A new documentary, "Musk," which premiered at the Venice Film Festival, delves into the controversial aspects of Elon Musk's life, painting a portrait of the world's richest man as potentially the most dangerous due to his immense power and unconventional views.
According to accounts from former partners and friends featured in the film, Musk has expressed a desire to father a "legion of children" to foster a "civil war" and has allegedly made misleading statements about his businesses to inflate stock prices. His first wife, Justine Wilson, who had six children with Musk, described feeling "interchangeable" to him, recounting instances where he referred to women as "breeders."
Former girlfriend Ashley St Clair stated that Musk told her he wanted to create a "legion of children" before a "civil war" and that he received messages from women offering to father children with him. St Clair, who had a son with Musk in September 2024, claimed he offered her $40 million not to participate in the documentary.
Business Practices Under Scrutiny
The documentary also examines accusations of dishonesty regarding Musk's business ventures. Claims include the assertion that Tesla's "self-driving" cars can operate without driver oversight, a statement that has been linked to approximately 60 deaths and numerous lawsuits in the U.S. Another accusation involves a decade-old claim about Tesla's ability to swap car batteries in minutes, a capability that allegedly never materialized on a widespread scale but resulted in Tesla banking $11 billion in California carbon credits.
Musk's brief involvement with the Trump administration's Department of Government Efficiency (DOGE) is also scrutinized. The initiative, which aimed to cut $2 trillion from the federal budget, ultimately failed to impact the U.S. national deficit. Musk resigned after four months, calling the government "unfixable."
St Clair, who met Musk on X (formerly Twitter) before having his child, recounted Musk's "certainty" about Donald Trump winning the 2024 election, noting that he left an election night party at Mar-a-Lago hours before results were declared.
Personal Life and Family
The film touches on Musk's complex personal relationships, including his marriages to Justine Wilson and Talulah Riley, and his relationship with musician Grimes (Claire Boucher), with whom he has three children. The documentary highlights a period where Musk declared "pronouns suck" and called the word "cis" a "a slur," which reportedly appalled Grimes.
Musk's views on population and family planning are also explored. After his daughter with Grimes was born, he tweeted, "Doing my best to help the underpopulation crisis. A collapsing birth rate is the biggest danger civilisation faces by far." This statement followed the birth of twins with Shivon Zilis, a director at Neuralink, via surrogacy.
The custody battle over his children with Grimes and the subsequent legal actions taken by Musk and Grimes are detailed, including Grimes's petition to establish parental relationships and Musk's lawsuit to determine a parent-child relationship. St Clair described interactions where Musk allegedly "blocked" Grimes when she was pleading about their son, X.
Musk's fixer, Jared Birchall, reportedly offered St Clair a child support agreement that included clauses preventing her from speaking about Musk, initially worth $15 million plus $100,000 per month. When St Clair questioned if other mothers had signed similar agreements, Birchall allegedly responded that he didn't believe a "drugged-out musician" was capable of finding true happiness and that women who pursue legal routes "always leads to a worse outcome."
Perceptions of Power and Influence
Friends and colleagues in the documentary express concern over Musk's influence, with neuroscientist Sam Harris stating, "We are living in a world where one person's psychopathology and neuropsychological dysregulation is translating into massive consequence in our politics, in our economy, in our geopolitics." Director Alex Gibney echoed these sentiments, warning that the "terrifying thing might be that he's crazy and he's very rich and powerful."