SUPER HEAVY LIFT: SpaceX valuation balloons to $2.6T, briefly passes Amazon.

The newly public company’s stock had already climbed 20% on Monday — its first full day of trading. Tuesday’s news that SpaceX was acquiring AI coding company Cursor, along with the start of options trading on SpaceX’s shares, sent the share price even higher, spiking its valuation to $2.9 trillion before it ultimately settled back down.

This is all despite the fact that SpaceX posted a $4.9 billion loss on $18.7 billion in revenue last year, compared to Amazon, which turned a $78 billion profit in 2025 on $717 billion in sales in 2025. SpaceX has recently added new revenue streams in the form of compute leasing deals with Anthropic and Google, though, and will absorb the revenue from Cursor when that deal closes in the third quarter.

The Anthropic and Google deals are non-binding, but investors don’t seem to mind either way. Elon Musk’s space-and-AI company had added roughly $1 trillion to its valuation since going public on Friday.

I managed to buy a single vanity share last week, and snagged a few more when SPCX closed down for the first time on Wednesday. Don’t know if I’ll win, lose, or draw, but it’s exciting finally owning even a minuscule piece of the world’s most exciting company.

YES:

The British Isles are beginning to remember what every civilization eventually remembers:

A government that cannot protect its people eventually loses the moral authority to govern them.

Everything that follows is just the timetable.

— InfantryDort (@infantrydort) June 17, 2026

IT’S MY THURSDAY ESSAY FOR VIP SUBSCRIBERS: The Terrible Mercy of AI Killbots. “Let me cut to the chase and tell you right up front what happens when you remove the human from the AI killbot chain: You get dead enemy soldiers requiring zero human intervention. That was demonstrated in a real-world combat test we’ll discuss below. But the big issue is even bigger than battlefield Terminators, and it’s also the real subject of this week’s essay.”

FALLOUT FROM THE AI EXPLOSION: Apple to Raise Prices Due to Memory Chip Crunch, Tim Cook Says.

“Unfortunately, price increases are unavoidable,” he said. “We’re doing our best to mitigate the huge increases that are being passed to us, and we’ve been trying to shield our customers from the increases, but the situation has become unsustainable.”

Cook declined to offer details on the timing or scale of the planned price increases, nor which products will be affected. Apple’s next major product launch is likely to be in September when it releases the iPhone 18 lineup, expected to include a new foldable iPhone.

Price increases, especially for Macs and iPads, could come sooner. Apple raised the starting price of the Mac Mini last month in between launch events.

Skyrocketing demand for memory and storage chips from AI companies has pushed up their cost so much that Apple would have to raise device prices substantially to maintain its profit margins.”

Apple kinda-sorta held the line on price increases largely by eliminating entry-level memory options on some models, forcing buyers into the next tier — presumably where margins are better. But that was never anything more than a short-term fix to what’s become a long-term problem for everybody.

Whether you’re Mac, Windows, or Linux, now is a lousy time to buy. But it’s better than later.

(Sorry for the paywalled link, but the Archive version wasn’t available at press time.)

DISPATCHES FROM DHIMMI FRANCE:

🇫🇷 A French woman who was sexually assaulted by a Tunisian migrant could be sentenced to prison today for ‘incitement to racial hatred.’

During a TV discussion, she said that “the main danger for women in France is Black African and Arab immigrant men.”

She was initially given… pic.twitter.com/JKrKjCfoQX

— Visegrád 24 (@visegrad24) June 17, 2026

PEACE DEAL UPDATE: Iranian Regime Executes Two Young Freedom Protesters, Launches Drones.

OOF:

Well, not quite ever. https://t.co/8sU8YVnjeo

— Stephen L. Miller (@redsteeze) June 17, 2026

UPDATE (From Ed): After plenty of well-deserved ridicule the New York Post deleted their tweet, but fortunately, Archive.today saved a copy before it “unexpectedly” vanished:

HOME RULE WAS A MISTAKE: Democrat socialist candidate had wide lead in bid to become DC’s next mayor, after Tuesday balloting.

ICYMI: How Deep Are the Newsoms in It? THIS Deep.

CIVIL RIGHTS UPDATE: Gun Makers Face Lawfare After Supreme Court Lets New York Law Stand.

CREDIT WHERE IT’S DUE: Among the large new rockets Amazon was counting on, only Europe has delivered.

France-based Arianespace has emerged as a critical partner for Amazon, which, to date, has had the majority of its 331 satellites launched on Atlas V rockets. However, Amazon has just one more mission booked on this rocket, which is operated by United Launch Alliance, as the vehicle is slated for retirement.

To launch the majority of its Leo constellation, Amazon booked rides on three large, new rockets four years ago: 18 launches on the Ariane 6 rocket, 12 launches on Blue Origin’s New Glenn rocket, with options for 15 additional launches; and 38 launches of the United Launch Alliance’s Vulcan rocket.

But of these new rockets, only Arianespace has delivered so far, with two launches completed this year, another on Wednesday, and more to come. Neither New Glenn (also owned by Amazon founder Jeff Bezos) nor Vulcan has launched Amazon satellites yet.

“As for Arianespace, they have definitely stepped up,” Metayer said. “They’re very reliable on their manifest dates, and they’re very reliable and safe on their insertions into orbit. So we definitely would continue to look forward to the next 16 launches with them on our existing contract, and we see them being a player long-term beyond that.”

New Glenn is an impressive rocket, but maybe Blue Origin should have held back from selling launches until they’d worked out the troubling (and explosive) reliability issues.

DISPATCHES FROM AIRSTRIP ONE:

"At the police station, Kate was taken into the interview room. Before the interview began, and without Kate’s mother present, Kate was told that this was her “last chance” to say that her report was untrue. She was warned that if any part of her account could not be supported by…

— Mish (@Mish_K_) June 17, 2026

“She was warned that if any part of her account could not be supported by evidence, she could and would be arrested. For an extended period of time, both officers repeatedly told her how much trouble she would be in if any detail of her statement was disproved, and that she could withdraw the allegation before the interview started with no further consequences. They also suggested that her parents would be relieved if she said the incident had not happened.”

KEVIN DOWNEY JR ALWAYS HAS THE BEST HEADLINES: The UK Goes Full Dystopia As Parts of Europe (Finally) Begin to Fight the New World Goblins.

BUT HE’S READY TO HELP MANAGE THE NATION’S FINANCES? Texas’s James Talarico, 37, Shares His Only Checking Account With His Mom. “It’s unclear exactly why Talarico—whose campaign did not respond to a request for comment—shares the account with his mother, but she appears to be helping him, not vice versa.”

AMERICANA RULES:

Germans and Scots singing American Pie. ❤️

The Euros are showing Democrats how to appreciate the US.
🇺🇸🇩🇪🏴󠁧󠁢󠁳󠁣󠁴󠁿 pic.twitter.com/qXl0u08DEK

— Buzz Patterson (@BuzzPatterson) June 17, 2026

NOVEMBER PREVIEW: More Georgia Runoff Results — Mixed Results for True Conservatives.

JOANNE JACOBS: Is talent a myth? Can anyone learn anything? I don’t think so. “Testing may favor children who’ve been exposed to museums and libraries and know that a pig says ‘oink.’ But relying on teacher recommendations is far more biased, as Arnold-Ratliff concedes. Universal testing is the most effective way to get more minority and lower-income students into challenging programs.”

ANALYSIS: TRUE.

DSA is essentially a wealthy, white, highly educated movement which very carefully selects candidates from their 0.00001% members of color to try and sell the ideas to black and brown people who are historically extremely averse to socialism https://t.co/mtgng1v8ps

— Jon Levine (@LevineJonathan) June 16, 2026

Voting by group identity is easily exploited, and exploitation is the name of the Left’s game.

LET’S: Let’s Check in With Our Old Pal, Nicolás Maduro.

CHANGE: Pizza Hut restaurant chain to be sold for $2.7 billion. “Yum Brands, which also owns KFC and Taco Bell, began to explore its options for Pizza Hut in November. Last year, Yum Brands’ global sales rose 5% but Pizza Hut’s sales fell 2%.”

IT’S SAFER TO BE A BRITISH PATRIOT IN TEXAS THAN IN BRITAIN:

Dallas, USA, has been covered in St. Georges flags for the World Cup.

Unlike in Britain, they won't be removed! pic.twitter.com/c4ijDv0HV2

— Inevitable West (@Inevitablewest) June 17, 2026

DISPATCHES FROM THE BLUE ZONES: How Deep Are the Newsoms In It? THIS Deep. “It seems impossible — or just too revolting — to keep up with the financial hanky-panky of California Gov. Gavin Newsom and First Partner (gag) Jennifer Siebel Newsom. But thanks to a couple of investigative reporters with stronger stomachs than I have, let’s see if I can’t put everything you need to know into one easily digestible column.”

OOF: OpenAI’s financials have leaked, showing $21 billion in losses against $13 billion in revenue. “Is there a path to profitability? Maybe. OpenAI’s two biggest expenses are R&D and marketing. Budget cuts there, coupled with an ability to raise prices or win new sources of revenue, could see the company move into the black over time. Cutting R&D would be the most difficult part of that, given that AI companies can only hold onto their customers by generating the best-performing models.”

Switching is easy and cheap for customers, retaining them is difficult — and expensive.

GOODER AND HARDER, VIRGINIA:

JUST IN: Governor Abigail Spanberger officially signs a bill handing over Virginia’s 13 electoral votes to whoever wins the most votes across the whole country…

even if Virginians vote the other way.

Insane.

They rushed it through with mostly Democrat votes. The plan has… pic.twitter.com/zvfV61S1uf

— Tironianae 🍊🍊 Z. – Ultra Verbum Vincet (@Tironianae) June 16, 2026

KEEP THE FORMER, SEND THE LATTER BACK TO BRUSSELS: Some Europeans Are Falling in Love With America. Others Are Yelling at Cruise Passengers.