A fireside with Elon Musk on June 16, 2025 at AI Startup School in San Francisco.
Before rockets and robots, Elon Musk was drilling holes through his office floor to borrow internet. In this candid talk, he walks through the early days of Zip2, the Falcon 1 launches that nearly ended SpaceX, and the “miracle” of Tesla surviving 2008.
He shares the thinking that guided him—building from first principles, doing useful things, and the belief that we’re in the middle of an intelligence big bang.
Apply to Y Combinator: https://ycombinator.com/apply
Work at a startup: https://workatastartup.com
Chapters:
00:00 – Intro
01:25 – His origin story
02:00 – Dream to help build the internet
04:40 – Zip2 and lessons learned
08:00 – PayPal
14:30 – Origin of SpaceX
18:30 – Building rockets from first principles
23:50 – Lessons in leadership
27:10 – Building up xAI
39:00 – Super intelligence and synthetic data
39:30 – Multi-planetary future
43:00 – Neuralink, AI safety and the singularity
48:10 – Message for the Next Generation of Builders
From here i can smell. Elon Musk is already cooking something hard 😈
TL;DR 💡
Elon Musk discusses his entrepreneurial journey, the importance of first principles thinking, AI’s future, and humanity’s path to becoming a multi-planetary species.
💡 Key Points
– Started Zip2 with minimal resources, focusing on usefulness over greatness. 🚀
– Founded SpaceX to enable affordable Mars colonization, overcoming major risks. 🔴
– Tesla and SpaceX nearly failed in 2008 but survived through critical funding and contracts. ⚡
– First principles thinking is key to solving complex problems in hardware and AI. 🧠
– AI progress relies on top talent, massive hardware, and synthetic data creation. 🤖
– Digital superintelligence is near, with several competing AI systems expected. 🌐
– Neuralink enhances brain-machine interfaces, boosting human cognitive bandwidth. 🧬
– Becoming multi-planetary is crucial for civilization’s survival and expanding intelligence. 🌍➡🔴
– Truthfulness and empathy in AI are vital to prevent existential threats. ✅
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Hello 😂😂😂
You made things happen.❤👍😘🙌🏻
What did you think you would do for landscaping? Strenge😮
You must like your life lived with four roommates?❤🤗
To start a new company just like you are going to buy a new toy?🤭😍😁
“Fool” guy is so incredibly very brave ，the interviewer can’t imagine how your brain developing the connection between different topics。Very interest 😅🎉
Man I don’t know what to think. I think Elon’s bullshittin.
✈️