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Elon Musk Sells $10 Million in Flamethrowers in Four Days (reuters.com)
An anonymous reader quotes Reuters:
A handful of tweets and four days later, Silicon Valley billionaire Elon Musk has closed orders for his latest novelty product, after selling 20,000 flamethrowers at $500 a piece. "Guaranteed to liven up any party!" was Musk's tagline for a sale which raised $10 million for his high-speed tunnel venture The Boring Company... "When the zombie apocalypse happens, you'll be glad you bought a flamethrower," he tweeted last Saturday. "Works against hordes of the undead or your money back!"
The fundraising comes as Tesla "struggles" meet its production commitments, notes the article, adding that analysts are wondering if the car manufacturer will eventually need billions more in funding.
By Wednesday Musk had sold out his entire suppy of flamethrowers, though "Apparently, some customs agencies are saying they won't allow shipment of anything called a 'Flamethrower'," Musk tweeted Friday night, adding "To solve this, we are renaming it 'Not a Flamethrower'."
"Or maybe 'Temperature Enhancement Device.'"
The fundraising comes as Tesla "struggles" meet its production commitments, notes the article, adding that analysts are wondering if the car manufacturer will eventually need billions more in funding.
By Wednesday Musk had sold out his entire suppy of flamethrowers, though "Apparently, some customs agencies are saying they won't allow shipment of anything called a 'Flamethrower'," Musk tweeted Friday night, adding "To solve this, we are renaming it 'Not a Flamethrower'."
"Or maybe 'Temperature Enhancement Device.'"
Has a bigger tank, and only costs $30.
https://www.harborfreight.com/...
He's not going to sell them anywhere he's not allowed. This is a publicity stunt to get government procurement attention around the world and make a quick buck. The actual flame throwers he's selling are actually more of a blow torch... they only go 5' at most (more like 2-3') and don't have a concentrated stream/lasting liquid that continues to burn. You can already buy $900 ones that go 25' or $1600 ones that go 50' from other companies that are far more harmful. What he's done is sell something a farmer might use to clear brush, a fire department might use for controlled buns... but mostly for people to buy to make dumb youtube videos and then put it on a shelf.
You could probably do more damage with a culinary butane torch that you can pick up at your local walmart.
This guy obviously feels no responsibility for injuries caused by his products. He would throw a package of razor blades in a suicide ward.
Give me a fucking break. Big Tobacco makes Musks antics look like childs play by comparison, and I can buy shit at Wal-Mart that would make a bigger flame than his toy.
They've got all sorts of warnings/etc. on appropriate use. In the end though, what he's really sold is a very expensive weed torch.
Seriously.
It's just this sort of thing (bought at any walmart/hardware store): https://images-na.ssl-images-a...
Put into this Airsoft battle rifle: https://www.evike.com/images/l...
Business failures?
- He sold his first investment to Compaq for $22mil
- his second company merged with what is now known as PayPal which he made $165mil from
- SpaceX sits just above profitability on over $1 billion in revenues
- SolarCity used a capital heavy model to lease panels so they will provide ongoing tax/cash benefits to Tesla long into the future (and are now switching to a non-lease model to increase short term profitability/decrease capital outlay)
Telsa is about the only struggle going on and entirely related to the Gigafactory's inability to mass produce batteries. There's part of the process that they're having to do manually while they fix the automation problems and that's dragging things down/costing the company a lot of money.
The Boring Company/OpenAI/Neurolinks/Hyperloop are pet projects that may lead to something in the future but they're research on a small scale compared to the rest the companies he's involved with.
Seems pretty successful to me.