[miffy900]

Yep. there's absolutely no way that Cursor is worth that much.

for contrast, Elon paid $44b for twitter back in 2022. When you adjust for inflation, Twitter was acquired for $49b in 2026 money. Cursor getting bought for 1.22x more is just insanity.

Elon seems unwilling to shake off the image that he has basically no idea what he's doing.

[laughing_man]

I certainly wouldn't mind having that image if it meant being the wealthiest man in the world.

[utopiah]

Sounds like playful comments people do about nymphomaniacs. Sure nobody would mind being the wealthiest man in the world without the downsides. Look at the guy. He's not just clueless, he's actually totally lost. Do you know how many kids he has and how many broke all contact with him, the wealthiest man in the World? Does this look like an enviable situation?

[laughing_man]

As far as I know of his fourteen children only one has broken contact.

[utopiah]

1/14 isn't a bad ratio... except when we are talking of children, any of those numbers is terrible.

But in this specific context it's even crazier. It's one think to break contact with a parent but I think it's hard to imagine doing so when said parent is extremely rich (just because of both the privilege it gives, but also the risk of reprimand), even more so when they are the richest person on Earth.

[websap]

I think X paid for itself, so it worked our for him.

[numpad0]

  > Nikita Bier @nikitabier
  >  
  > If you’re seeing a bunch of Japanese posts, here are some fun facts:
  > Japan has more daily active users and more time spent on X than any other country in the world.
  > Over two thirds of the country is monthly active on X. 
  > X in Japan has one of the highest penetration rates of any social network in history.

I wouldn't be so sure when "any other country except US" usually apply to everything on the Internet, except Twitter after the power transfer

1: https://twitter.com/nikitabier/status/2037764895064867061

[_--__--__]

I'm pretty sure that claim about Japanese Twitter activity was true for most of the site's history pre acquisition

[numpad0]

No. JP activity was always second to US, only the biggest "out there". Same is true for all Twitter-like social media, such as Mastodon and Bluesky. Even VRChat doesn't have a majority Japanese userbase. Japan actually becoming the top majority anywhere is an anomaly and a major reversal of power balance.

[trollbridge]

Still blows me away that Google had complete dominance in Brazil and then just threw it all away and shut it down a few years later.

[numpad0]

Google Plus? I wouldn't be sure if that was a strategic blunder or if they were seeing something us in the public didn't. I remember it was more popular among not-so-tech savvy male of parental to retirement ages, which are still masses but not the sweet spot in terms of demographics. Besides they have YouTube and its comment section full of kids, which is the sweet spot.

[bix6]

Source?

[vkou]

It paid in influence, not dollars. Billionaires don't buy newspapers or social media platforms because they think they are good businesses.

[93po]

Elon Musk, the richest person on the planet, with multiple industry-changing companies built under his leadership, clearly has no idea what he's doing.

[blitzar]

Its hard to think clearly when you are in a k-hole.

in ten the speed'll kick in, can of coke and a ciggy and he'll be right as rain

[93po]

so now we're accusing him of being a habitual drug user? or is this some joke that's going over my head

[anonzzzies]

You want to keep on topic, so explain in a business-sense way how this acquisition makes sense? Cursor has no moat, just a lot of clients. If spacex would clone vscode, plop in Grok and and advertise it on X as subscription included with your X sub, they would immediately have more clients. Why pay this type of money for that if he is so clever? It is a question; maybe there is a reason, it just looks incredibly skewed towards cursor; they are the big winners with spacex overpaying a large margin for something that does not seem to make a lot of sense?

[93po]

My argument isn't that I have insider information or even any meaningful knowledge or experience with literally billion dollar acquisitions and investments. My argument is that you don't either, and almost no one does, and Elon doesn't really have a track record of making decisions that have no explanation behind them - even if that basis is sometimes ideological rather than profit maximizing (buying twitter).

Elon is problematic in many ways and despite the cool things his companies do, I think he is also causing harm. However, he is not an idiot, he is very business savvy, he does things for real reasons, and if you're going to speculate that he's being an idiot and making a stupid decision, then I think it needs an argument of substance that actually understands the factors at play in spending billions of dollars on buying a company. Which I don't think either of us are equipped to provide.

Saying "this doesn't make sense" is basically an admission that it isn't understood, rather than evidence that Elon is being an idiot.

[anonzzzies]

It is fair, however, people who are too big too fail have a lot of leeway after their brain goes. I think it could be an explanation as well. But we indeed do not know; don't have nor want billions. People like that definitely live in another world.