there's a lot of propganda from these state backed enterprises. I think the fraction of the cost label is debatable given the evidence of mass gpu smuggling through third parties like Singapore which China can't exactly openly admit to. Unless of course we're talking about distilling, which is probably a lot cheaper than training a model from scratch (there's also the fact that labour is still relatively cheap in China compared to the US which may or may not matter e.g. Anthropic claim against Alibaba
> The campaign allegedly used nearly 25,000 fraudulent accounts to run 28.8 million exchanges with Claude between April and June 2026
(although their campaign could have been in part or all automated via agents, not sure)
Is there really a valid basis for claims like "state backed enterprises"? My understanding is that's no different than claiming that datacentres in America are "state backed" since they get things like big breaks on property taxes.
I mean, if this were an american company vs an american company, i think it would be a long drawn out civil case and brought before the Supreme Court (I still this is ultimately will be brought before the supreme court). It could also be argued frontier models are far more important to national security than most military programs, even versus next gen fighter jets.
The fact that Alibaba stock, which is also listed on the NYSE, barely budged after Anthropic made these claims imo tells me that the market doesn't think that a lone american company could go after these companies by themselves. Alibaba denied and there's not much they can do alone, I mean would the CCP allow Alibaba go through a discovery process of a normal civil trial? It might have to be the US feds that bring up a case.
I think it could be argued that if Alibaba and other China companies want access to US capital markets for something so vital for national security, there should be some ground rules, but we will eventually need the Supreme court to settle whether or not this state enterprise distilling constitutes IP theft (at the very least it is a breach of contract). The fact that they are widely available doesn't really matter (i mean pirated content is widely available, it's ultimately about how the court rules on distilling).
based on this HN comment and associated article https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=48977128#48985989 I still have yet to see a China open weight model beat any of the frontier models, they always almost there yet never quite there, which seems to be evidence of distilling (although I'm open to be proven wrong).
I read that by syncing up several space telescopes, astronomers can use something called interferometry to make them work together as one large telescope.
I wonder it's possible for Starlink to attach small telescopes on each of these satellites, and if so, if this could lead to a massive PR win for them and a science win for humanity, while at the same time helping to combat any genuine concerns from the public about Starlink harming astronomy. Just an idea (again I don't know if it's possible).
It's not physically impossible. But the engineering reality isn't promising.
You'd need micro-meter alignment accuracy across the constellation for optical observation. For radio observation it might be possible - but I'm not sure if it would be useful.
Launching complimentary ordinary space-telescopes would also be good PR.
assuming these employees are not just trying to shift the blame to OpenAI to cover their asses.. that's the beauty of American civil courts and the discovery process. An accusation was made. We'll find out through a transparent court process which side is telling the truth (or more likely to be telling the truth in the case of balance of probabilities).
yeah the more information that has been leaked about what has transpired, the worse this whole situation gets. Apple has a ton of evidence in this case.
Hostile spy agencies are now as focused on infiltrating western universities and companies as they are on doing so to governments, according to the former head of Canada’s intelligence service.
David Vigneault warned that a recent “industrial-scale” attempt by China to steal new technologies showed the need for increased vigilance from academics.
“The frontline has moved, from being focused on government information to private sector innovation, research innovation and universities,” he told the Guardian in his first interview since leaving the Canadian Security Intelligence Service (CSIS), which is part of the “Five Eyes” intelligence sharing alliance with the US, UK, Australia and New Zealand.
People like Mr. Vigneault know nothing about how academia works. If they get their way, they'll do massive damage to Canada's academic research ecosystem. Academia is naturally open and international.
These people don't get that academics publish their research in openly available journals. They go to conferences around the world and tell everyone who will listen exactly what they are working on. Unless you're working in a secretive government weapons lab, there's nothing to hide.
In the US, people like Mr. Vigneault instituted a witch hunt against ethnically Chinese researchers, and ended up messing with the lives of all sorts of innocent people, including the director of MIT's mechanical engineering department. They found zero spies. Just a bunch of scientists working normally.
Is spaceX absolutely vital for the US national security through Starlink as well as the launch of military satellites? Yes, and as a matter of fact this is also true for NATO allies, Japan, Taiwan, SK, etc in any future conflict for at least the next 5 to 10 years, just as it has been for the past 4 years in Ukraine. In addition to land based infrastructure that can be targeted in any future war -undersea cables are now under constant threat around the world (Baltic Sea, Straight of Hormuz, Red Sea, South China Sea, and the Taiwan Straight, etc). Which leaves Starlink as the last resort option should shit hit the fan.
Note the tide has changed considerably in the Ukraine war in Ukraine's favor once Starlink locked down access - this proves how vital internet access it was to both sides, as once Russia could no longer use stolen terminals their manpower advantage became moot.
So I simply don't get this manufactured outrage - the vast majority of US retirement savings are already tied to the military sector (RTX, Lockheed Martin, Boeing, and Northrop Grumman) via index funds. I personally would have more concern with those laggards in the new age of drone warfare vs the likes of SpaceX and Anduril (when they ipo).
> the Ukraine war in Ukraine's favor once starlink locked down access
I think this is coincidental correlation. In the same period drone warfare was evolving until it reached some stalemate with an optic-fiber strewn killzone where none of the belligerents have an upper hand, and Ukraine's ballistic missile industry picked up pace, allowing Ukraine to hit far into Russia without relying on American long-range munitions, or needing American permission to use those munitions.
> The deep attacks inside Russia would be significantly more difficult without starlink
This is inaccurate: Starlink was geofenced to Ukrainian territory after Musk's World War III tweet. Deep strikes inside Russia are mostly missiles, but not even the deep-strike drones can use Starlink due to geofencing.
The US national security depends far more on the separate but related Starshield constellation than on Starlink. Your general point is correct though in that widespread use of high-bandwidth, low-latency satellite communications has caused another revolution in military affairs on the same level as GPS and precision guided munitions. SpaceX might be overvalued but politically it's too big to fail.
> the vast majority of US retirement savings are already tied to the military sector (RTX, Lockheed Martin, Boeing, and Northrop Grumman) via index funds
I don't hear any concern about SpaceX due to military ties, it's that it seems like financial tricks are being used and forcing it into the markets and it might be seriously unstable.
So what you’re trying to imply is they have leverage to hold the US public hostage both via military contracts and retirement savings, and nobody should be concerned?
Their current valuation makes absolutely no sense given the size of their business and the next century of business unless they’re going to pull the rug on the US and its allies and increase costs 100x.
RTX Corporation's (formerly Raytheon Technologies) Price-to-Sales (P/S) ratio currently hovers around 2.74 to 2.76.
Boeing price-to-sales (P/S) ratio sits at 1.86,
Lockheed Martin's (LMT) trailing twelve-month (TTM) price-to-sales (P/S) ratio sits at 1.64.
Northrop Grumman's current Trailing Twelve Month (TTM) price-to-sales (P/S) ratio sits at approximately 1.76 to 1.89
So based on the peer comps you provided, SpaceX is overvalued by 50-100x. Your $185 shares are worth about $2.
Fine if you want to take that bet. Not fine if you force (via indexing) the majority of US pension savings to take that bet.
WRT Ukraine - the drones are now (AIUI) flown with a tethered fibre connection (inside the Ukraine) - because jammers have made radio traffic with drones near impossible for operators
Nope. The fiber optic drones are relatively short range, maybe up to 20km. And they can only work over land, not significant bodies of water. Ukraine is still using Starlink heavily for controlling longer range and naval drones. Starlink uses an ingenious phased array antenna system which makes it highly resistant to jamming. Recently Russia has been trying to overload Starlink satellite transceivers with powerful directional jamming but the huge size of the constellation limits how many birds they can effectively target.
Doesn't it feel like Falcon 9 is destined to be spun off so that adults can take care of it, and then X Corp is to be allowed to consolidate freely for a quick and easy disposal?
SpaceX is not "vital" for national security. It's a powerful tool, but it's not vital. And in any true peer conflict involving the US, Starlink satellites would also prove vulnerable just like undersea cables.
CBC news (canadian outlet) released an investigation on this yesterday, and found:
> While the facility was functioning as a school, CBC News has confirmed a previous New York Times report stating the building was once part of an Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps (IRGC) base.
> Google notes that Apple patched vulnerabilities used by Coruna in the latest versions of its mobile operating system, iOS 26, so its exploitation techniques are only confirmed to work against iOS 13 through 17.2.1.
i mean, if Chinese AI companies are constantly distilling the latest anthropic models, and those companies are closely tied to the CCP/PLA, aren't anthropic models already being used for military purposes?
One thing i noticed being on ozempic at first and then mounjaro after, while mounjaro is better for weight loss in general, ozempic was better at tampering my desire to drink throughout the week (although i wouldn't say i had AUD on either). I think the reason for this is the half life: ozempic is 7 days, (enough to get you until the next once a week dose), while mounjaro is only 5 days (which means by day 6/7 less than half the dose your took at the beginning of the week is still in your system). This also applies to food as well: my craving were less for sweets etc by the end of the week before the next dose on ozempic vs now on mounjaro. Although I think because mounjaro has 2 mechanisms of action vs just 1 for ozempic, I still end up losing more weight. But this is subjective based on my experience.
However, Ozempic will be generic early 2026 in Canada, and there's no way in hell I would pay 4-5x the difference (I'm guessing) for mounjaro as the benefit is relatively minor already given the half life difference (right now the price is almost the same).
I’m not diabetic, so my insurance doesn’t cover it, meaning I have to pay full price, which only went up after Eli Lilly switched from vials to pens in Canada. I genuinely hate Eli Lilly for : 1) their pricing, 2) for eliminating vials in favor of pens, and 3) for how they handled my situation. I reached out to their customer service honestly, admitting I wouldn’t qualify for a discount (even though I’d seen countless Reddit posts from people lying on the form and getting approved anyway and told them this). I reached out and requested in good faith and was flat-out denied, basically brushed off by their support team. This destroyed a lot of goodwill i had initially towards them because of better results and any future brand loyalty I might have had.
