One of the suspects accused of planning an attack on the UFC Freedom 250 event at the White House hoped to target trillionaire Elon Musk, according to the group&#8217;s messages.
The alleged plotters hoped to carry out the attack by detonating explosive-carrying drones over the event last Sunday before conducting a sinister secondary strike with snipers on those evacuating.
In a Signal chat dubbed &#8220;Hunters,&#8221; a user with the moniker &#8220;Shepherd&#8221; posted his plans and gave orders to others around June 11, according to a criminal complaint. Investigators later identified &#8220;Shepherd&#8221; as 31-year-old Omaha resident Abraham Alvarez, who is reportedly not a U.S. citizen.
Law enforcement nabbed Alvarez Sunday at an old church in Western, Nebraska, <a href="https://www.1011now.com/2026/06/16/nebraska-man-arrested-connection-with-disrupted-attack-white-house-ufc-show/?fbclid=IwY2xjawSfh-1leHRuA2FlbQIxMQBzcnRjBmFwcF9pZBAyMjIwMzkxNzg4MjAwODkyAAEe8S2lSqSCtcvX8oCXaOGFdfJ48w2gl8jP9KKblhHOYJXOv8hgx7tQwWoEJxI_aem_jraCzyvqlOvbwW9GCVyB_g" target="_blank" rel="noopener">according</a> to NBC&#8217;s Omaha, Nebraska, affiliate WOWT.
<div id="attachment_1117877" style="width: 1034px" class="wp-caption aligncenter"><img loading="lazy" decoding="async" aria-describedby="caption-attachment-1117877" class="wp-image-1117877 size-large" src="https://dw-wp-production.imgix.net/2026/06/Untitled-design-2026-06-17T085449.288-1024x512.jpg" alt="" width="1024" height="512" srcset="https://dw-wp-production.imgix.net/2026/06/Untitled-design-2026-06-17T085449.288-1024x512.jpg 1024w, https://dw-wp-production.imgix.net/2026/06/Untitled-design-2026-06-17T085449.288-300x150.jpg 300w, https://dw-wp-production.imgix.net/2026/06/Untitled-design-2026-06-17T085449.288-768x384.jpg 768w, https://dw-wp-production.imgix.net/2026/06/Untitled-design-2026-06-17T085449.288.jpg 1284w" sizes=" (max-width: 1024px) 100vw, 1024px" />Screenshot from Alvarez&#8217;s alleged Signal messages.</div>
&#8220;i. Targets confirmed ii. 1. 2. VP 3. N 4. Musk,&#8221; the message read.
While reports last week indicated that Musk would attend the UFC event at the White House, it does not appear that he made the trip.
Alvarez also appeared to assign roles within the group, classifying them as &#8220;Sniper 1,&#8221; &#8220;Sniper 2,&#8221; &#8220;Sniper 3,&#8221; and &#8220;Drone Operator,&#8221; adding that he was &#8220;working&#8221; on drones &#8220;as we speak.&#8221;
Investigators believed that the targets identified by Alvarez included President Donald Trump, Vice President JD Vance, Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, and Musk.
Alvarez allegedly identified a &#8220;fall back location&#8221; for the group to meet at an old church in Nebraska.
&#8220;They can grow the camp, and make a training ground we have the go ahead from the owner,&#8221; he allegedly wrote in the chat, adding, &#8220;grow your numbers, I will build your teams.&#8221;
&#8220;Train them, fall back location is NE in an old church,&#8221; he wrote, according to the complaint.
<div id="attachment_1117929" style="width: 351px" class="wp-caption aligncenter"><img loading="lazy" decoding="async" aria-describedby="caption-attachment-1117929" class="wp-image-1117929 size-large" src="https://dw-wp-production.imgix.net/2026/06/Untitled-design-2026-06-17T095212.380-341x576.jpg" alt="" width="341" height="576" srcset="https://dw-wp-production.imgix.net/2026/06/Untitled-design-2026-06-17T095212.380-341x576.jpg 341w, https://dw-wp-production.imgix.net/2026/06/Untitled-design-2026-06-17T095212.380-177x300.jpg 177w, https://dw-wp-production.imgix.net/2026/06/Untitled-design-2026-06-17T095212.380.jpg 420w" sizes=" (max-width: 341px) 100vw, 341px" />Screenshot: Justice Department complaint</div>
Tycen Proper, 19, who was also arrested as part of the alleged plot, told authorities that he learned of &#8220;an anti-government protest in Washington, D.C.&#8221; through a TikTok posted by a user who also went by &#8220;Shepherd,&#8221; according to the complaint. It is not clear whether that was also Alvarez, who used the nickname on Signal.
Proper also identified &#8220;Shepherd&#8221; as &#8220;the primary individual involved with planning&#8221; and &#8220;directly stated that Shepherd was the leader of the group and described him as aggressive in tactical planning,&#8221; according to the complaint.
The radicalized teen allegedly wrote in one of the chats on or about May 13 that he “got a possible target Marsha Blackburn is senator for Tennessee,” saying the group should go after her for taking “money from the Israel pro Israel lobby.”
He also allegedly sent messages on May 31 saying, “These are people we’re going to focus on,” before sharing photos of Senator Jim Justice (R-WV), Senator Shelley Moore Capito (R-WV), Rep. Carol Miller (R-WV), and Rep. Riley Moore (R-WV). The four images appeared to have been taken from the website “TrackAIPAC.com,” which shows how much money each lawmaker received “from pro-Israel PACS.”
Authorities arrested five individuals, including Alvarez and Proper, for their alleged involvement in the plot.
Some of the alleged attack planners were said to have “expressed ultra-religious and antigovernment sentiments, specifically citing grievances about government corruption, the handling of the Epstein files, data centers taking up all the water in communities, and other government actions.”

US-NEWS-TRUMP-UFC-BOUT-5-MI

UFC Attack Ringleader Hoped To Target Elon Musk

Donald Trump

Elon Musk

UFC Freedom 250

White House

This article is part of <a href="https://www.dailywire.com/topic/upstream">Upstream</a>, The Daily Wire’s new home for culture and lifestyle. Real human insight and human stories — from our featured writers to you.
***
Why eat out when you can DoorDash? In an <a href="https://podcasts.apple.com/be/podcast/elon-musk-vlad-tenev-on-the-good-time-show/id1551570777?i=1000507355879">interview</a> from 2021, Elon Musk <a href="https://x.com/astro_greek/status/2053097906920714746">discusses</a> how his son, Saxon, who is &#8220;sort of autistic,&#8221; was always confused about why the family would go out to dinner once a week. Finally, Musk said, Saxon realized the reason people go out to restaurants is to meet new people. 
“You can get the same restaurant food delivered,” Musk said. “You can call your friends over, but you know what you can’t get unless you go to a restaurant is hanging out with strangers. So we actually like hanging out with strangers.” 
But not everyone likes hanging out with strangers. Ghost kitchens, which are professional, delivery-only food preparation infrastructures, are becoming increasingly popular in the U.S. Removing the &#8220;inconvenient&#8221; and &#8220;inefficient&#8221; dine-in space, these kitchens are expected to make up &#8220;half of the market share in both drive-thru and takeaway foodservice sectors&#8221; by 2030, <a href="https://oysterlink.com/spotlight/ghost-kitchens-statistics-facts/">according</a> to OysterLink. There are roughly 7,600 ghost kitchens in the U.S. Even <a href="https://www.thestreet.com/restaurants/chick-fil-a-opens-ghost-kitchen-delivery">Chick-fil-A</a>, known for its southern hospitality and values, has opened its own. 
Americans are opting for quick, easy, stay-at-home meals. Millions of us <a href="https://backlinko.com/doordash-users">use</a> DoorDash every month instead of visiting local restaurants. Sixty-four percent of Gen Z get takeout or delivery weekly or more often, <a href="https://foodinstitute.com/focus/gen-z-eats-differently-what-this-means-for-restaurants/">according</a> to TouchBistro. This generation <a href="https://www.fmi.org/blog/view/fmi-blog/2023/04/25/how-gen-z-is-grocery-shopping">spends 20%</a> of their grocery budget online compared to baby boomers, who only spend 10% online. Unfortunately, the COVID-19 pandemic only further normalized this behavior. 
Whether we know it or not, our habits of ordering food and sitting in front of the TV alone contribute to isolation and disconnection. I am not innocent in this. Often, I go for take-out because it&#8217;s more &#8220;convenient&#8221; or I&#8217;m just &#8220;too busy.&#8221; But these statements are less of an uncontrollable reality and more of a priority issue.
We have all heard that America is suffering a loneliness epidemic. In an age when there are more ways to connect than ever, we have never been more disconnected. As of last year, 54% of adults felt isolated, 50% felt left out, and another 50% felt they lacked companionship often or sometimes, <a href="https://www.apa.org/news/press/releases/2025/11/nation-suffering-division-loneliness">according</a> to an American Psychological Association poll.
The solution might be easier than you think. You need to go outside and talk to strangers.
Micro-interactions with people we don&#8217;t know seem rarer than ever. At the grocery store, self-service machines have been on the rise as people expect to make their next visit to the supermarket swift, controlled, and without the annoyance of an exhausted employee. <a href="https://www.wevend.com/the-rise-of-self-service/">According to WeVend</a>, a payment processing platform specializing in self-service businesses, self-service kiosks are in high demand, with 66% of U.S. customers saying they prefer automated interaction over a human one. I remember seeing my first <a href="https://www.instagram.com/reels/DY4j6SWMh3L/">completely automated</a> coffee shop in an airport: Robo Cafe. The adoption of, investment in, and demand for these automated machines is <a href="https://kioskindustry.org/self-service-statistics/">increasing</a>; a lack of human interaction is in high demand. 
However, research on the indispensable nature of interactions with strangers is eye-opening. Something as simple as a quick comment, small joke, or friendly smile can reduce loneliness. <a href="https://greatergood.berkeley.edu/article/item/why_loving_moments_with_strangers_carry_lasting_benefits">In one study</a>, participants reported a more positive commute to work when instructed to talk with a stranger compared to those who weren&#8217;t. Another study in Starbucks found that when asked to have a “warm, genuine interaction (compared to an &#8216;efficient&#8217; one)” with the barista, people had an elevated and positive mood partly because they felt “a greater sense of belonging.”
In fact, research typically finds that interactions with strangers are beneficial, contrary to many fears of rejection. And these fears of rejection are not really based on reality. <a href="https://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S0022103122000750">Research shows</a> that a stranger rejecting or shutting you down does not occur very often. Also, the <a href="https://www.tandfonline.com/doi/full/10.1080/15298868.2020.1816568#abstract">fears of screwing up</a> an interaction — awkward silence, fumbling with your words — are not the norm. 
What we need is to stop fearing social interactions and give ourselves the opportunity to meet our neighbors.
Slaughterhouse-Five author Kurt Vonnegut Jr. knew what this meant. He used to argue with his wife about buying envelopes. &#8220;You’re not a poor man,&#8221; she <a href="https://www.cbsnews.com/news/god-bless-you-mr-vonnegut/">would say</a>. &#8220;You know, why don’t you go online and buy a hundred envelopes and put them in the closet?&#8221;
&#8220;And so I pretend not to hear her,&#8221; Vonnegut said. &#8220;And go out to get an envelope because I’m going to have a hell of a good time in the process of buying one envelope. I meet a lot of people. And, see some great looking babes. And a fire engine goes by. And I give them the thumbs up. And, and ask a woman what kind of dog that is. And, and I don’t know. The moral of the story is, is we’re here on Earth to fart around. And, of course, the computers will do us out of that. And, what the computer people don’t realize, or they don’t care, is we’re dancing animals.” 
Many Americans are lonely, depressed, and anxious because we lack purpose and human connection. If we continue to replace everything with AI and automation for the sake of efficiency, we will become optimized, selfish, and aimless.
Now, self-service machines and AI are not evil and are not inevitably going to destroy us. They don’t have agency. We do. We can find new ways to interact with people and strangers. We can choose to make hard decisions. The issue is that this technology makes it incredibly easy to avoid doing the hard thing.
We need to be more intentional than ever about making space for human interaction in our everyday lives. That means embracing a little friction and remembering that, like Musk, &#8220;we actually like hanging out with strangers.&#8221;

GettyImages-1889655168

Americans Are Paying A Hidden Price For Convenience

Upstream

Musk

What Elon’s Trillionaire Status Reveals About The Left’s War On Success

America 250

Democrats

Platner

Many Americans are about to own SpaceX even if they didn&#8217;t participate in Friday’s Initial Public Offering. 
Starting this Friday, SpaceX will be appearing in many personal and retirement investment accounts through diversified index funds that track the broader stock market. The company will be added to the CRSP U.S. Total Market Index, a benchmark tracked by numerous 401(k)s, IRAs, pension plans, and target-date retirement funds. Many employer-sponsored retirement plans offer Vanguard total-market funds that replicate the index, giving millions of Americans exposure to SpaceX.
Others will gain exposure to SpaceX 15 trading days after its IPO, when the Nasdaq-100 adds the company to the index. The Invesco QQQ ETF, which tracks the Nasdaq-100, will then add SpaceX to its holdings. QQQ is one of the most heavily traded exchange funds in the world.
While SpaceX will be just one of the 100 companies in the Nasdaq-100, Nasdaq is giving it an outsized weighting. Because most of SpaceX&#8217;s shares remain owned by insiders, only a limited number are available for public trading. To account for that small public float, Nasdaq is applying a factor of three to SpaceX&#8217;s float-adjusted value, increasing its weight in the index and requiring funds such as QQQ to buy more of the stock than they otherwise would.
The S&amp;P 500, one of the world&#8217;s most widely followed stock indexes, will not add SpaceX immediately. The S&amp;P 500 <a href="https://www.spglobal.com/spdji/en/documents/indexnews/announcements/20260604-1483731/1483731_spdji-us-indices-megacaps-results-20260604.pdf">does not allow</a> eligible companies into its fund until it&#8217;s traded on an eligible exchange for at least 12 months. The S&amp;P 500 has a 12-month wait time to help mitigate potentially adding a company at an inflated valuation and avoid potentially large price swings. 
Another group that could potentially end up owning SpaceX is Tesla shareholders. Elon Musk has reportedly <a href="https://fortune.com/2026/06/12/spacex-tesla-merger-gwynne-shotwell-hints-elon-musk-ipo/">floated</a> the possibility of a merger between Tesla and SpaceX. If such a deal were pursued, SpaceX&#8217;s larger valuation could make it the acquiring company. In an all-stock or cash-and-stock transaction, Tesla shareholders could receive SpaceX shares in exchange for their Tesla stock, effectively making them SpaceX investors.
While the S&amp;P 500 did not change its rules to allow SpaceX in early, the Nasdaq and the <a href="https://www.reuters.com/legal/government/spacex-set-fast-entry-into-us-global-indexes-under-new-ftse-rules-2026-05-26/">FTSE Russell</a> did make accommodations prompting a stern letter from Senator Elizabeth Warren (D-MA).  
“Traditionally, index providers — including your firms — have maintained rules for the inclusion of companies on their <a href="https://www.bloomberg.com/opinion/newsletters/2026-05-26/index-funds-can-t-say-no-to-spacex">indexes</a>, which are meant to protect passive investors and maintain the credibility of each <a href="https://www.bloomberg.com/opinion/newsletters/2026-05-26/index-funds-can-t-say-no-to-spacex">index</a>,” wrote Warren. “The changes to your index rules to accommodate these large companies, however, have the potential to destabilize markets and create significant risks for American investors, especially retirees and other individuals that rely on index funds for their savings.”
Supporters of rule changes argue that SpaceX should be allowed into major indexes because it qualifies regardless of its recent IPO and is a “Made in the USA stock that is sizable and belongs in benchmarks,” according to TD Securities Head of Index and Market Structure Research Peter Haynes. 
“What this is doing is setting a precedent that the S&amp;P 500 will not add OpenAI and Anthropic when those IPOs happen,” added Strategas Securities Chief ETF Strategist Todd Sohn.

SpaceX Listed On Nasdaq Exchange

Didn’t Buy SpaceX On Friday? You Might Already Be Invested.

Elizabeth Warren

Stock Market

Elon Musk&#8217;s SpaceX IPO will undoubtedly be the biggest IPO in history. 
What&#8217;s unusual about this particular IPO is that it is widely available to retail investors, such as the man on the street. Typically, in any IPO, a certain percentage of the company&#8217;s stock is offered to the public, and a large percentage of that stock is already pre-purchased by institutional investors.
The pre-market valuation of the IPO is likely to be in the $1.77 trillion range, according to the Wall Street Journal.
That is not a bad thing. It is an amazing thing. But you are going to hear from all the wrong people that it&#8217;s immoral, terrible, even evil. Why?
Envy. It&#8217;s a universal human emotion, and envy is bad and wrong, and God explicitly condemns it.
What could destroy the country and the global economy is what has always threatened humanity: Envy.
Jimmy Kimmel is a beautiful example of this. Jimmy Kimmel is a multimillionaire who works for billionaires, and he&#8217;s upset about a prospective trillionaire.
<a href="https://www.dailywire.com/episode/the-ben-shapiro-show-ep-2444?elementPosition=1&amp;row=0&amp;rowHeadline=Recent+Episodes&amp;rowType=Horizontal+Show+Episodes+Carousel"><img loading="lazy" decoding="async" class="aligncenter size-full wp-image-981859" src="https://dw-wp-production.imgix.net/2025/10/ben-banner.avif" alt="" width="1024" height="171" srcset="https://dw-wp-production.imgix.net/2025/10/ben-banner.avif 1024w, https://dw-wp-production.imgix.net/2025/10/ben-banner-300x50.jpg 300w, https://dw-wp-production.imgix.net/2025/10/ben-banner-768x128.jpg 768w" sizes=" (max-width: 1024px) 100vw, 1024px" /></a>
Kimmel is an obnoxious, non-funny, woke pope of late-night TV, who&#8217;s probably worth somewhere between $50 million and $100 million. He is paid by people worth tens of billions of dollars to complain about a guy who built a company that would be worth $1.77 trillion.
Kimmel mocked:
<blockquote>Elon Musk came to the United States from South Africa in 1995, the son of a humble emerald mine owner, and he is so grateful to this country that allowed him to become a trillionaire. Tesla paid almost no federal income tax over the past three years. You know, for a guy who has been openly cheering immigrants getting kicked out of the country for stealing from us, sure seems like an immigrant who&#8217;s been stealing from us, to me.</blockquote>
This is just obnoxious trash. It is not true. Elon did not, in fact, grow up wealthy. His dad was kind of a mess. And as far as the idea that Elon came to the United States wealthy, that is eminently untrue. He was living in some of the worst apartments in America when he came here. And then he didn&#8217;t get a job at Netscape despite applying. And then he ended up becoming this unbelievable success.
The notion that he is stealing from Americans by building several of the most successful companies in American history is totally crazy.
What has Jimmy Kimmel built? Ever?
But here&#8217;s what&#8217;s really going on: Jimmy Kimmel doesn&#8217;t like that Elon is really, really, really rich.
Kimmel continued:
<blockquote>Trillion dollars. It&#8217;s hard for our brains to conceptualize that. I mean, we know a trillion is a number, but it&#8217;s so large. In the same way, we can&#8217;t fathom it the same way. We know, like Elon has a lot of kids when we can&#8217;t fathom him getting laid, right? So let me try to illustrate it. If you tried to count out loud to a trillion, you would be counting until the year 33,736. $1 trillion is 10 billion $100 bills.</blockquote>
I&#8217;m just wondering: Jimmy Kimmel is worth probably $100 million. If you counted to 100 million, it would take you about 3 years, if you counted one number per second and stayed up all night.
Why the envy, why the rage?
There’s certainly something political to it. Jimmy Kimmel was much nicer to Elon Musk back in 2013 when he had him on his show to talk about SpaceX.
He said to Musk:
<blockquote>You know, I want to go over some of your many accomplishments just for the audience in case they&#8217;re not familiar with them. In 1983, at age 12, you designed a video game and sold it to a computer magazine for $500. 1995, you quit the graduate program at Stanford to found Zip2. In 1999, you sold Zip2 to Compaq for $309 million.
You co-founded PayPal in 2000. You sold PayPal to eBay for a billion and a half dollars. You founded Space-X. You co-founded Tesla Motors. You helped create SolarCity, the solar power company. Well, it&#8217;s great to meet you. If you want to watch the launch, why wouldn&#8217;t you want to watch the launch of the Space-x rocket? On March 1 go to Space X.com and take a look.</blockquote>
Barack Obama toured SpaceX with Elon in 2010. The Democratic president of the United States marveled at it.
Musk was talking about reusable rockets back in 2010. That was not achieved for over half a decade. It was an enormous risk. And Obama was marveling at it at the time.
But now we&#8217;ve gone from that inspirational view to giant inflatable Elon Musks in Times Square with no shirt on and looking ugly.
What&#8217;s really going on here?
The answer is very simple: Envy.
There is a very interesting study in the journal &#8220;Frontiers in Psychology&#8221; from 2021 that discusses what are called “the two faces of envy.” The authors <a href="https://pmc.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/articles/PMC8578062/">wrote</a>:
<blockquote>Envy is like a wildfire destroying people. We feel envy for, a classmate who gets a good grade or, a neighbor who buys an expensive car. This kind of emotion drives our different behaviors, like small stones in the heart lake, ruining our peace of mind. &#8230; [Scholars] envy as “the intense, unpleasant feeling that one feels when one realizes that another has something that one strives for, pursues, or yearns for.” Envy is a painful emotion.</blockquote>
There are two kinds of envy. One is useful, and one is quite terrible.
One is benign envy: “The envious person may try to make themselves as good as the person being envied. Therefore, envy can increase personal effort, drive behavior to achieve the desired object, and to turn attention to the means of achieving it.”
And then there&#8217;s another type: malicious envy. This is where “The envious person may try to degrade the person being envied, to vilify or denigrate the other person&#8217;s advantages. Envy can increase schadenfreude behavior that leads to hostility and resentment. It can shift attention to the person being envied.”
By the way, it also leads to violence. There&#8217;s literally a full commandment among the Ten Commandments that is directly about envy: “You shall not covet your neighbor&#8217;s house, your neighbor&#8217;s wife, his servant, his ox, his donkey, nor anything that is your neighbor&#8217;s.”
God takes the time to say envy is bad.
By the way, this is the only commandment that has to do with your feelings. All the rest are behaviorally driven: Don&#8217;t steal. Don&#8217;t kill, don&#8217;t blaspheme. Respect your parents and everyone else. This one is emotional. Why did God reserve one commandment for the emotion of envy?
Because it turns out the entire history of humanity relies on whether we can actually master our envy. This is the story of Cain and Abel. The story of Cain and Abel is about envy. Cain decides to sacrifice to God, and Abel follows suit. And God, for reasons we don&#8217;t understand from the Bible, accepts Abel’s sacrifice, but not Cain&#8217;s.
And then God says, “Surely if you do right, you will be uplifted. But if you do not do right, sin crouches at your door. Its urge is toward you, but you can be its master.”
What is that sin? It&#8217;s envy. And what does Cain do? Instead of going to Abel and saying, “What did you do right and I did wrong? How can I do better?” he kills Abel.
Envy is destructive. It is terrible.
What&#8217;s interesting here is when we get envious, because it&#8217;s not a universal timing thing; it&#8217;s a universal human emotion, we feel it all the time.
But it tends to kick in for anyone who&#8217;s just above you on the wealth index. So if you make 100 grand, you may be envious of the guy who makes 200 grand.
But it&#8217;s not every person who makes more than you.
There is a particular envy for people who take risks.
That’s because in our heart of hearts, we think we could have done that too. We look at Elon, we say, “I could have founded a SpaceX company. He thought of it, but I could have thought of it. I could have taken the risk. It&#8217;s something that&#8217;s within my purview.”
It&#8217;s really, really interesting to watch New Yorkers who just voted for a Democratic socialist like Zohran Mamdani, who riffs on Citadel CEO Ken Griffin all day long and roots for the Knicks this season. The Knicks are super rich. Really, really, really rich. Karl-Anthony Towns made $53 million this year. OG Anunoby made $40 million. Jalen Brunson makes $35 million a year. That is a lot of money.
But you&#8217;re not seeing jealousy or outrage in the stadium. People aren&#8217;t showing up and yelling at them about how they need to redistribute their income and pay more taxes, and how many school teachers are out of a job, and do we need more government-sponsored grocery stores.
So why are people so envious of these guys? Because everyone recognizes that these guys have unique talents given by God. You&#8217;re not seven feet, you&#8217;re not 270 pounds, and you can&#8217;t shoot the three.
But when it’s a smart person who doesn&#8217;t have exceptional physical qualities, then we get pretty jealous. “Why didn&#8217;t we get what he has? Why don&#8217;t we all get to be Elon Musk-rich? He&#8217;s not that much better than we are.”
But here is the thing. The reason that Elon is super-rich — and I know a lot of people who are as bright as Elon, I know a lot of very high IQ people, and Elon has a very high IQ, he is much richer than any of them — is because he took risks, huge risks, unprecedented risks.
And that is good because risk is what creates innovation. If you don&#8217;t have people risking, you don&#8217;t get better stuff. If you don&#8217;t have people taking out mortgages on their homes to sponsor and subsidize them, a company won&#8217;t get built.
If you don&#8217;t have people willing to put their own money where their mouth is, their own time, their own effort, you do not get new things.
We need new things. Not only that, we need a system that allows you to keep what you make.
For every single Elon Musk in any industry, there are 10,000 dudes who thought of it, risked it, and failed.
What is the only thing that will keep people risking it and trying to do the thing that actually builds? The only thing that incentivizes that is the possibility of making a lot of money.
That’s what generates people willing to take the risks that actually make the world a better place.
Risk-taking is risky. Take, for example, Blue Origin, run by another billionaire, Jeff Bezos, a competitor to SpaceX. A couple of weeks ago, we watched a Blue Origin rocket explode on the ground. Billions of dollars were lost in one millisecond.
That’s what it looks like when you take risks, because sometimes you fail. You know how many videos there are of Elon Musk&#8217;s rockets blowing up on the launch pad?
How do you incentivize a person to keep looking failure in the face over and over and over again? You have to have an American system, a free-market system that rewards risk-taking and punishes failure and rewards success.
That is what you require. People forget that Elon Musk risked pretty much his entire early fortune on SpaceX and Tesla.
This is risk-taking, and it&#8217;s awesome, and it should be rewarded.
No matter what Jimmy Kimmel thinks.

spacex_envy

The Sin Fueling America’s War On Success

Ben Shapiro

Envy

Jeff Bezos

Jimmy Kimmel

Opinion

SpaceX

Elon Musk’s SpaceX opened at $150 on Friday after the company sold 555 million shares at $135 each in what would be the largest initial public offering in history.
The company raised approximately $75 billion in the IPO, surpassing the previous record set by Saudi Aramco in 2019. Shares quickly climbed more than 10% in early trading.
“It’s certainly hard to believe that a little company that started in a warehouse in El Segundo is now going public in the largest IPO ever,” Musk said from SpaceX headquarters in Starbase, Texas. 
“I gave SpaceX less than a 10% chance of succeeding at all,” Musk added. “In fact, I told people this. I said, ‘Look, we’re probably going to fail, but you know, we should give it a try, because if we don&#8217;t, if there&#8217;s not a new company that enters space, we will never be a truly space-bearing civilization.&#8221;
The public offering also cemented Musk&#8217;s status as the world&#8217;s wealthiest person. His net worth is now <a href="https://www.forbes.com/profile/elon-musk/">valued</a> at more than $1.2 trillion, making him the first person to reach trillionaire status. Musk owns roughly 42% of SpaceX shares and is required to hold them for one year.
The IPO also created a major windfall for SpaceX employees. More than 4,000 workers became millionaires through company stock holdings, including cafeteria employees who participated in the company&#8217;s stock program.
One employee, <a href="https://www.nytimes.com/2026/06/10/technology/spacex-ipo-employee-millionaires.html">Trevor Hise</a>, started at SpaceX as an intern in 2011 and accumulated more than 100,000 shares, now valued at more than $15 million. Hise said his parents once urged him to turn down the SpaceX offer and take a job with General Electric instead.  
More than <a href="https://www.cnbc.com/2026/06/12/spacex-millionaires-wealth-management.html">100</a> SpaceX employees now reportedly have combined assets valued between $1 billion and $5 billion. 
Musk and SpaceX President and Chief Operating Officer Gwynne Shotwell marked the company&#8217;s public debut by ringing Nasdaq’s opening bell, with Musk appearing from Texas and Shotwell from New York City. 
Shotwell said the company could pursue major deals following the record-breaking IPO, while also hinting at future overlap between SpaceX and Musk&#8217;s other companies. 
“There’s no question that there are synergies between Tesla and SpaceX in our futures,” she <a href="https://www.cnbc.com/2026/06/12/spacex-ipo-spcx-live-updates.html">said</a>. “There’s a convergence of what we’re all trying to accomplish in the future, but right now I’m focused on keeping the lights on here.”
Musk has also floated the possibility of eventually merging Tesla and SpaceX. SpaceX bought xAI earlier this year, giving the aerospace company ownership of xAI&#8217;s data centers, Grok AI models, and X, the social media platform formerly known as Twitter. 
For now, Musk said the IPO proceeds will help fuel “a significant growth phase” for SpaceX. His plans include placing more than 1 million satellites in orbit and building artificial intelligence data centers in space.

SpaceX Just Pulled Off Something Wall Street Has Never Seen

Business

Technology

Elon Musk lost the race to market, with a Shanghai-based startup launching its brain chip technology to the public ahead of Neuralink. 
China’s drug regulator, the National Medical Products Administration, recently approved Neuracle Technology’s brain implant beyond clinical trials, <a href="https://nypost.com/2026/06/07/tech/china-beats-elon-musk-to-launch-worlds-first-commercial-brain-chip/">according</a> to multiple reports. Like Musk’s Neuralink, the coin-size brain implant — called NEO — is designed to help patients who are paralyzed due to spinal cord injuries. 
One of Neuracle Technology’s patients, Dong Hui, was recently <a href="https://www.technologyreview.com/2026/06/01/1138133/china-world-first-brain-chip/">profiled</a> by MIT Technology Review. After 11 months of using the device, Dong is now able to write his name despite suffering a spinal cord injury in a car accident six years ago. Before receiving the implant, Dong could barely move his arms and was unable to use his fingers at all.
NEO sensors are placed on the outside membrane of Dong’s brain, where the signals are transmitted by a connected computer implant that rests on Dong’s skull. Those signals then move a robotic glove on Dong&#8217;s hand, which helps his hand relearn how to accept signals from his brain. 
“On the ninth day of my training, my right hand successfully grabbed a ball without the glove,” Dong told MIT. “That was a miraculous moment.” Dong was one of 36 subjects who had clinical trials conducted with NEO, with 32 of them occurring in the past year. 
A revolutionary technology in its own right, Neuracle Technology has also broken new ground in its rollout under China’s national health insurance system. China is doubling down on its ambition to become the global leader in brain-computer interfaces with the government identifying the technology as one of six strategic sectors critical to the country’s future alongside quantum technology, biomanufacturing, hydrogen and nuclear fusion power, artificial intelligence, and 6G mobile communications. The global brain-computer interface market is projected to reach $1.7 billion by 2035.
According to an Australian researcher, one reason Neuracle Technology may have outpaced competing brain-computer interfaces is its less invasive design. While Neuralink’s implant penetrates the brain’s protective membrane, NEO sits on top of it. Both approaches have advantages and drawbacks. Avoiding penetration of the brain reduces surgical risk, but Neuralink’s approach allows the device to interface directly with individual neurons, potentially enabling a deeper biological connection and more precise signal collection.
While NEO reached the market first, Musk has said that 2026 will be a major year for Neuralink. Currently, Neuralink procedures require opening the brain’s dura mater, the protective outer membrane surrounding the brain. Musk plans to introduce a less invasive technique that would allow electrodes to pass through the dura without removing it — similar to drilling a small hole through a wall to run a wire rather than cutting out an entire section.
He has also announced that Neuralink will significantly expand its clinical trials as the company moves toward large-scale production. 
Other brain chip companies are also attempting to race to the commercial market. Synchron, which is backed by Jeff Bezos and Bill Gates, was founded in Australia before moving to the United States. In late 2025, Synchron raised <a href="https://www.bloomberg.com/news/articles/2025-11-06/neuralink-rival-synchron-raises-200-million-for-brain-implant">$200 million</a> to advance its implant. 
While Neuracle Technology is the most advanced brain-computer interface company in China, it is one of a new wave of startups backed by the Chinese communist government. China announced <a href="https://techcrunch.com/2026/02/22/chinas-brain-computer-interface-industry-is-racing-ahead/">$165</a> million to fund startups through research to commercialization, as well as quickly adopting the technology into its national health service.

Artificial intelligence brain network

China’s Brain Implant Beats Elon Musk’s Neuralink In Race To The Market

China

Elon

Innovation

U.K. Prime Minister Keir Starmer accused Elon Musk of “trying to whip up division” over the murder of Henry Nowak after explosive body-camera footage that shows police handcuffing the dying college student has sparked international outrage and protests across Britain.
The uproar centers around British police handcuffing an 18-year-old finance student instead of the <a href="https://www.bbc.com/news/articles/c1d2w411rgro">“weapons-obsessed”</a> Sikh man convicted of fatally stabbing him, intensifying a debate over policing and crumbling social cohesion across the pond. 
Posting on X on Tuesday, Musk wrote: “Send the video to everyone you know showing how heinously Nowak was treated by the police in his dying moments and how the police cravenly kowtowed to his murderer.” The post racked up more than 28 million views. 
“Legacy mainstream media, same ones who wrote about George Floyd millions of times, are dead silent about Nowak,” the tech billionaire added. 
<blockquote class="twitter-tweet">
Send the video to everyone you know showing how heinously Nowak was treated by the police in his dying moments and how the police cravenly kowtowed to his murderer.
Legacy mainstream media, same ones who wrote about George Floyd millions of times, are dead silent about Nowak.
— Elon Musk (@elonmusk) <a href="https://x.com/elonmusk/status/2061809366546997488?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw">June 2, 2026</a></blockquote>
The embattled prime minister — the most unpopular in modern British history — accused the tech billionaire of political interference. 
“We need to also assert who we are as a country, because Musk, again, has been interfering in our politics in the last few days, trying to whip up division that is not who we are in Britain,” Starmer said. “In Britain, we are reasonable, tolerant people, and we have a terrible case like Henry&#8217;s case, Henry Nowak. We react calmly, as his family have done.” 
<blockquote class="twitter-tweet" data-media-max-width="560">
BREAKING: Starmer accuses Elon Musk of &#8216;trying to whip up division in the UK&#8217; following the murder of Henry Nowak
📺 Sky 501 <a href="https://t.co/MAcWbx1IQd">pic.twitter.com/MAcWbx1IQd</a>
— Sky News (@SkyNews) <a href="https://x.com/SkyNews/status/2062476551032131728?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw">June 4, 2026</a></blockquote>
The leftist Labour leader then touted his government’s ongoing battle against X. 
“When it comes to disgusting images on Grok. We take Grok on and fight, because that&#8217;s who we are as a country,” Starmer said. 
Starmer’s plea comes as Musk has stepped up criticism in recent days, boosting viral videos of protests and calling out left-wing governments. 
“The West has created an utterly evil state religion where an accusation of “racism” is the gravest offense that can be committed, even worse than rape or murder!” “So if police show up at a crime scene and a British boy is bleeding out and an immigrant says the British boy is racist the cops will cuff the dying British boy,” he said on social media. 
<blockquote class="twitter-tweet">
The West has created an utterly evil state religion where an accusation of “racism” is the gravest offense that can be committed, even worse than rape or murder!
So if police show up at a crime scene and a British boy is bleeding out and an immigrant says the British boy is…
— Elon Musk (@elonmusk) <a href="https://x.com/elonmusk/status/2062062058376663408?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw">June 3, 2026</a></blockquote>
Twenty-three-year-old Vickrum Digwa was <a href="https://www.dailywire.com/news/man-who-stabbed-teen-to-death-over-bogus-racism-claim-learns-his-fate?author=Amanda+Prestigiacomo&amp;category=News&amp;elementPosition=undefined&amp;row=0&amp;rowType=Vertical+List&amp;title=Man+Who+Stabbed+Teen+To+Death+Over+Bogus+Racism+Claim+Learns+His+Fate">sentenced to life in prison</a> on Monday for murdering Nowak last December in Southampton, which sits about 80 miles southwest of London. Digwa stabbed Henry multiple times with an eight-inch ceremonial Sikh “shastar” he was allowed to carry as part of his religion. 
The bombshell video shows arriving officers arresting the dying teen as he was bleeding on the ground, as Digwa sold law enforcement a bogus racist claim against the victim, <a href="https://www.dailywire.com/news/man-who-stabbed-teen-to-death-over-bogus-racism-claim-learns-his-fate?author=Amanda+Prestigiacomo&amp;category=News&amp;elementPosition=undefined&amp;row=0&amp;rowType=Vertical+List&amp;title=Man+Who+Stabbed+Teen+To+Death+Over+Bogus+Racism+Claim+Learns+His+Fate">The Daily Wire previously reported.</a> In court, prosecutors rejected Digwa’s self-defense claim, telling jurors that “Henry drowned in his own blood” after the knife pierced his lung. 
<blockquote class="twitter-tweet" data-media-max-width="560">
🇬🇧 Bodycam footage has been released showing Henry Nowak begging for an ambulance before being handcuffed behind his back.
Nowak: &#8220;I&#8217;ve been stabbed&#8221;
Officer: &#8220;I don&#8217;t think you have mate&#8221;
Follow: <a href="https://x.com/europa?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw">@europa</a> <a href="https://t.co/WqYV760Y14">pic.twitter.com/WqYV760Y14</a>
— Europa.com (@europa) <a href="https://x.com/europa/status/2061555027261497774?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw">June 1, 2026</a></blockquote>
“I’ve been stabbed,” Nowak told officers responding to the scene.
“I don’t think you have, mate,” one officer responded. 
&#8220;I can&#8217;t breathe,&#8221; he replied multiple times.
After collapsing, officers began emergency first aid, but it was far too late. Nowak succumbed to his injuries and was pronounced dead at 12:37 a.m. 
Starmer admitted the video raises questions but downplayed the mass outrage erupting in his country and around the world.
“This is a tragic case,&#8221; Starmer said. “I do think there are questions like, how do allegations of racism, accusations of racism, inform police decisions in cases like this? We do need to ask those questions. I accept that, but it&#8217;s how we conduct ourselves now that matters,” he said. 
&#8220;How we conduct ourselves now as politicians is really important,&#8221; Starmer insisted.
Nowak, who had been completing his first term studying accountancy and finance at Southampton University, had been out with friends before he was attacked. On his way home, he recorded Snapchat videos shortly before crossing paths with Digwa. In one video shown in court, Digwa can allegedly be heard saying, “I am a bad man.”

Far Right Groups Encourage Protest Over Death Of Henry Nowak

British PM Tries To Blame Musk As Outrage Grows Over Henry Nowak’s Murder

Starmer Blames Musk For ‘Whipping Up Division’ As Outrage Grows Over Henry Nowak's Murder

Henry Nowak

Kier Starmer

News

A Blue Origin rocket exploded Thursday night in Florida, causing immense damage to its billion-dollar launch pad and complicating NASA’s plans to build a base on the moon. 
The explosion rocked Blue Origin’s launch pad at the Cape Canaveral Space Force Station as the space company ran a ground test on one of its rockets. The cause of the explosion has not yet been determined. 
“We experienced an anomaly during today&#8217;s hotfire test. All personnel have been accounted for. We will provide updates as we learn more,” Blue Origin said on social media. 
Videos posted online showed a rocket sitting on the launch pad before becoming completely engulfed in flames after a massive explosion. 
<iframe loading="lazy" title="Nuclear explosion? No, it&#039;s Jeff Bezos&#039; rocket." width="500" height="281" src="https://www.youtube.com/embed/ihV6PjqA8Dw?feature=oembed" frameborder="0" allow="accelerometer; autoplay; clipboard-write; encrypted-media; gyroscope; picture-in-picture; web-share" referrerpolicy="strict-origin-when-cross-origin" allowfullscreen></iframe>
Jeff Bezos, the billionaire founder of Blue Origin, said it was too early to know what prompted the explosion. 
“All personnel are accounted for and safe. It’s too early to know the root cause but we’re already working to find it,” Bezos <a href="https://x.com/JeffBezos/status/2060182822170902622">said</a>. “Very rough day, but we’ll rebuild whatever needs rebuilding and get back to flying. It’s worth it.”
“Sorry to see this, I hope you recover quickly,” said Elon Musk, who runs the rival space exploration company SpaceX. 
&#8220;Most unfortunate. Rockets are hard,&#8221; Musk added.
Blue Origin was preparing to send out 48 low-Earth orbit satellites <a href="https://x.com/Amazonleo/status/2059677904296919106">used</a> by Amazon Leo, a high-speed internet provider rival of Musk&#8217;s Starlink. The satellites were set to be carried out by Blue Origin&#8217;s New Glenn rocket, a heavy-lift rocket designed to be reusable. The rocket was <a href="https://www.blueorigin.com/new-glenn">named</a> after American astronaut John Glenn. 
The explosion did extensive damage to Blue Origin’s Launch Complex 36. The launch complex cost more $1 billion to build and was completed in 2021. Costs from New Glenn have been estimated to be around $68 million per launch, <a href="https://spaceinsider.tech/2025/01/10/new-glenn-vs-starship-a-detailed-comparison-in-2025">according</a> to Space Insider. 
Space Force issued a statement on Thursday warning the public that debris from the explosion may wash up on the shores in the next few days and weeks. It warned people not to touch the materials, but alert the authorities. 
The explosion could impact NASA plans for space exploration as Blue Origin was set to be involved in transporting NASA astronauts to the surface of the moon out of lunar orbit. NASA is <a href="https://www.nasa.gov/mission/artemis-iii/">supposed</a> to test its spacecraft integration with landers from Blue Origin and SpaceX for the Artemis III mission. 
“Spaceflight is unforgiving, and developing new heavy-lift launch capability is extraordinarily difficult,” <a href="https://x.com/NASAAdmin/status/2060186268772835475">said</a> NASA administrator Jared Isaacman. “We will work with our partners to support a thorough investigation of this anomaly, assess near-term mission impacts, and get back to launching rockets. We will provide information on any impacts to the Artemis and Moon Base programs as it becomes available.”

MixCollage-29-May-2026-07-12-AM-9643

Bezos-Owned Rocket Explodes, And It Looks Like A Nuclear Bomb Went Off

Blue Origin

NASA

SpaceX just pulled off one of its wildest Starship tests yet — launching the biggest and most powerful version of the rocket ever built before intentionally slamming it into the Indian Ocean in a fiery ending straight out of a sci-fi movie.
Elon Musk’s company launched the 12th Starship test flight Friday using the brand-new Super Heavy V3 booster, a towering 407-foot rocket built to eventually carry humans back to the Moon and, one day, all the way to Mars.
The upgraded Starship blasted off from a brand-new launch pad in South Texas carrying roughly 45 tons of payload simulators, making it one of the biggest payload launches the world has seen in decades.
Of course, this being SpaceX, things got a little chaotic.
One of Starship’s engines failed during ascent, but the giant spacecraft somehow kept powering forward anyway and still completed its primary mission objectives.
The rocket successfully deployed 20 mock Starlink satellites before continuing its planned path halfway around the world. SpaceX also used modified camera-equipped Starlink satellites to capture footage of Starship flying through space.
Then came the jaw-dropping ending.
After nearly an hour in flight, Starship slammed into the Indian Ocean in a massive fireball that looked more like the finale of a Hollywood disaster movie than a routine aerospace test.
But unlike previous Starship explosions, this one was completely intentional. SpaceX planned for the spacecraft to burn up at the end of the mission while engineers gathered critical flight data for future launches.
“Congratulations @SpaceX team on an epic first Starship V3 launch and landing!” Musk posted on X. “You scored a goal for humanity.”
<iframe loading="lazy" title="BREAKING: Starship Flight 12 Launches Successfully — SpaceX&#039;s Most Powerful Rocket Heads To Space" width="500" height="281" src="https://www.youtube.com/embed/cC1mP1llT0o?feature=oembed" frameborder="0" allow="accelerometer; autoplay; clipboard-write; encrypted-media; gyroscope; picture-in-picture; web-share" referrerpolicy="strict-origin-when-cross-origin" allowfullscreen></iframe>
NASA Administrator Jared Isaacman also celebrated the launch, writing: “Congrats @SpaceX team and @elonmusk on a hell of a V3 Starship launch. One step closer to the Moon… one step closer to Mars.”
This is the same giant rocket NASA is now betting on to help land astronauts back on the Moon as part of the Artemis program before Musk ultimately tries pushing humanity toward Mars.
SpaceX is also attempting to make Starship fully reusable, with future plans involving giant mechanical arms literally catching rocket stages out of the sky during landing.
The launch comes just days after Musk announced plans to take SpaceX public in what could become the biggest IPO in history.
The company is reportedly seeking a staggering $1.75 trillion valuation and could raise between $40 billion and $80 billion.
SpaceX currently owns both Starlink and Musk’s AI company xAI.

US-SPACE-AEROSPACE-SPACEX-STARSHIP

WATCH: SpaceX Just Pulled Off Its Wildest Starship Launch Yet

A California federal jury nixed billionaire Elon Musk&#8217;s lawsuit against OpenAI CEO Sam Altman on Monday, concluding that Musk filed his claims after the statute of limitations had expired.
The jury <a href="https://www.npr.org/2026/05/18/nx-s1-5822366/musk-altman-openai-jury-verdict-claims-dismissed">returned its verdict</a> after deliberating for just 90 minutes following a three-week trial in the U.S. District Court for the Northern District of California.
Judge Yvonne Gonzalez Rogers, who presided over the case, said that she agreed with the jury&#8217;s unanimous decision.
&#8220;I&#8217;ve always said I would accept the jury&#8217;s verdict. I think there&#8217;s a substantial amount of evidence to support the jury&#8217;s finding,&#8221; Gonzalez Rogers said.
Legal experts said the jury likely focused on whether Musk waited too long to file suit under California law.
Vincent Joralemon, a senior fellow at UC Berkeley law school, told <a href="https://nypost.com/2026/05/18/business/elon-musk-loses-lawsuit-against-openai-in-unanimous-verdict/">The New York Pos</a>t that California imposes a three-year statute of limitations for breach of charitable trust claims and a two-year limit for unjust enrichment claims.
&#8220;I’m guessing the jurors got into their room and said, ‘Does it seem like Musk knew about this in 2019?’ and everyone said ‘yes’ and then they go, ‘we’re done,'&#8221; he said.
Musk brought the case in 2024, accusing Altman and OpenAI co-founder Greg Brockman of betraying the organization&#8217;s original nonprofit mission by changing OpenAI to a profit-driven enterprise.
OpenAI was founded in 2015 as a nonprofit focused on developing artificial intelligence in a manner that would benefit humanity. Musk, who helped launch the organization and donated roughly $38 million before ultimately leaving the board in 2018, said OpenAI&#8217;s leadership abandoned that principle for financial gain.
The SpaceX founder asked for $150 billion in damages — and promised to appeal when the jury decided against him.
&#8220;Regarding the OpenAI case, the judge &amp; jury never actually ruled on the merits of the case, just on a calendar technicality,&#8221; Musk said in an X post on Monday.
&#8220;There is no question to anyone following the case in detail that Altman &amp; Brockman did in fact enrich themselves by stealing a charity,&#8221; he added. &#8220;The only question is WHEN they did it! I will be filing an appeal with the Ninth Circuit, because creating a precedent to loot charities is incredibly destructive to charitable giving in America.&#8221;
Musk&#8217;s attorney Marc Toberoff also vowed to appeal the decision: &#8220;I have a one-word reaction: Appeal. This war is not over.&#8221;
Toberoff argued that OpenAI improperly raised money as a publicly subsidized nonprofit before later restructuring into a for-profit operation &#8220;where the officers and directors of the charity enrich themselves to the tune of billions.&#8221;
<blockquote class="twitter-tweet">
Elon Musk’s lawyer, Marc Toberoff, on today’s verdict in the OpenAI case:
“I have a one-word reaction: Appeal. This war is not over. We firmly believe what happened with OpenAI was wrong on a very basic level that you can&#8217;t raise millions of dollars in a publicly subsidized… <a href="https://t.co/D6x1Ja43mB">pic.twitter.com/D6x1Ja43mB</a>
— Sawyer Merritt (@SawyerMerritt) <a href="https://twitter.com/SawyerMerritt/status/2056477364134044055?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw">May 18, 2026</a></blockquote>
<script async src="https://platform.twitter.com/widgets.js" charset="utf-8"></script>

Elon Musk and OpenAI

Jury Nixes Elon Musk’s OpenAI Lawsuit In Under Two Hours

Jury Nixes Elon Musk's OpenAI Lawsuit In Under Two Hours

Artificial Intelligence

California

Charity

Courts

OpenAI

Sam altman

On Monday, Tesla CEO and X owner Elon Musk praised Israel for its incredible record of innovation.
Musk was asked at the 9th Annual Samson International Smart Mobility Summit, “Do you have a message to the Israeli innovators in the crowd?”
“I’m a huge admirer of the innovation coming out of Israel; honestly, I think objectively true that Israel punches far above its weight for a population,” Musk answered. “I think probably number one in the world. My hat is off to Israel for just how much incredible innovation — I say innovation per capita, Israel must be number one by far in the world.”
<blockquote class="twitter-tweet" data-width="500" data-dnt="true">
.<a href="https://twitter.com/elonmusk?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw">@elonmusk</a> speaking live: “I’m a huge admirer of the innovation coming out of Israel, it is objectively true that Israel punches high above its weight — I think honestly number one in the world… innovation per capita, Israel is by far number one in the world.” <a href="https://t.co/PdICcVepsP">pic.twitter.com/PdICcVepsP</a>
&mdash; Michael Granoff (@mikejgr) <a href="https://twitter.com/mikejgr/status/2056275785443319917?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw">May 18, 2026</a></blockquote>
<script async src="https://platform.twitter.com/widgets.js" charset="utf-8"></script>
Indeed, the list of inventions and techniques Israel has created borders on staggering, considering the tiny size of the country.
Israel has pioneered numerous groundbreaking medical technologies, devices, and pharmaceuticals. In oncology, adoptive immunotherapy — using genetically modified T-cells equipped with chimeric antigen receptors — has achieved remarkable remission rates in blood cancer clinical trials.
In diagnostics, the NaNose breathalyzer can detect 17 different diseases, while Applied Spectral Imaging revolutionized cytogenetics using color-coded chromosome sorting. Israel is also famous for the PillCam, a swallowable capsule endoscopy camera that captures thousands of non-invasive images of the digestive tract.
In cardiology and emergency medicine, Israeli innovations include flexible cardiac stents (Medinol and InStent), the combat-proven Emergency Bandage featuring a built-in pressure bar to halt hemorrhaging, and the Bone Injection Gun for intraosseous fluid delivery. In patient care and rehabilitation, the ReWalk robotic exoskeleton enables paraplegics to stand and walk, while EarlySense offers contactless under-the-mattress patient monitoring. Notable pharmaceutical developments include Copaxone, a widely prescribed immunomodulator for multiple sclerosis, and Pluristem Therapeutics&#8217; placenta-based anti-radiation therapy.
Israeli scientists have significantly advanced the fields of chemistry, computer science, and mathematics, yielding multiple Nobel Prizes. Key breakthroughs include the mapping of ribosome structures by Ada Yonath, the discovery of the ubiquitin protein pathway for protein degradation by Avram Hershko and Aaron Ciechanover, and the discovery of quasicrystals by Dan Shechtman.
In computer science, Israeli researchers co-developed the LZ77 and LZ78 data compression algorithms, which serve as the foundation for modern ZIP, GIF, and PNG formats. The country has also heavily influenced the development of temporal logic, automata theory, and zero-knowledge proof systems. In economics, the collaborative work of Daniel Kahneman and Amos Tversky established prospect theory and the foundational tenets of behavioral economics.
Driven by necessity, Israel has developed a multi-layered missile defense architecture, most notably the Iron Dome for short-range rockets, alongside David&#8217;s Sling and the Arrow systems for ballistic missiles. In armored defense, the Trophy Active Protection System destroys incoming anti-tank missiles before impact.
Small arms include the iconic Uzi submachine gun, the Galil, and the Tavor rifle, alongside tactical innovations like CornerShot, which allows soldiers to shoot around corners via a hinged camera system. Israel was also a pioneer in modern drone warfare, engineering early real-time surveillance Unmanned Aerial Vehicles (UAVs) and advanced loitering munitions. The military also birthed Krav Maga, an internationally adopted, hand-to-hand tactical self-defense system.
In computing and cybersecurity, Israel created the USB flash drive (DiskOnKey) and Check Point&#8217;s Stateful Inspection Firewall, which laid the blueprint for modern network security. Key Intel processor designs (8088 and Centrino) were developed in Israel, alongside Waze (crowdsourced navigation), ICQ (the first global instant messaging service), and Mobileye (vision-based driver assistance).
In agriculture and water, Israel revolutionized farming in arid zones through modern drip irrigation (Netafim), large-scale seawater reverse osmosis desalination, and wastewater recycling, reclaiming nearly 90% of its wastewater. Israeli scientists also genetically optimized commercial cherry tomatoes for long shelf-lives.
Food products like Bamba, a peanut snack credited with reducing pediatric peanut allergies, and Ptitim (Israeli couscous) are globally recognized. Finally, Israel pioneered energy sustainability by mandating highly efficient rooftop solar water heaters (Dud Shemesh).

Billionaire Elon Musk at the Samson International Smart Mobility Summit

Elon Musk Reveals What Makes Israel Different From The Rest Of The World

'Huge Admirer ... My Hat Is Off To Israel': Musk Hails Israel's Incredible History Of Innovation

Israel

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