Elon Musk is steamrolling Wall Street to become a trillionaire
From Decoder with Nilay Patel by The Verge
June 4, 2026 · 49 min
About this episode
Nilay Patel interviews Ryan Mac about the implications of the upcoming SpaceX IPO and its connection to Elon Musk's influence on Wall Street and Twitter.
My guest today is Ryan Mac, a technology reporter at The New York Times and co-author of the excellent book Character Limit: How Elon Musk Destroyed Twitter, which came out in 2024. I wanted to have Ryan on today because we’re on the cusp of the SpaceX IPO, which promises to be one of the most consequential public offerings in history for a variety of reasons. Its biggest-ever size, of course, at nearly $2 trillion dollars. But also because all kinds of rules that keep our markets fair are being bent, if not outright broken, along the way. And, also because buried somewhere inside SpaceX is X, the social platform formerly known as Twitter, which Musk purchased in 2022. Read the full interview transcript on The Verge. Links: Welcome to hell, Elon | The Verge The SpaceX IPO is great for Elon Musk and terrible for you | The Verge In SpaceX’s IPO, Elon Musk is the risk factor | The Verge For Wall Street, the only thing worse than SpaceX flopping is missing out | NYT How SpaceX Is structured to favor Elon Musk | NYT As the SpaceX hype machine steamrolls ahead, Wall Street jumps aboard | NYT The SpaceX IPO Reveals What Really Happened to Twitter | NY Mag Subscribe to The Verge to…
People in this episode
Host: Nilay Patel
Guest: Ryan Mac
Topics covered
- Elon Musk
- SpaceX IPO
- Wall Street
- technology
- public offerings
- market regulations
Keywords
- SpaceX
- IPO
- Elon Musk
- Wall Street
- Ryan Mac
- technology
- public offering
- market regulations
Mentioned in this episode
Organizations: The New York Times, SpaceX, Twitter, The Verge, Vox Media Podcast Network
Books & works: Character Limit: How Elon Musk Destroyed Twitter
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