It has been a typically chaotic 12 months for Elon Musk. The worldās richest person has been pulled from one direction to another in the running of his many companies ā with mixed results.
Muskās only publicly traded company, electric vehicle manufacturer Tesla, has had a tricky year, with its share price remaining for the first 11 months of 2024. At the same time, Teslaās share of the US electric vehicle market has been on , dropping below 50 per cent for the first time in the second quarter of the year.
Tesla has also strayed from its core mission. While its vehicles continue to sell, the company didnāt release a new model this year, although many of its competitors did. Musk, as Teslaās CEO, has made a number of bets around robotaxis and humanoid robots that could pay off eventually, but are long shots. When he unveiled the Cybercab robotic, self-driving taxi at a glitzy event in November, the reaction was underwhelming: some pointed out he had repeatedly promised to solve full self-driving, or FSD, āthis yearā many times since 2014.
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Neuralink, which Musk co-founded, is in a similar position. The firm installs brain implants that help control body parts, promising plenty but in reality seemingly similar to what others have already done. The first person to have a Neuralink implant played chess using just his thoughts in March following an operation in January, but it is unclear how different this was to research that has already happened in laboratories around the world.
X, the platform once known as Twitter that Musk bought for $44 billion in October 2022, has plummeted in value as it has turned into a right-wing echo chamber. The platformās revenue also in the first half of 2023, documents submitted by X to state regulators and uncovered this year show.
, which have to be reported to European Union authorities as part of tech laws on the continent, suggest that people are leaving the platform, too. Perhaps because it is hard to spin these losses in a positive way, instead of posting about user numbers, Musk is now using increasingly specific metrics to post to his 200 million or more followers, such as āuser-seconds globallyā on the platform.
Still, it hasnāt all been bad. In November, Musk was announced as one of the co-heads of a new government initiative launched by US President-Elect Donald Trump, the Department of Government Efficiency (DOGE). The planned organisation, which will make recommendations on streamlining the US government, is misnamed, because it wonāt be a government department, and its existence is time-limited ā the stated intention is to run it until July 2026. But it gives Musk a seat at the table ā which he reportedly demonstrated literally by taking up residence at Trumpās Florida resort, Mar-a-Lago, for several weeks after the election.
Such closeness with Trump could be a boon for Musk. āThis is a positive for Tesla, as Trump will fast-track the autonomous and AI initiatives in our view, over the next 12 to 18 months, that will be a gamechanger to the Tesla story,ā says at financial services firm Wedbush Securities.
The financial markets agreed: Teslaās share price increased by in the weeks after the US voted, in what has been put down to Trumpās re-election as president, and what it means for Muskās fortunes.
And while the value of X has decreased as Musk has reshaped it, that has arguably been a success for the man himself, if not his financial backers. āTwitter/X has effectively transitioned into exactly what he wanted, a platform from which he can spread his right-wing misinformation,ā claims at City, University of London. If the ownership of X gives Musk proximity to power that helps propel his businesses forwards even if they struggle to make new innovations, that is a win for him.
The link with Trump also makes contracts between the US government and another of Muskās companies, SpaceX, more secure. SpaceX is one of the rare bright spots in Muskās portfolio and the company has made real strides with its space launches this year.
That closeness could also benefit xAI, Muskās AI company, which has had little luck so far with its Grok large language model as it tries to compete with OpenAIās ChatGPT.
So, on balance, has Muskās busyness paid off? Yes, say some of those who have previously argued against many of his decisions. āItās been an exceptionally good year for Musk,ā says Buckley. āHe has successfully managed to construct a public image of an edgy intellectual and become Americaās most powerful oligarch.ā
Whether that triumphant reputation lasts is another question. āIf thereās one thing the American media and public love more than building up heroes,ā says Buckley, āitās tearing them down.ā
