Elon Musk film reveals state aid, election
Alex Gibney's documentary on Elon Musk details the tech mogul's reliance on government support, his fears of civilizational collapse driving his
A new documentary by Oscar-winning filmmaker Alex Gibney investigates the ascent of tech billionaire Elon Musk, drawing on interviews conducted since late 2022. The nearly four-hour film, presented at the Venice Film Festival, assembles a comprehensive portrait of how Musk amassed wealth and political influence.
State assistance and over-promises
Despite being hailed as a capitalist icon, the film asserts Musk has consistently sought government financial support. It highlights his outreach to the Obama administration to secure SpaceX contracts for NASA and military satellite launches. A specific focus is a 2013 Tesla event where Musk demonstrated a 90-second battery swap system for the Model S. According to the documentary, the technology was never implemented, and a demonstration site saw little use. Gibney suggests the over-promise was a tactic for Tesla to gain more Zero-Emission Vehicle (ZEV) credits from California, which the company could then sell to other manufacturers.
The roots of a procreation drive
Musk's publicly known 14 children, and potentially more, are examined. The film reports that while some were conceived in relationships, recent births appear transactional, arranged via sperm donations to employees. In a text message to ex-partner Ashley St Clair, Musk linked his desire for "a legion of children" to a fear of "civil war." Gibney connects this fear to Musk's traumatic childhood in South Africa, illustrated by an interview where his father, Errol Musk, discusses shooting intruders without remorse. "He's now playing out the trauma on the rest of us," Gibney said at a Venice press conference. The documentary also notes the role of Musk's aide, devout Mormon Jared Birchall, whom St Clair calls a "henchman" and "demon," in handling agreements with the mothers.
A questioned capacity for empathy
Musk has publicly criticized what he terms "suicidal empathy," which he blames for civilizational decline. The film, however, raises questions about his personal capacity for empathy. It cites an instance where he told his wife, "if you were my employee, I would fire you." Another scene details him urging his wife to tell his estranged transgender daughter, Jenna, that "I'll always love her," before cutting off her health insurance the following day.
Claims of election certainty and AI fears
Influencer Ashley St Clair describes Musk's demeanor before Donald Trump's November 2024 election victory. She tells Gibney Musk had a "degree of certainty" about the result she "had never seen before." He reportedly told her he would "unleash the anomaly in the matrix" and that "we have 10,000 lasers in space." The documentary offers no further explanation for these statements.
Separately, AI pioneer Geoffrey Hinton expresses distrust in Musk's handling of artificial intelligence risks. Hinton, who declined a board role with Musk's xAI, states in the film, "It's fairly clear to me that Trump is hell-bent on corrupting the midterm elections." He adds, "If you wanted to corrupt those midterm elections and you wanted to use AI, all you needed to do was get detailed information on US citizens. And what Doge did looked like just what you would do."
