Elon Musk has become one of the most influential, prolific and perplexing humans on Earth and most likely to become the world's first trillionaire if his latest brainchild, the public offering of his rocket and artificial intelligence company SpaceX, goes as planned.
The Musk of 2026 is a different man from the Tesla and SpaceX chief of a decade ago, when the hugely admired tech innovator largely stayed out of politics to focus intensely on building world-class businesses in sectors that others said couldn't be challenged.
Since those days, Musk has waded ever deeper into social media, becoming a power user of Twitter – the platform used by celebrities, governments and opinion-makers – which he eventually bought in 2022, renamed X, and turned into a vehicle for his own worldview and celebrity.
That vision, slowly, then all at once, veered sharply to the right as Musk increasingly used the X algorithm to, at times, amplify conspiracy theories, far-right voices and narratives of white victimization.
Theories vary on why Musk took such a hard turn to the right. They include an overuse of social media, a purported snub by the Biden administration, and his shock and disdain that a son of his – one of his more than a dozen children – had transitioned, becoming what Musk called a victim of the "woke mind virus."
