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Elon Musk has publicly come out in favor of combining Tesla and SpaceX, his two most valuable companies, in what would be the largest corporate deal ever attempted. The piece looks at why he wants it locked in before Trump leaves office.
- Musk has moved from private interest to open support for merging Tesla and SpaceX.
- Boards at both companies are reportedly studying a possible deal valued around $3.5 trillion.
- The timing is tied to the political window before Trump's exit from office.
Documentarian Alex Gibney explains how his four-hour film about Elon Musk took shape, from an early, mostly admiring view of Musk to a more critical one as Musk's political turn and Twitter behavior unfolded. He also covers why Musk refused to sit for an interview and how that and other people's fear of Musk shaped the film.
- Gibney started the project seeing Musk as an intriguing maverick inventor, and says the film's tone shifted as his public conduct escalated.
- The film was originally planned as a two-hour version, but Musk's involvement with Trump led HBO to push for more material, expanding it to four hours.
- Musk never agreed to an interview; he responded to outreach by calling Gibney a "douche" on Twitter, and many other insiders declined to go on camera for fear of lawsuits or career consequences.
- The host argues Musk's public image was shaped by coverage he never fully followed, and that footage in the film shows a side of him the host didn't see during their friendship.
Men who work in tech, especially at firms like Palantir and Tesla, say their jobs now trigger suspicion or rejection from potential partners because the industry is seen as politically and morally compromised. The piece follows several daters and a matchmaker to show how workers hide or justify their employers to get dates.
- Daters describe brutal reactions to naming a Palantir or Tesla employer, including one woman calling a man "the devil" and friends asking him not to mention the job on nights out.
- Men are hiding or fudging their jobs: one Palantir engineer says he lists his work as "AI" and invents explanations, while a Tesla employee found he got more matches on Raya by leaving his employer off his profile.
- Matchmaker Amy Laurent now pre-empts objections when pitching tech clients, saying "Listen, I have a great guy… He's in tech," and women cite the industry's record on misinformation, addiction, labor, and wealth inequality as reasons to refuse.