When Bloomberg’s Mishal Husain interviewed Elon Musk last week, it caused quite a stir. This was especially the case when Musk proclaimed, “in terms of political spending, I’m gonna do a lot less in the future.” (Most news reports missed a sly qualification that made this seem more like an ultimatum. But more on that below). Coverage of the supposed end of Musk’s role as Republican Party’s Sugar Daddy added fuel to the ongoing “what will Elon do now?” frenzy. Over the weekend, a substantial outage at his social media platform X may have added some clarity. In response, the serial entrepreneur announced he was going “back to spending 24/7 at work and sleeping in conference/server/factory rooms.”

Or not. In this episode of Elon, Inc., Max Chafkin brings together Elon Musk reporter Dana Hull and social media reporter Kurt Wagner to discuss whether Musk means what he says about politics, subsidizing the GOP or even going back to work. Is he really leaving politics in the rearview mirror? Or were these statements calculated? Could they be a way for him to intimidate lawmakers who are expecting campaign funds while assuring investors he’s on top of his sometimes struggling companies? 

To round things off, they rank Musk’s most immediate plans on a scale of how likely they are to succeed in the foreseeable future. Will it be X Money? A functioning fleet of “robotaxis?” Or maybe shooting Tesla’s humanoid robot Optimus to Mars? There was some disagreement.

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