Farzad: "Elon Is a Business Freight Train" + AI CAPEX Bubble "Will Be Proved So Wrong"

Monday at 5:00pm CT, The Washington Post reported that the possibility of SpaceX securing an agreement to operate a mobile network has rattled major carriers. Farzad's take at 7:56pm CT: "Elon is a business freight train." Earlier, at 5:30pm CT, he predicted that 2027 brings "insanely profitable companies, paired with layoffs all over the place."

"A business freight train"

The Washington Post, Monday at 5:00pm CT: Exclusive: The possibility of SpaceX securing an agreement to operate a mobile network has rattled major carriers, raising concerns that Elon Musk might threaten their industry, according to interviews with nearly a dozen people in the telecom industry.

The post links to a Post story headlined "Inside Musk's plan to upend the wireless phone industry." The story says SpaceX "is in talks to buy Boost Mobile or use its network," citing two people familiar with talks with Boost's parent company, EchoStar. It puts the U.S. wireless market at $235 billion, an estimate from research firm MoffettNathanson, and says the service may need consent from AT&T and T-Mobile. That is the Post reporting talks. No deal has been announced, and SpaceX did not respond to the Post. Farzad liked the post.

Farzad quoted it at 7:56pm CT: Elon is a business freight train. A destroyer of legacy systems.

He went on: "If I'm legacy telecom, I should've seen this coming from a mile away." In his view, "there's literally nothing they can do short of weaponizing the government against him," which he calls "literally the ONLY way to outcompete Elon in the US." He closed with: At least the Chinese try to compete on merit!

That's Farzad's opinion. He doesn't say what government action he expects or who would take it.

Deandawiz replied three minutes later. From the outside, he wrote, "Elon comes in with blaring sirens, horns, warnings, alarms and bangs," but legacy auto, transport and telecom "pretend he isn't literally dismantling their entire 'empire.'" Farzad liked it.

Sawyer Merritt, 8:45pm CT: Got a text from someone whose friend is a lobbyist for one of the three major U.S. mobile carriers.

Sawyer writes that the lobbyist said the carriers "are all low-key panicking about @SpaceX and the disruption/impact that Starlink Mobile could have on their businesses," and that "they are working closer than ever to try and slow SpaceX down." The account comes to Sawyer through two other people, and nobody in it is named. Farzad replied at 8:49pm CT: Elon making enemies everywhere he goes lol

Earlier that afternoon, at 2:50pm CT and two hours before the Post story, Farzad posted a video titled SpaceX Is Buying A Cell Phone Provider (finally…). That's his title. The Post's reporting describes talks and a possibility, not a completed purchase. Under the video he replied "Made with my Grok Bot Solo," linking to Solo's card. The card says Solo "Takes a long-form YouTube topic all the way to a finished video link by itself."

Check The Washington Post here. Farzad here. Deandawiz here. Sawyer Merritt here. Farzad's reply here. SpaceX Is Buying A Cell Phone Provider (finally…) here. The Solo reply here.

"It'll make people cry"

Farzad, Monday at 5:30pm CT: The trend for 2027 will be insanely profitable companies, paired with layoffs all over the place, and a massive boom in physical build outs for AI.

And: The notion that AI CAPEX is a bubble will be proved so wrong it'll make people cry.

That's his projection for next year, and he doesn't attach numbers to it. CAPEX is capital spending, the money companies put into data centers, chips and other physical buildout.

At 10:53pm CT he quoted favwontmiss, who had posted at 11:51am CT: The AI bubble bursting is going to be one of the biggest reality checks in tech history.

favwontmiss went on: "These companies have spent years convincing us that AI is the future while burning billions, destroying jobs, draining natural resources and forcing products nobody asked for into our daily lives." The post ends: "Eventually, the hype has to meet reality."

Farzad: I truly don't understand how anyone could legitimately think this.

He added: It's literally just the beginning.

He liked two of the replies. Aria Radnia, 10:56pm CT: "Anyone who thinks we're in an ai bubble doesnt use ai enough to realize just how incredible the technology is." Rigario, a minute later, said many people, "even those using what they think are agents, are just using it as a search replacement," and "never truly automate everything."

Earlier Monday, at 10:41am CT, teslayoda asked Farzad whether his token bills were "up and to the right," adding: "Just want to see if CAPEX is translating into revenue." Farzad replied: ROI vastly outstrips token cost.

ROI is return on investment. He doesn't share his bills or say how he measures the return.

Check Farzad's 2027 call here. Farzad's quote post here. favwontmiss here. Aria Radnia here. Rigario here. teslayoda here. Farzad's reply here.

"The present, actually."

Chamath Palihapitiya, Monday at 11:04am CT: There is a version of the future which is rebels with hyper advanced AI vs monolithic incumbents with boatloads of free cash flow and reg capture…

The post ends there. "Reg capture" is regulatory capture, which is when incumbents shape the rules that govern them. Farzad liked it. Tuesday at 7:30am CT he quoted it with three words: The present, actually.

Chamath presents the fight as one possible future. Farzad says it's already happening.

Aaron Levie, Tuesday at 12:34am CT: The divergence in AI output weirdly may be the highest it's ever been, even though adoption is the broadest it's ever been.

Levie writes: "A few years ago the best productivity gains you could get, even in the most capability-aligned field (like coding), was maybe 30-50% better productivity if you were very good at it." Now, he says, models "can do far longer tasks at a time with limited human interaction," and "In just a two year timespan, the upper limits on productivity gains have gone from 30-50% to now likely 5-10X depending on the field."

In his view, that means someone "living at the frontier vs. not paying attention at all" could see "an order of magnitude difference" in output. He expects the gap "is only getting wider from here given the rate of progress we're likely to see with RSI." RSI is short for recursive self-improvement, meaning AI systems that help improve themselves. The figures are Levie's estimates.

He was quoting ChShersh, Monday at 5:54am CT: Somewhere in the world there's probably an entire team of 6 devs, working full time on a project that's just one Claude Code prompt

Farzad liked Levie's post.

Jason, Monday at 3:28pm CT: Right now I'm getting $25-50 for every $1 in token/subscription spend on super intelligence...

That's the whole post. The ratio is Jason's claim, and he doesn't show the math. He was quoting Chamath, 2:11pm CT: This is the equivalent of counting the atoms in a barrel of oil rather than measuring the useful energy it produced.

Chamath's post quotes something that isn't in this pull, so it isn't clear here what he was answering. Farzad liked Jason's post.

Check Chamath here. Farzad here. Aaron Levie here. ChShersh here. Jason here. Chamath's oil post here.

FSD: 17 billion miles

Sawyer Merritt, Monday at 11:06am CT: Tesla's global fleet has just crossed 17 billion miles driven on FSD (Supervised).

He writes that Tesla updated its FSD mile counter last week "to reflect growing usage." He also writes that the fleet "now drives 1,000 miles every 1.8 seconds on FSD, or 18.2 billion miles annually, up 35% since July 2026." The post includes a video this pull doesn't describe.

Tesla's own FSD safety page backs the total: its live counter read about 17.04 billion miles on Tuesday. The yearly rate and the 35% growth are Sawyer's figures. The two rates don't quite match. At 1,000 miles every 1.8 seconds, a year comes to roughly 17.5 billion miles, not 18.2 billion, so at least one of the figures is probably rounded. Farzad liked the post.

Check Sawyer Merritt here.

Neuralink: "WOW!"

Matic Robots, Monday at 11:41am CT: Zach is controlling Matic with his mind 🤯

The post continues: "Neuralink patient #22 is using his thoughts to move Matic around his home." It tags Elon and Neuralink and ends with "This is incredible." It includes a video this pull doesn't describe. The patient number and the description come from Matic's post. Farzad liked it and quote-posted it at 11:52am CT: WOW!

A minute later Matic replied to Farzad: Accessibility for all 🤍🙏

Farzad liked that too.

Check Matic Robots here. Farzad here. Matic's reply here.

Grok Bots in the wild

Farzad, Monday at 6:25pm CT: I'm probably gonna regret this but YOLO.

He asked people to reply "with any video request." He wrote: "My Grok Bot named Shawty will make a short video based on your request." He promised "a reply with the video within 20 minutes" and signed off with: May the token Gods be on my side.

In the same minute he replied with a link to Shawty's card. The card says Shawty "Makes fact-checked, voiced, animated vertical Shorts on any topic you hand it, fast, and can answer X reply requests with a custom Short."

The requests covered a lot of ground. People asked for stock and options explainers, Starship and Cybercab scenes, science visualizations, history lessons and ads for small businesses, and plenty of requests were jokes at Farzad's expense. The first "Here's your Short" replies went out by 6:49pm CT, and they kept coming until about 10:10pm CT.

Dave Lee replied at 8:41pm CT: Farzad regretting this post.

Farzad liked it and answered two minutes later: Can you please send me your credit card number?

vincezanella asked for a video set in 2040, where "Farzad's army of super grok-bots pump out 50 AI-slop videos per minute." Farzad, 9:20pm CT: Only 50?

At 9:44pm CT he closed the thread: Alright gonna stop taking new requests here.

He added "Will post stats shortly." There's no stats post in this pull.

Earlier Monday, at 8:54am CT, Farzad replied to Sawyer Merritt's update: "Looks like SpaceX reset Grok Bot usage back to where it was before yesterday." Farzad: Good move. Comms was poor.

At 2:59pm CT, Elon posted "This is the way," quoting JasonBud from 10:00am CT: Treat Grok Bot like a teammate and give @bot an ambitious task you'd normally give to a new hire.

Farzad liked Elon's post.

Chase (CybertruckATX), 7:58pm CT: Got laid off from my VR studio in late Sept. Just signed a new full-time lead tech art gig. In between I ran the whole search with a team of Grok Bots.

He calls it a thread about "how it went, the good and the messy," and thanks @poteto "for the advice and especially dr eggbot!" This pull has only the opening post, so it doesn't show how the bots ran the search. Farzad RTd it at 8:17pm CT.

Check Farzad's request post here. The Shawty card reply here. Dave Lee here. Farzad's reply here. vincezanella here. Farzad's "Only 50?" here. Farzad closing requests here. Sawyer Merritt here. Farzad's reply here. Elon here. JasonBud here. Chase here. Farzad's RT here.

Lemonade Renters: all 50 states

Shai Wininger, Lemonade's co-founder, Tuesday at 7:00am CT: @Lemonade_Inc Renters is now available nationwide.

He added: Minnesota went live today, completing all 50 states.

Farzad liked it and RTd it at 7:24am CT.

Check Shai Wininger here. Farzad's RT here.

Farzad's videos

Farzad posted six videos between Monday at 12:15pm CT and Tuesday at 7:06am CT, counting the cell phone video above. This pull has only their titles. Under four of them he replied "Build your own short form content with my Grok Bot Shorty," linking to Shorty's card. Under the Mars fuel video and the cell phone video he replied "Made with my Grok Bot Solo."

Check Why Falcon 9's Grid Fins Are Bare Titanium, Monday at 12:15pm CT, here.

Check Why Tesla Wraps Its Fastest Motor in Carbon Fiber, Monday at 3:08pm CT, here.

Check Why SpaceX Chills Falcon 9's Oxygen Almost to Freezing, Tuesday at 12:11am CT, here.

Check Elon Says the Cybertruck Stops a Tommy Gun. A Rifle Round Carries 3.7x the Energy, Tuesday at 3:07am CT, here. The 3.7x is from his video title, and this pull doesn't show the math.

Check How SpaceX's Starship Will Make Fuel On Mars, Tuesday at 7:06am CT, here.

Check the Solo reply under the Mars fuel video here.