"Amazon added 427,300 employees between January and October, pushing its work force to more than 1.2 million people globally, up more than 50 percent from a year ago. Its number of workers now approaches the entire population of Dallas." https://www.nytimes.com/2020/11/27/technology/pushed-by-pandemic-amazon-goes-on-a-hiring-spree-without-equal.html

2/ Michael Mauboussin writing about "real options" in 1999:

"Amazon started by selling books. So there was a DCF value for the book business plus out-of-the-money contingent options on other offerings." http://www.capatcolumbia.com/Articles/FoFinance/Fof10.pdf

3/ "As the book business proved successful, contingent options on music and video went from out- of-the-money to in-the-money... As time passed Amazon’s real options portfolio has become more valuable. For example, the foray into the auction business [was once] unimaginable...."

4/ What businesses in 2020 can you identify that are are like Amazon was in 1999 and are being valued by markets like Michael Mauboussin wrote in his essay:

"So there was a DCF value for the [existing] business plus out-of-the-money contingent options on other offerings."

5/ If SpaceX isn't being valued based on its existing rocket launch business plus out-of-the-money contingent options on other offerings like broadband satellite service, then how exactly is it being valued?

"The latest round brings SpaceX's equity value to $46 billion."

6/ What's another example of a real option based valuation?

"While SpaceX's annual launch revenue is estimated at about $2B, Musk sees that topping out at $3B in the coming years. But Starlink he said could bring in revenue of "more like $30B a year." https://www.google.com/amp/s/www.cnbc.com/amp/2019/05/31/spacex-valuation-33point3-billion-after-starlink-satellites-fundraising.html