Elon, Inc.

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Elon Gets $30 Billion to Stick Around, Boring is Largely Stuck Aug 05, 2025

Show notes

It was an expensive week for Tesla. On Friday, a jury in Miami found the electric car company 33% to blame for a deadly 2019 crash involving its full self-driving feature, ordering it to pay a total of $242.5 million in damages. A few days later, the company’s board said it would dole out a $30 billion stock payoff to co-founder Elon Musk in order to keep him focused on the company, which has been bouncing from crisis to crisis.

In this episode of Elon, Inc., host David Papadopoulos is joined by Bloomberg Elon Musk reporter Dana Hull, Bloomberg Businessweek’s Max Chafkin as well as Missy Cummings, an academic and former senior adviser for safety at the US National Highway Traffic Safety Administration who was called as an expert witness during the trial. Together, they discuss the possible consequences for the company flowing from the verdict, with Cummings warning it’s yet another roadblock for fully self-driving cars. Papadopoulos, Hull and Chafkin also discuss that monster payout to Musk.

Later, Papadopoulos, Chafkin and Bloomberg News reporter Kiel Porter discuss Porter’s latest story on The Boring Company, Musk’s largely stalled endeavor to build underground “hyperloops.” Although the tunnel-digging venture recently scored a contract to build a loop connecting Nashville’s airport with its downtown, Porter’s paints a picture of a struggling company that—in true Muskian fashion—promises more than it can deliver.

And the challenges are mounting. All the company has to show for its labors is a small loop that takes people to and from the Las Vegas Convention Center. When asked by Papadopoulos about the company’s falling valuation—now hovering at around $6.4 billion, down from a high of $8.6 billion in July 2023—Porter is direct.

“They were supposed to have 68 miles dug in Vegas. It was supposed to be this huge interconnected lattice, and instead you got less than four operational miles,” he says. “It doesn’t take a genius to look at that and go, ‘why am I investing in this?’”

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Elon Opens a Restaurant, Strikes a Chip Deal, Dreams of Robots Jul 29, 2025

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The growing blowback from years of spreading conspiracy theories, embracing far-right political causes and attempting to dismantle the US government (with calamitous results for millions) might have finally taken its toll on Elon Musk and his companies. Or perhaps not.

Last week’s Tesla earnings call ended on a somber note, with world’s richest man declaring his struggling and divisive electric car company could have “a few rough quarters” ahead. With revenue down 12% and the political climate for electric vehicles darkening courtesy of his former boss in the White House, who can blame him?

But nothing is ever absolute when it comes to the world’s most famous living native of South Africa. Mere days later, Tesla announced a new $16.5 billion chip deal with Samsung, and over the weekend a now-jolly Musk proclaimed in his usual hyperbolic manner that Tesla might rake in $30 trillion per year from sales of its humanoid robot (yes, with a T). Oh, and on July 21, Tesla opened its first diner in the heart of Hollywood. Alongside a $9 grilled cheese sandwich and a contentious, four-story movie screen, protests immediately followed.

On this week’s episode Max Chafkin discusses all the latest Tesla news with Bloomberg’s Elon Musk reporter, Dana Hull. The duo also welcome Bloomberg health reporter Ike Swetlitz to hear about the latest from Neuralink, Musk’s brain implant company. In the spirit of Musk’s dreams of robot trillions, that company proclaimed it expects $1 billion in annual revenue by 2031, with chips inserted into 20,000 brains annually. Currently, the number is nine. But maybe a bionic eye will prompt second looks.

Also, Chafkin and Hull take a look at the latest news from Musk’s tunnel company Boring, which just scored a deal to drill a passage in red state Tennessee, from downtown Nashville to the city’s airport. If history is any guide, there might be a hiccup or two.

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Musk’s Trump Feud Is Still Hurting His Empire Jul 22, 2025

Show notes

On this week’s episode of Elon, Inc., host Max Chafkin and Bloomberg News reporter Ed Ludlow discuss their cover story for the latest issue of Bloomberg Businessweek. Their reporting details the ways in which Elon Musk’s companies—specifically Tesla, SpaceX and xAI—are struggling in the wake of his feud with President Donald Trump.

Chafkin and Ludlow break down where each of these companies stands now, and analyze how investors are rationalizing their continued investments in the multibillionaire’s sprawling endeavors.

Then Bloomberg News technology editor Sarah Frier takes over the hosting chair to interview Wall Street Journal reporter Dana Mattioli about Musk’s many offspring, including his custody agreements and pro-natalist leanings. The conversation is the second in a summer series in which our Elon, Inc. panelists interview Musk reporters from outside Bloomberg about stories we wished we wrote first.

Mattioli explains Musk’s stated desire to populate Mars and further populate Earth, how he’s using his social media platform to recruit mothers and why observers think it’s likely he has more than the 14 kids that are publicly known. She also digs into how Musk’s fixer Jared Birchall has interacted with the mothers of Musk’s children, including Ashley St. Clair, whose public child support battle with Musk shed light on Birchall’s tactics.

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Forget DOGE. Musk Is Suddenly All In on AI Jul 15, 2025

Show notes

On this week’s episode of Elon, Inc., host Max Chafkin and Bloomberg News reporters Dana Hull and Kurt Wagner chat about Elon Musk’s artificial intelligence company, xAI. The endeavor just debuted its new Grok 4 model on the heels of an antisemitism controversy, but Musk sees a brighter future for his creation, claiming it might discover “new physics” one day. Before that happens, though, the buzziest feature of the model is its AI companions—including a pigtailed and corseted anime character.

Musk introduced Grok 4 as news dropped that one of his other companies, SpaceX, would invest in xAI, and that another company he happens to run, Tesla, might follow suit (pending a shareholder vote). Our guests discuss what exactly it means when a rocket company and a car company invest in another company that’s making AI girlfriends, especially when all those companies happen to be run by the richest man in the world.

Then Wagner takes over the hosting chair to interview New York Times reporter Teddy Schleifer about the role Musk and his Silicon Valley billionaire pals have played in building the Trump administration, starting before the Republican took office. The conversation is the first in a summer series in which our Elon, Inc. panelists interview Musk reporters about the stories we’re jealous we didn’t write first.

Schleifer recounts the weeks following Election Day last year, when Musk embedded himself at Trump’s home at Mar-a-Lago in an effort to influence the future president’s plans. As candidates for top cabinet positions began swinging by the Florida club, they found themselves seated across from Musk’s loyal aides. Wagner and Schleifer also discuss the constantly evolving relationship between Musk and Trump, and whether Musk will still be involved in politics when the year comes to a close.

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Emergency Episode: Linda Yaccarino Leaves X Jul 09, 2025

Show notes

The day after Grok started spewing antisemitic propaganda, X CEO Linda Yaccarino announced that she's leaving the company. The timing sticks out, although sources says she's been planning an exit for a while. In this emergency episode, Max Chafkin summons Bloomberg's big tech team leader Sarah Frier to chat about Linda's legacy, her possible future plans and the timing of her departure.

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Can Elon’s ‘America Party’ Dream Come True? Jul 08, 2025

Show notes

On this week’s episode, David Papadopoulos invites Bloomberg political reporter Nancy Cook and Bloomberg Businessweek’s Max Chafkin to the studio to discuss Elon Musk’s latest idea—the creation of the “America Party.” Third parties have famously been losing propositions in American politics, and Cook questions if the distractible multibillionaire even has the patience to handle the paperwork required to register with the Federal Election Commission.

And then there’s his constant string of controversies. Chafkin wonders if there’s a reliable base out there hungry to support the party of a man who called Social Security a Ponzi scheme, initiated a feud with President Donald Trump (still popular with much of Musk’s theoretical rank and file) and whose “DOGE” initiative on Trump’s behalf is accused by some of worsening the catastrophic consequences of the recent flooding in Texas.

Nevertheless, history shows just how disruptive third parties can be when the margins are slim, as they are now. Cook sees a small slice of the electorate, “tech bros who are like, ‘oh, right, we should cut Social Security, we should shrink the federal government’,” who could possibly be converted by the right wing business mogul.

Later in the show, Papadopoulos and Chafkin are joined by Bloomberg stocks reporter Esha Dey to discuss the latest gyrations of the world’s most prominent meme stock, Tesla. The trio discuss the challenges facing the electric car company and dissect a recent eyebrow-raising note from analyst Dan Ives. The prominent Tesla bull presents a simple answer to Tesla’s woes: give Elon more money.

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Trump Suggests an Elon Deportation, Tesla Shakes up Management Jul 01, 2025

Show notes

The predictable second round of Elon Musk’s feud with Donald Trump began over the weekend as the Tesla CEO took aim at the GOP’s massive tax-and-spend bill. Specifically irking Musk (along with efforts to gut incentives to buy his cars) is the amount of money the bill would add to the $37 trillion national debt ($3.3 trillion over a decade, according to a new estimate from the nonpartisan Congressional Budget Office). Trump initially kept his replies to the richest man on Earth muted, but as the South Africa-native’s broadsides piled up, the notoriously thin-skinned Republican president could no longer help himself.

Trump blew up and not only threatened to withdraw government subsidies from Musk’s companies but said he would mull whether to try and “denaturalize” Musk and deport him. Meanwhile, Musk suggested he’d support primary challenges to any Republican lawmaker who supported the bill, and returned to the idea of starting a third party—called the America Party (of course).
To make sense of all the chaos, Bloomberg national correspondent Joshua Green joins David Papadopoulos on this week’s episode of Elon, Inc. Green argues that—despite Musk’s hundreds of billions of dollars and hundreds of millions of social media followers (and bots)—there isn’t a huge constituency out there for a third party. Green also outlines the roots of a mini-campaign within Trump’s ultra-right wing base to get Musk deported, discusses Musk’s chances of actually convincing any lawmakers in the House (now that the Senate has passed the bill) to change their vote on Trump’s tax bill and predicts how many more rounds are left between him and his (one-time) biggest campaign donor.

Papadopoulos also calls up Musk reporter Dana Hull to talk about about fresh challenges for Tesla. With several recent high-profile leadership exits, a flawed robotaxi rollout and sagging sales, things aren’t looking rosy for the electric carmaker ahead of tomorrow’s quarterly sales numbers. “They might only sell like a million and a half units this year; that’s like a far cry from the 20 million that they once talked about” Hull notes.

Finally, Trump wasn’t the only subject of a Musk feuds this week. Mexican president Claudia Sheinbaum recently threatened legal action against SpaceX due to debris from a rocket explosion sweeping in across the border from Texas. Is Musk’s space technology company ready for a spat with one of the few world leaders who has managed to tame Trump? Bloomberg Executive Editor Crayton Harrison joins for the full story.

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An Underwhelming Robotaxi Rollout, X Strong-arms Advertisers Jun 24, 2025

Show notes

Over the weekend, while the world was transfixed by war in the Middle East, the Tesla Robotaxi quietly appeared on the streets of Austin, Texas. It didn’t stay quiet for long, though. As a handful of Tesla influencers filmed themselves driven through the streets of the red state’s famously blue capital, their smartphone videos caught plenty of traffic violations.

In this week’s episode David Papadopoulos is joined by Max Chafkin as well as Bloomberg electric vehicles reporter Kara Carlson to break down the launch. Years in the making, and with rivals like Waymo already familiar sights in some big US cities, will Elon Musk be able to spin this as something other than a tepid attempt at catch-up? Tesla investors seem to think so: the stock jumped 8.2% on Monday.

Papadopoulos and Chafkin are then joined by Bloomberg social media reporter Kurt Wagner, just back from the Cannes Lions International Festival of Creativity. Wagner discusses X’s participation, or rather absence, from the all-important advertising event, and goes through how Musk’s embattled social media platform has reportedly tried to strong-arm advertisers to return by threatening lawsuits. This prompted Papadopoulos to speculate about the equivalent situation for hot dog vendors or shovel salesmen.

Lastly, the crew discuss a few additional news item from the week, namely an exploding SpaceX rocket and the recent report that Musk doesn’t use a computer.

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Can ‘MAMUWT’ Be to Musk What ‘TACO’ Is to Trump? Jun 17, 2025

Show notes

On this week’s episode of Elon, Inc., host David and Max chat about the latest Musk-Trump drama. A detente had just emerged when we last recorded, and now it feels like it’s just a matter of time before Musk (and little X) are back in the Oval Office sparring with reporters (and playing on the floor). Will the apologies help Musk secure eased restrictions for self-driving cars and access to Star Wars 2.0 (Trump’s “golden dome” project)? And will Max and David be able to introduce MAMUWT (Musk Always Makes Up With Trump) into the lexicon alongside TACO (Trump Always Chickens Out)? What about MADRA (Musk Always Delays Robotaxi Announcements)?

Meanwhile, xAI is in talks to raise $4.3 billion (on top of the $5 billion it’s been trying to raise) since the company has already spent most of the $14 billion it previously raised. Commitments on the debt sale are due Tuesday. Bloomberg’s Carmen Arroyo joins the crew to break down what it means for the future of Musk’s company.

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After the Meltdown, Elon Looks to Robotaxis Jun 10, 2025

Show notes

On this week’s episode, host David gathers Max Chafkin and Dana Hull to go through the latest developments in the aftermath of the Elon Musk-Donald Trump explosion last week. After two (!) emergency episodes in as many days last week, things seem to have calmed down between the South Africa native and the US president—but there are still signs of friction. Will Trump ever be able to forgive the insults Musk hurled at him on social media (as in, Trump should be impeached a third time)? Can he afford not to?

In the midst of all the drama, it’s easy to forget that this week will reportedly see a milestone event for Tesla: the June 12 launch of a robotaxi service in Austin, Texas. The operation will be small to start, with just 10-20 cars serving a limited area, according to the company. But the timing of the event is eyebrow raising. Not only does it come on the heels of Musk’s tweet-storm meltdown, it also happens a mere week after a Bloomberg story outlining a lethal crash involving a self-driving Tesla. The crew discuss just how long the odds are for robotaxi success.
To end, Chafkin has brought a feud to the program. This week it’s Musk against his own chatbot, Grok. Why is he so disappointed with his digital companion this time? The answer includes a screen short, a left wing meme and an artificial intellgence with a surprising lack of digital critical thinking.

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