Baptiste Profile picture
Nov 28, 2024 14 tweets 4 min read Read on X
After losing his $180 Million PayPal fortune...

Elon was 3 weeks from bankruptcy.

Tesla was losing $10 Million/month. Everyone thought he was finished.

Then, he bet his last $6 Million on his cousin's dying startup.

Here's how a family meeting saved him: 🧵 Image
2008: Everything was falling apart.

SpaceX couldn't get a rocket to orbit.
Three failed launches had drained millions.

Tesla was bleeding $10M every month trying to deliver the Roadster.

And Elon? He was living off personal loans just to pay rent...
The PayPal fortune was gone.

From $180M to nearly zero in just a few years.

Most billionaires would've cut their losses. Declared bankruptcy. Started over.

But Elon was about to make a decision that seemed completely insane: Image
With just weeks of cash left...

He called a family meeting.

What happened next would either destroy his last chance at survival...

Or change the future of energy forever. Image
His cousins Lyndon and Peter had a radical idea:

Make solar power accessible to everyone, not just the wealthy.

When they started in 2006, this seemed impossible. Solar panels cost a fortune. Oil was king.

But they had cracked a revolutionary model:
Instead of selling expensive panels, they'd lease them to homeowners.

No massive upfront costs. No maintenance nightmares.

Just clean energy at prices anyone could afford.

The catch? They needed $6M to launch...
Elon had a choice:

Save his last millions for Tesla and SpaceX...

Or bet everything on a third company in an industry investors called "dead on arrival."

He wrote the check. And became chairman.
By 2012, that "doomed" bet became SolarCity – America's largest solar provider.

They went public at $1.6 Billion

The same company investors mocked was now powering more homes than any competitor in the country.

2016: The master plan revealed itself. Image
Tesla acquired SolarCity for $2.6 Billion.

Critics screamed "bailout!" Shareholders sued.

But they missed what Elon saw in that family meeting years ago:

He wasn't just saving a solar company...
He was building the world's first complete sustainable energy ecosystem:

• Cars powered by electricity
• Homes powered by sun
• Batteries storing clean energy

All working as one.
The courts eventually cleared him.

That desperate family meeting didn't just save his fortune.

It laid the foundation for a world beyond fossil fuels.
Today, that "crazy" solar bet is powering millions of homes.

What started as a last-ditch family meeting became an energy revolution.

The future belongs to those bold enough to bet everything on it.

Even when they're weeks away from losing it all...
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I am Baptiste Parravicini:

• Tech entrepreneur & API visionary
• Co-founder of apidays, world's leading API conference
• Passionate about AI integration & tech for the greater good

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More from @BaptisteVicini

Jul 2
Tech isn’t moving fast. It’s EXPLODING.

10 mind-bending inventions you won't believe are real: 🧵

1. Orion AI achieves 88% accuracy in medical diagnostics, approaching doctor-level performance Image
Quantum computing, bioengineering, and neuromorphic processors are converging.

Research cycles compress as AI accelerates discovery.

Here's what's actually happening:
Orion AI (o1-preview) outperforms doctors in complex cases.

88.6% accuracy vs 35% human accuracy in studies.

Explains its reasoning step by step.

Among the most advanced medical AI systems tested.
Read 16 tweets
Jun 25
A single person with AI and a grudge could create a virus to wipe us out.

That’s what the 77-year-old “Godfather of AI” just warned.

In a viral interview, he exposed the terrifying truth about AI’s future.

Here are his 7 most shocking revelations: Image
For context: Geoffrey Hinton built the neural networks that power modern AI.

His students created GPT.

Google bought his company.

Now at 77, he left to warn us about what he created.

But what he revealed first changes everything...
Revelation #1: One person + AI + molecular biology = potential human extinction.

Hinton says for a few million dollars, a small cult could design deadly viruses.

No advanced lab needed. Just AI, basic knowledge, and destructive intent.

The timeline is even more terrifying:
Read 16 tweets
Jun 18
JD Vance revealed things on Theo Von's podcast no VP has ever admitted:

• Why Elon turned against Trump
• How tech hooks us through addiction
• How DOGE found at least $170B in government waste

Here are the 5 most revealing moments: Image
Image
This wasn't typical political theater.

Vance revealed how government actually uses technology behind closed doors.

No talking points, no campaign promises.

Just raw insights about digital power that will shock you:
These revelations expose dynamics most tech leaders never see.

Each one shows how Washington really works with Silicon Valley.

Understanding them could reshape your entire strategy.

But first, the bombshell about Elon:
Read 19 tweets
Jun 10
This is Palmer Luckey.

He founded Oculus before it was acquired by Facebook for $2B in 2014.

However, he was ousted from the company for his political affiliations.

But this week, Meta announced a partnership with his new company.

And what they're building will shock you: Image
Let's set the scene here.

In 2017, Palmer Luckey was forced out of Facebook.

His crime? A $10,000 donation to an anti-Hillary Clinton group.

The VR genius who built their entire virtual reality division was sent packing overnight.

But this wasn't the end of his story...
Let's rewind to see how this all started.

Luckey founded Oculus and sold it to Facebook for $2 billion in 2014.

He was the golden boy of VR development.

Then came Trump's election and everything changed.

What happened next would define his entire future:
Read 18 tweets
May 28
Sergey Brin just went deep on the All-In podcast.

Google's co-founder revealed:
• How a competitor inspired him to come out of retirement
• How he secretly uses AI to manage his teams
• How AI models will eventually converge

Here are his 5 most jaw-dropping revelations:🧵 Image
First, some background.

Sergey Brin retired just a month before COVID hit.

His plan?

Hang out in cafes and read physics books.

Then everything changed at a party:
1. An OpenAI employee convinced him to come back.

He challenged Brin, asking him why he was on the sidelines during the greatest transformative moment in computer science.

Brin realized he was right.

The pace of AI development dwarfs anything we've seen.
Read 19 tweets
May 16
PayPal was Silicon Valley's first tech mafia.

But there's another company whose alumni have quietly raised $6B+ across numerous startups.

Today, this powerful network dominates industries like AI, defense, and healthcare.

This is the untold story of the Palantir Mafia: Image
In 2003, Peter Thiel took his PayPal fortune and co-founded Palantir with Alex Karp.

The secretive company specialized in solving difficult problems for government agencies, from hunting terrorists to detecting financial fraud.

But something else was brewing inside...
Palantir created a unique talent factory unlike anything Silicon Valley had seen before.

They hired engineers who were comfortable with ambiguity and high-stakes missions.

These teams were embedded within agencies like the CIA and FBI, solving problems no one else could tackle.
Read 21 tweets

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