data and install other software on the device.

I think a partial explanation can be that for most international tourists a visit to the USA is a major trip that gets planned well in advance. Easily half or even a full year ahead. Things only really got bad in the last few months, so we might still see many holidays that were planned before the madness fully set in. If that is the case I’d expect a continued decline in the future, where people choose another destination when deciding their next itinerary.

Agreed. I hope this gains even more traction. Building a digital economy around support and service of free open source software with the requirement of personnel being local seems like the best way for Europe to finally become competitive.