Elon, Inc.

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.See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

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.See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

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.See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

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. See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

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.See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

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.”See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

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.See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

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!See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

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.See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

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. See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

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. See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

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!See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.