A character who is at once essential, mysterious and all-powerful. Elon Musk has become an iconic figure in the business world at the highest level like Bill Gates and Jeff Bezos. However, he is not the richest, coincidence, because Bernard Arnault is the boss of LVMH. Finally they share this title alternately. Still, Musk has names like Tesla, PayPal, and the acquisition of Twitter to his credit. His comic book biography, even if graphically not a masterpiece (that’s not the goal), provides answers to many questions while revealing surprising origins which may have conditioned Musk’s future. This is why the work of Daniel Cunningham, who had already signed a Putin, is important, well done, also worthy of a thriller whose hero is ultimately indefinable and ambiguous.
From the early years in South Africa under Apartheid, the Soweto uprising. A wealthy grandfather Joshua, an aviator and chiropractor, joins the technocratic movement. A slightly slim adventurer who is going to be killed in a crash. He leaves two twins including Maye, Elon’s mother, model, actress, married Errol Musk, Elon’s father, a violent man. She leaves him. Elon born in 1971 is the eldest and already has a brilliant mind, reads constantly and has a shocking memory. He created a video game as a teenager. His father made his fortune in precious stones. Elon will prefer to live with him. First computer, passionate about explosives, goes to an arcade with his brother without telling his parents. Some disappointments, departure for Canada, brilliant studies, jack of all trades, odd jobs. Physics, economics, clandestine nightclubs, already brilliant ideas. The Internet, renewable energies and space are made for him. In 1995 he founded a web software company with his brother, Zip2. Here we go.
What followed was a succession of moves, creations, sales, management positions from which he was fired but remained a shareholder. The millions come in and he reinvests. We meet Thiel, Levchin, we talk about Ebay with Omidyar. No pity, we are at war and Musk senses the right moves. PayPal merges, Musk faces conspiracies, fired. But Tesla dreams of an electric car and of putting satellites into orbit. 184 precise pages, with simple layout, concise, precise text. Musk is worth $192 billion, hard to realize. But success is not just Musk’s business, there are his executives around him. Without forgetting that everything is not rosy with Elon Musk whether this evening on a political or personal level. So what future for him? A follower of long-termism, it is the Earthlings of the future who interests him to do them good, not us. Very good investigative work which is sometimes worrying.
Elon Musk, Investigation into a new master of the world, Éditions Delcourt, €22.95
