Elon Musk announced his support for Donald Trump on July 13, minutes after the attempt on Trump’s life at a rally in Pennsylvania. Since then, the chief executive of Tesla and SpaceX has been engaged in what amounts to one of the all-time largest political spending sprees. That’s not even counting what many have called the biggest in-kind political gift in history: Musk’s social media platform, X. In this second episode of Citizen Elon, we explore what Musk stands to gain, how he's wielding his newfound political power and what is even possible when the world's richest man unites with Trump

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This has been a huge week for Elon Musk: First, the Tesla stock rally, in reaction to a good earnings report, made him billions of dollars richer (at least on paper). Then, Musk continued his full-throated campaign for Donald Trump with a marquee appearance at Madison Square Garden, leading chants of “USA!” to adoring fans amid a rally that featured the most racially inflammatory language yet of the Republican’s campaign.

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Feuds. Can’t beat ‘em, can’t stop ‘em. At Elon, Inc., we’ve long covered Elon Musk’s penchant for a public feud at the end of episodes, but today feuds take center stage. David and Max talk to Bloomberg emerging markets reporter Julia Leite, who is based in Brazil, about Musk’s evolving legal situation there. Then Dana joins to talk about the Cybertruck situation in Chechnya.

We can't help ourselves. There's two extra feuds, both related to land-use disputes. First, the party game Cards Against Humanity is suing SpaceX for allegedly trespassing on a swath of land that the company bought in 2017. Secondly, in the ongoing feud between prominent venture capitalist and Democrat donor Vinod Khosla, there has been a new chapter. In the course of trading insults on X, Musk mocked Khosla for a previous fight Khosla had had about beach access, and Khosla has asked him to apologize.

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As we chronicle every week on Elon, Inc., Elon Musk contains multitudes. He leads six companies, runs his own social-media platform and is now explicitly working to re-elect Donald Trump as president. This week, we talk about two very different kinds of Musk stories. One is about his behavior on X, and the rare tweet he took down. The other is about how his space company, SpaceX, is having a great run of late, with a successful space walk and a new deal with United Airlines. 

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Does Elon Musk consider all of his companies to be one giant company? That’s something that comes up in today’s episode as host David, Dana and Max consider a recent report on Tesla potentially giving up future revenue in exchange for access to Musk’s artificial intelligence startup, xAI access. That brings up corporate governance issues. 

And then, Dana speaks to New York Times reporter Kirsten Grind about a story she wrote on Musk’s plans regarding Mars.

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After months of back and forth, Brazil finally did what it’s been threatening to do: ban X. This comes on the heels of government complaints from Britain and elsewhere about false information thriving on Elon Musk’s embattled social media platform—some of it from Musk himself. In this episode of Elon, Inc., we dig into Brazil’s action and also talk about the Android app launch of X TV, a way to watch video content from the former Twitter on your home TV screen. Our panel—David Papadopoulos, Max Chafkin and Kurt Wagner—have some ideas.

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Tesla is often heralded as Elon Musk’s premiere company, the business at the foundation of all his other businesses. But as Tesla has struggled and lost market share, it’s SpaceX that keeps surging ahead of the competition.

SpaceX is trying to add the first commercial spacewalk to its list of accomplishments, and is set to bail out embattled rival Boeing by retrieving astronauts stranded by its faulty Starliner. This week reporters Loren Grush and Bruce Einhorn sift through the developments and debate if there’s any competition left for SpaceX in this field.

Host David Papadopoulos is also joined by reporter Kurt Wagner and editor Sarah Frier to discuss the latest development over at X. Why is Donald Trump all of a sudden posting again on his richest fan’s troubled platform? Will the arrest of Telegram Chief Executive Officer Pavel Durov have any consequences for Musk and X? And why did Diddy invest in Musk's takeover of X?

As always with Musk, there’s a lot to talk about.

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Reality TV stars are freezing their eggs on camera. Lawmakers in DC are debating federal protection for IVF. Hundreds of millions of dollars are being invested in slick startups that market fertility treatments for all. But this rapid growth has revealed cracks in the system. Misconception, a new series from Bloomberg’s Prognosis, follows reporter Kristen V. Brown on her own intimate journey as she uncovers the business of fertility. Along the way, she finds a fractured industry — a profit-driven field of medicine that thrives on dueling messages of hope and fear as people gamble everything for a chance at a baby.

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Last week, X users might have noticed a new kind of artificial intelligence-generated image proliferating: strange visions of Elon Musk next to Disney characters carrying guns, or Donald Trump in all kinds of, well, weird situations. This was what followed a new release of Musk’s Grok AI tool, which can now make images—unsurprisingly with fewer guardrails than other image-creating machines out there.

On this episode we’ll talk about Grok’s new skillset and also get into the semiotics of the Cybertruck. Initially conceived of as a mass-market truck, it’s slid into another category: marker of a certain kind of right-wing flex, the kind Musk himself has engaged in on his struggling social network. Joining David to discuss is Davey Alba, a Bloomberg technology reporter, along with Max Chafkin and Dana Hull.

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Monday night, Donald Trump sat down for an interview with Elon Musk on Musk’s social media platform, X. An unfiltered conversation between two of the most influential figures of the last decade? It was no surprise that over one million people listened concurrently in as they meandered across topics ranging from electric vehicles and immigration, to a play-by-play of the assassination attempt Trump survived in Pennsylvania last month.

So what’s the significance of this interview, which produced very little news and was marred from the start by technical issues? On the latest episode of Elon, Inc., host David gathers Max and Dana to try and untangle it.

But wait there’s more. In the final installment of our summer conversation series, Papadopoulos speaks with Bethany Allen, head of program for China investigations and analysis at the Australian Strategic Policy Institute. Allen unpacks Musk’s business ventures in China and what his involvement with the country means for Tesla and the electric vehicle industry at large.

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As the world reacts to US Vice President Kamala Harris’s own vice-presidential pick, Minnesota Governor Tim Walz, our attention stays focused on Monday’s stock market selloff (though much was recovered on Tuesday). One of the big topics of conversation was, does the sudden dip represent a popping artificial intelligence bubble? And what would such a correction do to Elon Musk? On this week’s episode of Elon, Inc., Bloomberg Businessweek’s Max Chafkin, Bloomberg technology editor Sarah Frier and reporter Kurt Wagner discuss. Plus later on: a conversation between Chafkin and the New Yorker’s Rachel Monroe and journalist Chris Hooks on what Musk’s relocation to Texas has meant for the state.

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Presidential political news—and memes—continue to electrify the American public. And it seems they’ve had an effect on Elon Musk as well, seeing how the far-right GOP megadonor has been posting madly on his embattled social media platform. Among media shared by Musk—now a full-throated supporter of Donald Trump—has been a fake video of US Vice President Kamala Harris with the parody label removed.

Bloomberg technology editor Sarah Frier and reporter Kurt Wagner join Elon, Inc., to talk about this. Later on the episode, Elon Musk reporter Dana Hull interviews New York Times reporter Mike Isaac about Musk’s troubled relationship with California.

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Donald Trump and Elon Musk occupied two entirely different worlds. Until they didn’t. In this episode, we learn how their paths as public figures — often informed and provoked by personal grievances — brought them together. Which snubs, perceived or not, prompted Musk to dip his toes in the politics pool?  We hear from misinformation scholars, right wing media experts, Bloomberg journalists, and people who have worked closely with Musk—close enough to discuss what he and Trump might have in common, and where they diverge.

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When President Joe Biden announced that he was dropping his campaign for re-election, the news reached most people via the President's post to X. Some are calling that a win for Musk's beleaguered platform, but Musk himself seemed to be preoccupied with propping up former President Trump's campaign on X, a platform Trump himself won't even use. David and Max are joined by tech editor Sarah Frier to dig into how it all played out on X.Plus, the first installment of our Summer Conversation Series: Max Chafkin speaks with Fred Lambert, editor-in-chief of Electrek, about how the Venn diagram of Elon Musk fans and Tesla fans has evolved in parallel with the Elon Musk's political shift.

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The fortunes of Elon Musk and Donald Trump have been converging for the better part of the past year. But over the past week, the union became official. On Friday, Bloomberg broke the news of a significant donation to a Trump Super-PAC. Then on Saturday, immediately after an assassination attempt on Trump’s life, Musk tweeted out his endorsement of the former president. 

David, Max, and Dana are joined Bloomberg Businessweek editor Brad Stone, who sat down with Trump in Florida for this month’s cover story, to discuss what Trump and Musk have in common, what may come out of this union, and how big of a black eye for Musk a Trump loss would mean. All this, plus the disappearing Robotaxi.

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Bloomberg reporters Josh Eidelson and Loren Grush recently went deep on a tangle of lawsuits orbiting SpaceX, all related to toxic workplace allegations including sexual harassment and retaliation. They join the Elon, Inc., panel to tell us what they found. Also, Dana and Max discuss a new feud developing between Musk and venture capitalist Reid Hoffman while delivering some thoughts on the fate of those who short Tesla stock.

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Tuesday was a big day in the world of Tesla, which reported its second-quarter sales numbers. After a disastrous start to 2024, and despite year-over-year sales being down, the numbers weren’t that bad.  David, Dana and Max talk it out with Bloomberg senior editor for autos Craig Trudell. Plus we have a lot of SpaceX and X news. 

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Why is Elon Musk so obsessed with birth rates? And what is he doing about it? Those questions are at the heart of today’s episode, as well as the Bloomberg Businessweek feature by Sophie Alexander and Dana Hull. They join David Papadopoulos to talk about their reporting (and their scoop on Musk’s twelfth known child). Plus, what’s happening at X? Falling revenues have led to a high-level shake-up, as Kurt Wagner comes aboard to discuss.

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Last week, we wondered whether Elon Musk would get his pay package approved in a shareholder vote—and we got our answer. According to Musk and Tesla, over 70% of shareholders voted to approve his record-setting deal. But what does this mean? To help answer that question, Elon, Inc. has convened its regular panelists, in the form of Max and Dana, as well as Delaware courts reporter Jef Feeley. And later on, Kurt Wagner comes on to talk about his scoop about X’s plans to become a payment service, and Max Read, of the Read Max newsletter, shares his thoughts on why X has decided to hide its “likes.”

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Max and Dana recently joined Ashlee Vance as guests on Bloomberg's Odd Lots podcast for a special Elon Musk episode. The wide ranging discussion covered a plethora of subjects, like Starlink's influence on the amateur night sky photographer community, Elon's leadership style and whether all his efforts really is just a combined effort to take humans to Mars. Dana seems to think so.It was such a good time, we can't help but share it with you today. So click play, enjoy, and then go subscribe to Odd Lots.

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On Thursday, Tesla—and Elon Musk—will face a vote of great emotional (if not legal) import: will shareholders approve, among other things, a measure to restore his $56 billion pay package? The one a Delaware judge threw out earlier this year? To get into what the vote means, we have Dana, Max and reporter Esha Day, who stuck around to tell us what’s happening with Tesla’s share price. It had flatlined earlier this year—but now it’s a bit more “boring.” 

Plus, a multifaceted feud watch! After Apple unveiled artificial intelligence integrations Monday, Musk took to X to rip the announcement, saying that if OpenAI were to go into Apple’s operating system, he would not let his employees bring iPhones to work. We shall see if he makes good on this!

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Foundering: The OpenAI Story is a narrative podcast that examines the rise of Sam Altman, from the time he was a 19-year-old startup founder, then the head of Y Combinator, and now the billionaire king of this AI boom.

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In the aftermath of Donald Trump’s felony conviction for fraud, his followers scrambled to be first to reaffirm their fealty to the twice-impeached Republican. But for some reason, Trump’s new status as a convict also was accompanied by a resurgence of stories about another right-wing figure—Elon Musk—and their warming relationship. 

Bloomberg has reported on how Musk is advising the presumptive GOP presidential candidate on all things crypto (maybe Dogecoin?), and the Wall Street Journal has related details about their time together in Florida—as well as the Tesla chief executive’s potential role in a second Trump administration. Bloomberg’s national politics correspondent Nancy Cook joins Max Chafkin and Kurt Wagner to talk about all of this. Also, the panel looked at some recent legal issues. 

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Elon Musk has made more headlines than usual as he travels all over Pennsylvania, working to help Donald Trump win the state in the Nov. 5 presidential election. As usual, the right-wing billionaire (Musk in this case) has been doing things his way, behaving like Trump by pushing traditional boundaries for campaigning, while also potentially violating election laws. Musk’s latest gambit, to offer swing state residents the chance at winning a $1 million if they sign a petition promising they’ll support the First and Second Amendments (which, for the record, became law several hundred years ago) has a caught the eye of Democratic Governor Josh Shapiro (to qualify, one has to register to vote).

Shapiro has said that law enforcement should look at this practice, which has been criticized as yet another way to manipulate the election. On this week’s episode of Elon, Inc, host David Papadopoulos and Bloomberg Businessweek senior writer Max Chafkin discuss Musk’s latest political exploit in the Keystone State.

But we also take a step back. How on Earth did we end up in this situation? What does it mean that the world’s richest person has been united with Trump, a twice-impeached, convicted felon who is the subject of multiple felony prosecutions? In the three part limited series Citizen Elon—hosted by Chafkin—we’ll explore how Musk’s politics have (and have not) changed over time; what the mercurial chief executive of a huge social network can do to tilt the political information war; how money (dark and light) provides the infrastructure for the 2024 presidential race; and finally, what’s at stake for Musk himself in this unprecedented dive headfirst into the political sphere. In today’s episode we run an excerpt from the first episode, “Flipping the Table.”

Citizen Elon will publish in the Elon, Inc. feed on Fridays, but Bloomberg.com subscribers get every episode early. Subscribe today at Bloomberg.com/podcastoffer, and follow Elon, Inc. on Apple Podcasts or wherever you like to listen.

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Elon Musk has an interesting entourage (to say the least) and a penchant for bringing executives from one of his companies to another—often at the same time. In this special bonus episode of Elon, Inc., accompanying this Bloomberg feature, we turn to our panel of Max Chafkin, Dana Hull and Kurt Wagner, as well as special guest Katie Notopoulos, who covers tech culture for Business Insider. Together, they grapple with Musk’s cast of adjutants and why it’s important to know who they are.

Then we play a game we’re calling, “Elon High.” If we were going to give high school superlatives to these people (think most likely to succeed, class clown, biggest flirt), what would they be? Stick around for the categories invented by the panelists themselves. 

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Recently, a Democratic pollster surveyed the value of celebrity endorsement on the presidential race—looking at a sample of younger voters. The upshot was that Zendaya was the most influential celebrity—but Elon's name came up, too. He was one of the celebrities whose endorsement sends people running the other way. Call him an anti-influencer.

Today on Elon, Inc., our panel of regulars—Max Chafkin, Dana Hull and host David Papadopoulos—are joined by Bloomberg political writer Joshua Green to talk about the state of Musk’s political life, as well as a grab bag of other news.

Also: Feud Watch returns!

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Last week, Bloomberg Businessweek published an exclusive look at Noland Arbaugh, the first person to get Elon Musk’s Neuralink technology implanted in his head. Our own Ashlee Vance spent time with Arbaugh, who lives with his parents and (as you’ll hear) some vocal farm animals. Vance joins us to talk about what he learned from the first patient in Neuralink’s inaugural clinical trial. He is joined by Bloomberg’s Sarah McBride to give a full picture on what it all means. Plus, we talk to markets reporter Kiel Porter and space reporter Loren Grush about all of the action around SpaceX stock—which is kind of interesting since it’s still a private company. 

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We’re taking The Big Take to Asia. Each week, Bloomberg’s Oanh Ha tells a story from the home of the world's most dynamic economies - and the markets, tycoons and businesses that drive the ever-shifting region. 

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Last week, Elon, Inc. held a live taping at Bloomberg’s Tech Summit. Like many of the conversations that day, it focused on artificial intelligence. Host David Papadopoulos was joined by Bloomberg Businessweek senior writer Max Chafkin, Bloomberg Musk reporter Dana Hull and a special guest, Bloomberg Businessweek editor Brad Stone. Together, we broke down how Elon Musk has (and hasn’t) innovated in this crucial industry. 

Also, the crew tested Brad on whether he could differentiate between Grok and other chatbots in a game called “School of Grok.” 

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Last week, the news broke that Tesla had terminated most of its supercharging team (along with summer interns) as part of a broader mass dismissal. Even with all the frantic efforts to bolster profits, this came as a surprise. Perhaps less of a surprise? White supremacist Nick Fuentes being allowed back on Musk’s X, where he promptly held a Sunday night Spaces broadcast with, as of Tuesday afternoon, 2.1 million viewers. The biggest surprise this week in Elon-world though had to be his new role as social media etiquette adviser, as he attempted to school J.K. Rowling on the best ways to post (remember the positive!).

David, Dana and Max are joined by Bloomberg tech reporter Kurt Wagner to unpack all of this, and then some.

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Before last week’s Tesla earnings, Elon Musk was scheduled to go to India—but didn’t. This weekend, though, news broke that he had in fact gone to China, to try to negotiate regulatory acceptance for his FSD (full self-driving) system. (It’s not actually full self-driving.) The Elon, Inc. panel—reporters Dana Hull and Max Chafkin—ponder that trip, and then delve into the second anniversary of Elon’s joke-y offer to buy Twitter, now X. Plus: A long simmering feud begins to boil over.

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This week David, Dana and Max are joined by Bloomberg Technology co-host Ed Ludlow to take a deep dive into all things Tesla, in advance of today’s fateful earnings report. Things are looking increasingly bleak for the company and we'll soon know if the numbers match the mood set by last week's layoffs. Also discussed: BINGO! And then, is Elon Musk feuding with Tucker Carlson? Max seems to think so, Dana is not so sure.

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We here at Elon, Inc wanted to introduce you to Matt Levine's Money Stuff: The Podcast - especially since he spoke about Elon in the latest episode. Please enjoy this excerpt, and subscribe to their feed if you like what you hear!

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For the past week, Tesla has been in the news—badly. Tesla announced the largest company-wide terminations in its history—laying off 10% of its global workforce, or thousands of people. At the same time, two top executives are leaving. And that’s just the latest. So what gives? We explain. Plus, David, Dana and Max  are joined by national security reporter Dan Flatley to talk about Musk’s upcoming trip to India.

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Over the course of one weekend in July, the presidential election was turned on its head. This is when news organizations announced that Elon Musk was backing Donald Trump—and gave a real endorsement, something he said he’d never do. What does it mean that the world’s richest man has been united with not just any presidential candidate, but Trump? In this three-part series from Elon, Inc., we will explore how Musk’s politics have (and haven’t) changed over time; what the mercurial CEO of a huge social network can do to tilt the information war in presidential politics; how money, dark and light, provides the infrastructure for the 2024 presidential race; and finally, what is at stake for Musk himself in this unprecedented dive headfirst into the political sphere.

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On Friday, Elon promised an August 8 unveiling of a new robotaxi and replied to a post on X suggesting that Tesla was “shifting more resources” to the category.

Meanwhile, Musk’s in a standoff with Brazil’s Supreme Court over what he sees as the country’s heavy-handed regulation of misinformation. The battle could force X out of one of its key markets.

We discuss his legal challenges in Brazil with Sasha Issenberg, author of The Lie Detectives, and Bloomberg social media reporter Kurt Wagner (author of Battle for the Bird). And then chat through the implications of Musk’s turn to a technology that remains unproven with Elon, Inc. regulars Max Chafkin and Dana Hull.

Finally, a brand new segment: Enchantment of the Week, where we analyze the a potential alliance between Elon and investor Nelson Peltz.

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If you think you’ve been seeing more X-rated content on X lately, you’re not alone. Elon's social media platform has long been permissive about suggestive material, but as Musk cut his content moderation teams, there seems to be more of the stuff floating around—and in more prominent places. This week, John Herrman of New York magazine, who recently published a story about a strange, particularly viral type of post, joins the Elon, Inc. panel to talk about X and porn. But first, Tesla sales numbers. They are not good. Not good at all. 

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In a collaboration with the Bloomberg’s Big Take podcast, we present a story on SpaceX's Starlink satellite program. It touts itself as a source of reliable internet in hard-to-reach places. But there are some countries where Starlink’s services aren’t licensed, or where the company can’t do business because of US sanctions. And a Bloomberg investigation has found that Starlink kits are appearing in many of those markets anyway – with geopolitical consequences.

Before we unpack that reporting, David, Max and Dana discuss new rules for selling Teslas, a tossed lawsuit and a report alleging that X has been profiting from selling data to governments and police departments, via a third-party data broker, even as it fights a lawsuit related to government surveillance.

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The Big Take from Bloomberg News brings you inside what’s shaping the world's economies with the smartest and most informed business reporters around the world. The context you need on the stories that can move markets. Every afternoon.

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In January, former CNN anchor Don Lemon announced that he’d had found a new patron who promised not to rein him in: Elon Musk. The new Don Lemon Show would air on X, Musk’s social media network. Lemon described the app formerly known as Twitter as “the biggest space for free speech in the world.” He promised “a place for honest debate and discussion without the hall monitors.”

The partnership, which X chief executive Linda Yaccarino, had also enthusiastically touted, didn’t survive the first episode, which featured an extremely awkward interview with Lemon’s would-be patron. The relationship died before the interview even aired.

To break down the breakdown of what had been one of Musk’s highest profile content deals, and to discuss what it means for his struggling social network, we speak with Bloomberg social media reporter Kurt Wagner and Bloomberg’s Musk correspondent Dana Hull.

But first we sift through the laundry list of other Musk news this week.

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There’s a very old saying in Texas—“all hat and no cattle”—meaning essentially all talk, no action. Does this describe Musk, the state’s richest resident? Elon, Inc. went to Austin for a live taping at the South by Southwest festival to talk about Elon Musk’s influence on his newly adopted home, and also, its influence on him. David Papadopoulos was joined by Bloomberg Businessweek’s Max Chafkin and Rachel Monroe, who covers Texas and the Southwest for the New Yorker, as well as Sewell Chan, editor-in-chief of the Texas Tribune. 

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This week on Elon, Inc., Businessweek senior reporter and editor Max Chafkin talks to Joshua Green, Businessweek’s political correspondent, about a recent meeting (or is it meetings?) of Elon Musk and Donald Trump. Elon has said that he won’t be donating to either US presidential candidate but — as recent X posts make clear — he is firmly in Trump’s political territory. Will Trump and Elon put aside past differences to somehow merge? We discuss.

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Elon Musk is mad at Sam Altman, the chief executive of OpenAI. Musk has many grievances with the nonprofit research lab, some of which he has brought up repeatedly on podcasts, during television interviews and in social media posts. Among them: Musk thinks ChatGPT, the company’s AI chatbot, is insufficiently conservative (“WokeGPT,” he likes to call it), worries it might somehow lead to the end of the world if the chatbots get out of control and seems to be very frustrated about receiving insufficient credit for OpenAI’s achievements. (“I am the reason OpenAI exists,” he claimed on CNBC last year.)

None of these are necessarily grounds for a legal complaint, which may be why the lawsuit he filed against OpenAI last week focuses on a related, but somewhat different grievance: Musk says he donated money to what he thought was a philanthropic research lab, only to discover it was Silicon Valley’s hottest startup, with an $86 billion valuation and ambitions for a whole lot more.

To analyze the suit, and the feud between two of tech’s most powerful figures, Elon, Inc. called in Bloomberg’s official Elon Musk correspondent, Dana Hull, along with Bloomberg’s  unofficial one, Money Stuff author Matt Levine. We are also joined by tech reporter Shirin Ghaffary (and author of the Q&AI newsletter) for a discussion about the merits (or lack thereof) of Musk’s argument and the competitive state of play. We also cover Musk’s fight over pay in Delaware and the new (new?) Tesla Roadster.

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The Deal, hosted by Alex Rodriguez and Jason Kelly, features intimate conversations with business titans, sports champions and game-changing entrepreneurs who reveal their investment philosophies, pivotal career moves and the ones that got away. From Bloomberg Podcasts and Bloomberg Originals, The Deal is available on Apple Podcasts, Spotify, iHeart, Bloomberg Carplay, or wherever you get your podcasts. You can also watch The Deal on Bloomberg Television, and Bloomberg Originals on YouTube.

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What happens when Elon's formula for success goes wrong? In this episode we explored the failings of the Boring Company, Musk’s tunneling venture, with Bloomberg startups reporter Sarah McBride. When Musk started the company, in 2016, he did so with wild promises about super fast “hyperloop” travel, advanced tunnel boring machines, and dramatically lowered costs. But, as Bloomberg Businessweek reported yesterday, Boring Company workers say that Musk has achieved little in the way of actual innovations and has mostly focused on cutting corners, often at their expense.

Also, Hannah Elliott, co-host of the Hot Pursuit! podcast, reviews the Cybertruck. Hannah had been skeptical of Musk’s weird retro-futuristic pickup, but she mostly liked it! With some important caveats, one being the surprising celebrity-like status of the driver.

Finally, we dive into a feud with a possible happy ending.

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When sports, business and culture collide, there’s often a deal to be made. Join Alex Rodriguez and Bloomberg correspondent Jason Kelly as they get the inside track from corporate titans, sports champions and game-changing entrepreneurs on investing, strategy, reinvention and the ones that got away. The Deal is a Bloomberg Podcasts and Bloomberg Originals series that’s passionate, relaxed, insightful and inspirational. If you think you know these icons, prepare to be surprised.

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In this bonus episode, Max Chafkin sits down with Bloomberg social media reporter Kurt Wagner to talk about Wagner’s new book Battle for the Bird: Jack Dorsey, Elon Musk and the $44 Billion Fight for Twitter’s Soul.

So why DID Elon buy Twitter? Max and Kurt explore three theories, including that Musk bought Twitter to confound a guy tracking his private jet, in an attempt to answer that—and many other—questions.

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Over the past year or so, Elon Musk’s Starlink satellite system has become increasingly important—and along with that, valuable. It’s been in the news recently because Ukrainian officials said that Russia was using Starlink to help their military operations in occupied parts of Ukraine—something Musk himself has denied. At the same time, though, Musk has been vocal about his opinion that the US should not continue funding Ukraine in their fight against Russia, an opinion shared by many rightwing Republican politicians. Starlink has also been approved to work in another conflict zone, as Israel gave permission for a Starlink terminal to be parked in a field hospital in Gaza. 

With all of the attention on Starlink’s role in conflict comes another, related question: how financially important is the product to Musk’s overall business empire? To talk about these questions, Elon, Inc. welcomed two Bloomberg experts to the panel: Marc Champion, a Bloomberg Opinion writer who has written about Musk’s role for both Ukraine and Russia, and Ed Ludlow, Bloomberg Technology reporter and TV host. 

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Following a Superbowl attack ad, this week’s episode sees the crew discussing the challenges (and opportunities posed by) Autopilot and Full Self-Driving. 

Then they welcome Barry Ritholtz, host of the podcast Masters in Business and the founder of Ritholtz Wealth Management, to the studio for a wide-ranging conversation about Musk’s prowess as a manager and as a marketer.

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Lately, Tesla has been one of the stock market’s biggest losers. Since the beginning of the year, the company has dropped about $200 billion in market capitalization, making it the single-worst performing stock on the S&P 500. The spiral has come amid a storm of negative headlines—especially regarding slowing growth in electric vehicle purchases—a category Tesla has long dominated. Worse for Tesla, some of the most negative headlines were ones caused by Musk’s own erratic decisionmaking.

To discuss why Tesla’s stock is falling and what it might mean for Musk’s larger empire, we brought in senior reporter Esha Dey, who covers stocks for Bloomberg.

We also return to Elon’s alleged drug use. A necessary ingredient in his success to some, but insiders’ fear that Elon has become self-destructive and could eventually cause investors to rethink their beliefs.

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