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And a space elevator, if it ever becomes reality, will be very long. NASA needs about 144,000 miles of nanotube to build one. In theory, a cable would extend 22,000 miles above the Earth to a station, which is the distance at which satellites remain in geostationary orbit. Due to the competing forces of the Earth’s gravity and outward centrifugal pull, the elevator station would remain at that distance like a satellite. Then the cable would extend another 40,000 miles into space to a weighted structure for stability. An elevator car would be attached to the nanotube cable and powered into space along the track.[…]

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That’s 22,000 miles plus 40,000 miles equals 144,000 miles? Something is unclear.
The elevator station would not remain at that distance like a satellite, the weight of the cable would bring it crashing to earth.
The cable would need to extend another 22,000 miles, not 40,000 miles, into space and not necessarily to a weighted structure.

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And it looks like the 18 “miles” are not like the 144,000 “miles”, otherwise 30 teams could make enough in one year.
Currently, the Cambridge team can make about 1 gram of the new carbon material per day, which can stretch to 18 miles in length. Alan Windle, professor of materials science at Cambridge, says that industrial-level production would be required to manufacture NASA’s request for 144,000 miles of nanotube. Nevertheless, the web-like nanotube material is promising.

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Let’s build better tennis rackets and golf clubs from the stuff first, then auto bodies and aircraft fuselages. Once that is mastered and the nanotube manufacturing process is mature and cost-effective, make SSTO launch vehicles from the material. Some time after thatr, we may be ready for space elevators.