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judge2020

Maybe, but my leading guess is that there are only so many areas where a billionaire can throw billions of dollars and actually feel like they're contributing to (taking over) the future of humanity - with electric cars and privatized space transport being the safest bets.

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These were only safe after one of those billionaires actually proved it. Before SpaceX and Tesla, both these things were considered untenable.

I suspect the Nissan Leaf would have happened with or without Tesla.

Blue Origin predates SpaceX.

And still has not reached orbit

> were considered untenable.

The billionaire space race starts before SpaceX, largely from/around the Ansari X Prize (Bezos, Paul Allen).

I agree, it's just sad that they jumped on an internet-hyped nothing of a company instead of just spinning up their own.

Musk bought into Tesla; he didn't create it. This was before they even released their first product.

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