The original Wall Street Journal article is fiercely paywalled, but you *may* have seen some stories over the weekend about how ‘some people say’ that Elon Musk’s openly admitted use of proscribed drugs just might be coming around to bite him in the… wallet. In the most comprehensive story I’ve been able to access, NDTV World (India) reports that “Elon Musk Used LSD, Cocaine; Gave Slurred Speech At SpaceX Event”. Business Insider adds that “Elon Musk may have been ‘under the influence‘ during an interview after his infamous tweet about taking Tesla private, WSJ reports”.
Mint, on the other hand, tells us that “Elon Musk responds to illegal drug use charges: ‘Not even trace quantities…’”:
Elon Musk has responded to claims that he uses illegal drugs such as LSD, cocaine, ecstasy and ketamine, claiming that ‘not even trace quantities’ of drugs and alcohol were found in his system after three years of random drug testing. Musk’s clarification comes after a recent Wall Street Journal report claimed that the world’s richest man routinely took illegal drugs at parties around the world, and that his drug use had caused concerns among Tesla and SpaceX board members.
Replying to a post mentioning the WSJ report, Musk wrote, “After that one puff with Rogan, I agreed, at NASA’s request, to do 3 years of random drug testing. Not even trace quantities were found of any drugs or alcohol.”…
Who are you gonna believe — me, or the guy I was this time last week?
Idk why this is so hard to understand. Drugs don’t make people do bad things; they can lower inhibitions for people who already want to do bad things to act on those existing impulses.
No drugs make you transphobic or antisemitic. Elon Musk isn’t terrible cause he uses ketamine. https://t.co/RHWhOeG1xC
— Ryan Marino, MD (@RyanMarino) January 7, 2024
But it’s not the shock! horror! of ‘possible’ drug use that seems like the really bad news for Mr. Musk. So far, 2024 just hasn’t been good to The Internet’s Favorite God-Emperor / Chewtoy…
Musk once laughed off BYD as a threat. Now the Chinese giant has taken Tesla's EV crown — here's how https://t.co/8QuVP9A4TX
— CNBC (@CNBC) January 4, 2024
Tesla recalls over 1.6 million EVs exported to China to fix automatic steering, door latch glitches https://t.co/uKUnr6fS00
— The Associated Press (@AP) January 5, 2024
Just as Tesla loses the EV crown, Elon Musk’s biggest market in Europe has pulled the rug out from under him. https://t.co/5Bn5QXeNYN
— FORTUNE (@FortuneMagazine) January 5, 2024
A U.S. labor agency has accused SpaceX of unlawfully firing employees who penned an open letter critical of CEO Elon Musk and creating an impression that worker activities were under surveillance by the rocket ship company. https://t.co/ZThyzaJOM7
— World News Tonight (@ABCWorldNews) January 5, 2024
Fidelity believes that Elon Musk's X is worth 71.5% less than at the time of purchase, according to a new disclosure. This includes a 10.7% cut during November, during which time Musk told boycotting X advertisers to "go f**k yourself." https://t.co/x92fTW0uER
— Axios (@axios) December 31, 2023
Elon Musk is not a genius.
He’s an investor. A bad one at that.https://t.co/9xvgC3qP5T— Blue River (@blue_riverrrr) December 31, 2023
I don't have a lot of self-respect, but the answer is self-respect. https://t.co/l1eMUg9gNt
— MagnetCarta (@MagnetCarta) January 1, 2024
Baud
They saw the cyber truck and said, yeah, he’s on drugs.
NotMax
“Rapid unscheduled disassembly” ain’t just for rockets.
Martin
I don’t particularly care if Musk does drugs. But his investors probably do, and the DOD definitely does.
Again, billionaires should be illegal.
Splitting Image
I don’t think that Musk turning out to be sober when he made all of the business decisions he’s made over the past few years is the win that he thinks it is.
Balconesfault
But the strongest drug Elon is on is his social media addiction.
satby
Don’t know if anyone saw this in Anne Laurie’s overnight thread, but the linked pictures detailing the restoration of a Revolutionary era fort inside a plantation style house is just fascinating.
satby
And as far as Elmo is concerned: long past time for the government to cut his companies defense contracts in whatever legal ways can be done.
lowtechcyclist
It wasn’t worth anything close to $44B at the time of purchase, which was why Elmo tried to wiggle out of his commitment to buy it at that price. So is Fidelity saying it’s only worth 28.5% of $44B, or 28.5% of a more realistic estimate of its value back in 2022?
Baud
@lowtechcyclist:
I read it to mean of the $44 billion.
Geminid
A nice displsy of Venus and the waning moon in the predawn sky. Glad I stepped outside and looked.
Balconesfault
Yep … Fidelity based their initial investment as a percentage of the sales price. They’re now having to admit their investment is worth a lot less.
YY_Sima Qian
Tesla’s market share & profit margin in the PRC is under enormous pressure, due intense domestic competition: the likes of GAC AION at the low end, to the Huawei backed marques in the high end, & 1st & foremost BYD in all price segments (from the US$ 10K subcompacts to the US$150K luxury SUVs). This despite Tesla initiating a price war among EVs at the end of 2022. BYD’s prices have dropped along w/ the market, yet its profit margin has increased, evidence of its extraordinary efficiency & cost control. BYD will be a dire threat to its competitors, foreign & domestic.
BYD’s key advantage over Tesla (& every other EV maker) is its vertical integration: it is the only EV maker that also makes its own batteries (as well as supplying competitors, including Tesla, at a mark up); its Blade batteries w/ LPF chemistry has cost & safety advantage over NCM chemistry popular in the West, & BYD is narrowing the energy density gap w/ NCM chemistry; it makes its own motors, semiconductors, upholstery, & in the future probably ADAS sensors. The build quality of BYDs are superior to more expensive Teslas in the same size segment, & the build quality from Tesla’s Shanghai factory is better than Fremont, CA. BYD (& other Chinese EV makers) also refresh their models much more frequently than Tesla.
Tesla’s position is probably safe from Chinese competition in the U.S., due to tariff barriers & political backlash against Chinese companies building EV or battery factories. BYD is off to a slow start in Europe, having to overcome obstacles in brand recognition, service network, & high post prices set by its dealer partners. Then there is the prospect of the EU erecting trade barriers, too. However, BYD is set to build a big EV factory in Hungary, & probably a battery plant, too. Then, Tesla will be challenged, along w/ the European legacy makers. To date, BYD has found strong followings in markets as diverse as Australia, New Zealand, Thailand, Brazil, & Israel, & the UK & Ireland may follow.
Finally, Tesla’s position is threatened by its own missteps, such as the waste of money into the Cybertruck, and the much more momentous decision to rely on cameras only for its FSD (no LiDARs), both apparently were all Elon Musk.
lowtechcyclist
@Balconesfault:
By all accounts, it was worth a lot less from the get-go. If they think it’s worth less than, say, $20B now, they can blame Elmo for that part of its drop in valuation, but my recollection is that everyone said at the time that he overpaid by a factor of about 2, and anyone who invested or loaned him money based on a $44B valuation has only themselves to blame.
Princess
Massive drug use doesn’t make you an asshole or a racist; it does make it harder for you to manage a number of large and complex businesses. But aside from that, whether he uses or not, it looks like people around him are trying to get rid of him.
Gvg
Too much random drug use can lead to death. Anybody know what Musk’s will says and any succession plan of his various companies? I mean he owns stock, but how does the CEO get picked if he dies and the will is contested? Given how many children he has and his feuding personality, I would expect a contested will plus his shares would be split in some way. And which state would his will be probated in could be relevant too. I think California has strict inheritance laws, but I don’t know what the guys state of residence would be ruled as now.
He is acting pretty nutty and I would bet his doctors are picked for telling him what he wants to hear not the truth. What a fool.
Nukular Biskits
As someone asked yesterday or the day before, how is it that Musk, who is a federal gov’t contractor, isn’t being subjected to drug tests?
Tony Jay
“Drugs? Me? You gotta be cray-zee to think that. I’m a straight-edged warlord riding spearpoint for the Tech-Wolves of Future/Now. I’m Genghis fucking Khan strapped to a rocket fuelled by IQ. I’m so clean you could store Martian bio-samples in my eyelids. Go ahead, look. Look! Pristine, right? Fifteen year-olds would be boom-boom to have skin this fresh. How old do you think I am? Guess. Don’t look at your notes. Just guess. Guess! You wanna say thirty, right? You do, right? OMG that is so random of you. Are we flirting? Ha! Imagine. We totally shouldn’t do that ‘cos I look so underage. Ha! What are you, Mrs Robinson? A perve? Cray-zee. Drugs? Me? Boring old super-fit me? Ha! Except, you know, no one thinks I’m boring. That was a joke. Funny, yeah? I don’t wanna brag but I’ve got some serious open-mic juice. Everyone says it. You wanna squeeze me, see what comes out? Ha! Joke, see? No, but yeah, no, you should totally come and see me one night. Tonight. If you wanna. I’ll bring the K.”
“Mister Musk. May I remind you that this is a courtroom and you are under oath?”
It may go down like this, eventually.
satby
@YY_Sima Qian: Wish those were available here.
YY_Sima Qian
@satby: Not going to happen. Between protecting the US auto industry (which is not ready for the shock the very affordable Chinese EVs will represent, UAW anyone?), & the inevitable fear mongering about data collected by all those sensor in the EVs going to China (the PRC did ban Teslas from “sensitive” sites after all), I don’t see Chinese branded EVs in the US for a few years at least. Perhaps European marques owned by Chinese companies, such as Volvo, Polestar, Lotus (all owned by Geely), but none are what you would call affordable options for the masses (except the cheapest Volvo).
Sadly, the politically/geopolitically driven opposition to Chinese battery & EV maker from setting up factories in the US (as the US incentivized Japanese, Korean & Germany companies, inevitably in “right to work” states), or even forcing them into JVs w/ US companies & mandating tech transfers (as the PRC has done for so long), will end up slowing the energy transition in the US.
Enhanced Voting Techniques
I though part of the draw of Ketamine is it’s not tested for and anyway doesn’t he spend most of his time at the Twitter HQ, which isn’t a government contractor.
NotMax
@satby
A short tour of some Chinese cars in The Netherlands.
;)
YY_Sima Qian
@YY_Sima Qian: Speaking of BYD’s vertical integration, it has 12 car carrier on order to alleviate the shipping constraints on its exports (either from its existing manufacturing bases in the PRC or upcoming ones in Thailand & Indonesia), the 1st of which has been delivered. From the FT:
Even though EVs made in the PRC are quite cheap, due to the economies of scale, broad & deep supply chains, dominance of the cheaper LFP chemistry, & government subsidies, Made in China EVs (whether by foreign marques such as Tesla/Renault/VW, European marques owned by Chinese companies such as Volvo/Polestar/MG, or Chinese marques such as NIO/Ora/BYD) sold in the EU are typically 30 – 100% more expensive than in the PRC. The reasons include shipping cost, import duties, dealer mark up, & Chinese companies wanting better margins than they can secure in the brutal Chinese market. Yet, they are still undercutting European marques’s Made in the EU models on price, while often having better tech & design. Which makes the European Commissions’ investigation into Chinese EV makers “dumping” their products rather ironic.
Two more articles from the FT that dive into the rise of Chinese EVs, & Wang Chuanfu, head of BYD, who is in many ways the opposite of Elon Musk:
Raoul Paste
@YY_Sima Qian: I have a battery background, and reading this analysis of BYD versus Tesla is fascinating
Kosh III
Meanwhile, VinFast, a Vietnamese EV company is moving into the US market. Will it challenge Tesla? Succeed in the US market?
I had to look up Ketamine, guess I’m now an official Old Fuddy Duddy.
YY_Sima Qian
@NotMax: Hilarious review! But the European manufacturers (including Mercedes & BMW) are not laughing, & have not since their C-Suites visited the Shanghai Auto Show in spring 2023 & saw 1st hand what the Chinese competition have been up to during the pandemic. The fun poked at the tacky/inane design features of the Chinese models notwithstanding, Mercedes & Audi have been extremely conservative in their designs (including equally tacky/inane features), & BMW has completely lost the plot in the last few years.
Also, there are plenty of English language reviews of MG & BYD models posted on YT by reviewers in the UK, Ireland, Australia, New Zealand, Singapore, etc. Most have been relatively positive, often highly positive because of the incredible value (these models are often the cheapest full sized EVs on the respective market by some margin), despite the fact that the listed prices in the UK are ~ 50% higher than in the PRC, & in AUS/NZ ~ 20% higher.
different-church-lady
Ends with him all alone, whispering the name of a sled and dropping a snow globe… on Mars.
different-church-lady
@NotMax: No, this dude is slowly venting something into space.
YY_Sima Qian
@Kosh III: VinFast moved far too fast, its product & production process far too immature, & its 1st model is perhaps the worst reviewed EV ever (& there have been some terrible ones). Right now it feels more like a vehicle, pardon the pun, for its Vietnamese billionaire owner to boost his paper asset valuation.
Which is too bad, the transition to EV offers an opportunity for every developing country trying to industrialize, to circumvent the entrenched positions of European/Japanese/American/South Korea ICE based auto industries. So far, only the PRC saw the opportunity & has seized it. The rest of SE Asia will probably have to ride on the coattails of the China EV, Inc. ecosystem, from excavation/processing of rare earth minerals, to manufacturing of batteries, to assembly of finished cars.
The Japanese automakers are set to be buffeted 1st by the rise of Chinese EVs, because SE Asia is a huge export market & manufacturing base for them. However, they have placed their bets on solid state batteries (which is still years away from commercialization at scale, & unlikely to occupy more than the upscale niche for a long time) & hydrogen (which is still even farther away for passenger vehicles). They have virtually nothing to offer in terms of EV right now. Their hybrid offerings are not even plug-in hybrids. At least Hyundai/Kia have attractive EV models (prices less attractive), & the European marques are trying to climb the learning curve to meet the EU’s EV mandate (but way too overpriced to date).
YY_Sima Qian
@Raoul Paste: I shall defer to your expertise!
Manyakitty
@satby: can’t see any threads from Twitter. Feel like copying each post and sharing the whole thing?
satby
@Manyakitty: sorry, away from home now… I can try later.
Manyakitty
@satby: thank you!!
rikyrah
He is SO going to be a case study at Business Schools within the next 5 years.
Ella in New Mexico
I do think it’s quite telling that he is said to be using drugs that are meant to help people find deep spiritual meaning in life and cope with depression and existential angst.
Lonely at the top of the world you carefully create and cultivate, apparently.
evodevo
@Tony Jay: LOLOL…probably closer to the truth than anyone knows…
evodevo
@Kosh III: Ketamine was being misused at parties I was at in the Seventies, so…not so new…
As a common veterinary anesthetic, it was widely available if you knew the right people…
Miss Bianca
@Tony Jay: Oh, dude. Way to stick the landing! LOL!
@satby:
@YY_Sima Qian: Me, too. A subcompact e-car for commuting back and forth to town – if it had 4-wheel drive, of course, for mountain roads – would be perfect for me.
Facebones
Musk was openly smoking up on the Joe Rogan show a couple of years ago, so for the Wall Street Journal to be shocked – shocked! – that he might be using drugs is ludicrous.
This is Wall Street giving themselves an out to extricate themselves from Musk now that the Super Genius vibe has worn off. “Well, sure we invested the pension fund in Tesla, but that was BEFORE we knew he was a dirty hippie drug user.”
MobiusKlein
@evodevo: was called Vitamin K.
As for the impact of drugs on personality, I believe there is a difference between individual use and habitual use.
The latter can rewire the brain over time. E.g. GWB being described as a Dry Drunk.
Tony G
Elon’s problem isn’t the fact that he takes drugs. Elon’s problem is his toxic, narcissistic personality. But, if this takes him down a peg, that’s fine with me.
Marc
Just a reminder that BYD already sells a fair number of EVs in the US and has a factory down near LA to assemble them. They are are electric transit busses, not cars. Stanford, for instance, has a number of them as do several of the local transit agencies. Initially quality and reliability were not good, but they’ve become far better over the years.
artem1s
@lowtechcyclist:
at most an NFL franchise is worth about $5-6B. I’d say they got the factor wrong by about 10, not 2.
artem1s
@Nukular Biskits:
that’s not at all weird. private contractors would follow their own rules about drug testing. and if he’s not the PI or a directly writing the code or building the rockets, there’s not going to be a piss test required. He’s likely not the PI of record. Some actual SpaceX engineer is.
The bigger problem for him will be whether he or the company is accepting foreign funds and contracts from certain countries and whether they’ve been hiding that from the government.
Peke Daddy
Still hasn’t taken enough psychedelics to sufficiently dissolve that gargantuan ego. Keep trying, Elmo Sunk.
Ruckus
@YY_Sima Qian:
It does seem that elon might just be a bit full of himself…..
I’m also beginning to see that the rest of the world might just be getting a lot more full of him – and that’s likely not good for him.
I believe that being more full of him gives anyone else rather uncomfortably high and likely dangerous levels of acid indigestion.
satby
@Manyakitty: He made a YouTube of the restoration. 3 actually.
Hob
That Dan Marino post is both (a) very true and (b) irrelevant as a comeback to the person he replied to. When someone talks about Musk’s “behavior on here”, it’s fair to assume they’re talking about his behavior, not his state of mind. Musk’s public behavior is unusually disinhibited: lots of executives are bigots and fools, but very few of them express it in such a blatant and erratic way. If you see a businessman staggering out of a bar and weaving down the sidewalk while throwing up on himself, and he’s also screaming racial slurs, and you say “I think that guy is drunk off his ass”, it’d be silly for me to say “You don’t understand, he was already racist before he got drunk.”
cokane
Sorry but Marino’s comment on drugs and what they make you do or don’t do is not accurate. Anybody who’s had an alcoholic among their friends or family would know this. And his comment is even less true about harder drugs.
Impulse control IS part of who you are. It’s not some separate thing. Taking it away can make one literally unlike how they are normally. We all experience impulses that we don’t act on.
Moreover a freaking doctor should know that drugs, including alcohol, create an urge where there wasn’t one — that’s what chemical addiction is! Just absurd, and a sad example of how people debase reality by trying to score social media points.