Re: Cash flow positive
"But if, as claimed, he's planning on taking it public in the near future, wouldn't such statements have legally-binding consequences in that context, even if the IPO hadn't been formally announced at the time they were made?"
SpaceX still has to raise hundreds of millions dollars every year to fund operations. If they were turning a profit, it would hard to understand why. If the company goes public, the Mars fantasy dies. There's no business case and a publicly traded company has to be run for the benefit of the shareholders and a massively expensive program with no realistic plan to earn a profit would put somebody in prison. There's also a board of directors to deal with, the extra costs to be traded on public markets, etc etc. Who thinks Elon wants to work with the SEC with a company he's been overlord of since inception. The "as claimed" is the usual speculation that always surrounds Elon. There are already so many things that he does talk about that I suppose one more that makes no sense is easy for somebody to believe, but is has be asked why he would take SpaceX public. They could raise a bunch of money, but the cost would be in a currency that Elon already has problems with.
There's a photographer I like on YouTube that presents mainly about the business of photography including all of the mistakes he's made along the way. One that he just talked about was how archaic the commercial product photography industry is with layers of ad agencies, agents, hangers on and all sorts of frustrating way things are done (business-wise). His bit of advice is, if you want to work as a commercial photographer, suck it up and just deal with it, you aren't going to be able to change it no matter how you whinge. A lot of what Elon has done is not do things to match how the real world works. The launch tower in Boca Chica isn't permitted. Getting permits to build such a structure in the midst of several nature preserves would have been onerous so he didn't and claimed it was just an "integration tower", not a launch tower. The rocket bidet he hopes prevents destroying the launch mount again is "not a deluge system" as building one of those would require working with the Army Corps of Engineers who had to notify SpaceX that they application was closed due to zero communications from the company. Toss in the "not a flamethrower, flamethrower" and you get how he's been allowed to operate thus far and why he tells everybody to push off and does what he likes. There will be a point where he hits the wall. Currently he's lobbying in the town center of X to cast hate towards the US Fish and Wildlife agency since they haven't signed off on another Starship launch (in the middle of all those nature preserves). The FWS may wind up having a backbone and little need to cater to Elon in the same way the FAA does. If they give a downcheck do to all of the promises SpaceX has already reneged on with regards to not polluting the area and cleaning up their mess when they do, it could mean a very long return to explo---, umm, flight, for Starship.