Why SpaceX is the McDonald’s of AI
Have you seen “The Founder”? It’s the story of McDonald’s and how Ray Kroc (played by Michael Keaton) transformed the company from a local burger joint to a global landlord. According to the movie, Kroc’s accountant gave him the revelation: “You’re not in the burger business. You’re in the real estate business.” When brothers Richard and Maurice McDonald transformed their San Bernardino, CA barbecue restaurant into a fast-food burger joint in 1948, their model was to make and sell their own burgers. They would succeed or fail based on making better food products than other restaurants. By the time Kroc bought out the McDonald brothers in 1961, the new model was leasing real estate to other people, and those other people would make the food. Whether the original San Bernardino McDonald’s succeeded or failed became irrelevant to the success of the McDonald’s corporation. SpaceX has done the same thing. Its San Bernardino location, i.e. xAI, can now succeed or fail without affecting the