Live nowOn the air 24/7Watch live
Play
▶ Interviews · U.S.
Interviews

SpaceX's $40B Debt Deal: The $4,000-an-Hour Advisor Who Knows Nothing

SpaceX closes $40 billion debt deal for AI chips. The whole segment, as it aired. Guests who wandered in, and the anchors who let them.

On air
Chip Darnell, with Odalys Marchetti (Managing Partner)
Aired
on BBN After Hours
Length
1:27
“It was not a major factor this quarter.”
Odalys Marchetti

The story behind it, and the real reporting →

Transcript

What BBN said on air. Comedy, with fictional anchors.

  1. Chip DarnellSpaceX says it closed forty billion dollars in debt to buy AI chips, and my first question is who lent it.

  2. Chip DarnellJoining us is Odalys Marchetti of Lantern Ridge Advisory, who bills four thousand dollars an hour. Odalys, who are the lenders?

  3. Odalys MarchettiGreat question, and that's a ten-minute answer, so call that forty thousand dollars.

  4. Odalys MarchettiAs a rule of thumb, a lender with a name is a lender with a problem.

  5. Chip DarnellSo you don't know. The interest rate and the maturity haven't been named either. Do you know those?

  6. Odalys MarchettiNo, and that's the beauty of it. Musk wrote that the debt was not a major factor this quarter, and that's the whole reassurance, folks.

  7. Odalys MarchettiI'd bill for that sentence alone.

  8. Chip DarnellWhich quarter will it be a major factor?

  9. Odalys MarchettiAs a rule of thumb, debt becomes a factor eleven days after a consultant leaves. This invoice, by the way, covers that warning.

  10. Odalys MarchettiTotal hidden by my thumb.

  11. Chip DarnellMusk also said it's mostly callable debt, so SpaceX can repay it before it's due. That sounds like good news for regular folks.

  12. Odalys MarchettiIt is, in the sense that a callable loan can be paid back early. Fees to me are not callable. I checked.

  13. Chip DarnellHe predicted a shakeout among more than two hundred neocloud firms. Are you pitching them?

  14. Odalys MarchettiAll two hundred. Early, before they know they need a warning. As a rule of thumb, it's cheaper to be told you're doomed in advance.

  15. Odalys MarchettiSlightly.

  16. Chip DarnellSlightly?

  17. Odalys MarchettiRating: the deal gets a clear seven out of ten, and I can't say why. That's included.

  18. Chip DarnellLast one, Odalys. What did this interview cost us?

  19. Odalys MarchettiIt was not a major factor this quarter.

More Interviews and segments

All videos →
  1. ▶ Interviews · U.S.Chinese Film Flops: Actor Says Even Cereal Ads Rejected HimAbout this segment
  2. ▶ Interviews · U.S.Tesla's AI Spending Cut: Exec Says He's Sprinting on an Unplugged TreadmillAbout this segment
  3. ▶ Interviews · U.S.Le Pen Launches Bid From a Fort: Lawyer Answers for the WaterAbout this segment
  4. ▶ Interviews · U.S.Apple MacBook Touchscreen: Influencer's Promo Code ProblemAbout this segment
  5. ▶ Interviews · U.S.Trump Rally Remarks: Lobbyist for Both Sides Says Normal and ScandalAbout this segment
  6. ▶ Interviews · U.S.Devil May Cry Season 2 Hits 100%, and So Does This Casserole DramaAbout this segment
  7. ▶ Hot Take or Not · U.S.Northern Ireland Farmers Go High-Tech: Cows Get a PartnershipAbout this segment
  8. ▶ This Day in History · Pop CultureOctober 25 in History: Taiwan, George III and a UN SeatAbout this segment
  9. ▶ Hot Take or Not · U.S.Japan's 10-Layer Matcha Mont Blanc: Hidden in a Soft-Serve ConeAbout this segment
  10. ▶ Hot Take or Not · U.S.Fish Oil vs. the Brain: Pill Arrives, Then Just Stands ThereAbout this segment

More segments

All segments →