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Elon Musk, when talking about the tumult that he often creates, likes to cite a line from the movie “Gladiator" when Russell Crowe’s character finishes slaying his foes in the arena: “Are you not entertained?"
Elon Musk, when talking about the tumult that he often creates, likes to cite a line from the movie “Gladiator" when Russell Crowe’s character finishes slaying his foes in the arena: “Are you not entertained?"
If nothing else, the year 2023 for Elon Musk was filled with drama. Whether it was entertaining is a different question.
If nothing else, the year 2023 for Elon Musk was filled with drama. Whether it was entertaining is a different question.
One day the billionaire is the self-proclaimed Technoking ushering in a bright new future with SpaceX’s giant rocket Starship taking its first launch in April. Or Tesla’s long-delayed Cybertruck beginning deliveries in late November.
Another day, Musk is tweeting support for antisemitic vitriol (he has vehemently denied being antisemitic) or admitting he withheld assistance for a surprise Ukrainian attack on Russian ships that was dependent on his Starlink internet service.
It often seemed as if Musk was approaching the year like a gladiator, fighting every day against foes—real and perceived.
He changed Twitter’s name and reintroduced the social-media platform as X. The new name wasn’t only Musk’s favorite letter but also a nod to a dream he held on to from his early days as an entrepreneur trying to build a digital banking empire with what became PayPal.
A little more than a year into owning X, Musk wants to remake it into a super-app, the sort of digital world where users have their social media, communications, commerce and banking all in one place.
He has a long way to go.
Meanwhile, his vision for X as being the defender of free speech saw him welcoming Tucker Carlson and his show to the platform after he got ousted from Fox News, and allowing the return of online provocateur Alex Jones.
Still standing
At the beginning of the year, many were quick with predictions of X’s demise, in part because of the dramatic staff cuts made by Musk. He said he was trying to prevent the bankruptcy of a business that was troubled even before his takeover—and presence—drove away advertisers.
Some wondered if anyone would be left to keep the servers working.
In the end, the platform remained standing, though groups such as the Anti-Defamation League said it was far more riddled with hate speech. (X has said it has made progress reducing the spread of hate speech.) And there were some embarrassing moments, such as in May when Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis launched his Republican presidential campaign during a live audio event with Musk that was marred with technical difficulties.
“That was insane," Musk said after ironing out the issues. He later tweeted: “Top story on Earth today."
Perhaps the biggest impact of Musk’s staff reductions was provoking a broader conversation about staffing needs and overall productivity throughout Silicon Valley.
Even rival Mark Zuckerberg praised Musk for removing layers of management. “I also think that it was probably good for the industry that he made those changes because my sense is that there were a lot of other people who thought that those were good changes but who may have been a little shy about doing them," the Facebook co-founder said.
It was a rare moment of nice words between the two billionaires—who spent the summer months seemingly planning a cage fight like they were Silicon Valley’s own gladiators. The Colosseum in Rome was even floated as a venue.
But their proposal evaporated.
Instead, the troubles at X gave Zuckerberg an opening to pounce with his own Twitter-like competitor, dubbed Threads, which landed in early July when X seemed at its weakest.
At the time, Musk had begun temporarily limiting how many tweets users could see as, he said, the company was fighting off companies scraping its data to use in building their own artificial-intelligence chatbots.
An AI opening
When it comes to X, the saving grace for Musk might end up being its data and its role in helping him create his own AI company.
This year he added to his stable of businesses a sixth company, dubbed xAI. The startup, with its own chatbot named Grok, aims to catch up with OpenAI, the hot AI company Musk helped found several years ago before leaving after a falling-out.
The breakthroughs in AI this past year put the technology on the front burner for many and made Musk’s previous warnings about the technology newly relevant—even as rivals rolled their eyes at some of his more sci-fi-like warnings.
His message was finding an audience around the world—including in front of members of the U.S. Congress and party officials in China as they considered regulations.
“I’ve been somewhat of a Cassandra for quite a while," Musk told U.K. Prime Minister Rishi Sunak this fall.
And this year Musk ascended to the world stage not just to talk about his business, but as a key force in complex events. One avenue to involvement was his control of Starlink, the satellite internet launched by SpaceX that has developed into a unique global communication system that crossed traditional borders.
The system has proved immensely useful to Ukraine in its war with Russia. But Musk’s lone ability to control the system left some wondering if he possessed too much power after it was revealed this year that Musk refused to turn on the service in Crimea at Ukraine’s behest for a covert plan to attack Russian ships.
The criticism from an adviser to Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky was blistering, saying Musk’s actions allowed Russia to fire rockets on his country’s cities, killing civilians and children. “This is the price of a cocktail of ignorance and big ego," Mykhailo Podolyak tweeted.
It’s a decision Musk defended, saying he was trying to avert a nuclear war, and one praised by Russia.
Starlink in Gaza
Similarly, during the early days of the Israel-Hamas war, Musk said he would enable Starlink in Gaza for international aid workers after a wave of Israeli airstrikes knocked out communication systems in the territory.
His promise was quickly rebuked by Israel. Later, during a trip to Israel last month, a top official said Musk reached an agreement with the government that Starlink can only operate in Gaza with Israel’s permission.
Israel’s embrace, including Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu giving Musk a tour of a kibbutz attacked on Oct. 7, came after criticism began swirling around Musk following his November tweet involving an antisemitic conspiracy theory.
Musk conceded his tweet was foolish. Still, after big name advertisers pulled back in spending after the tweet and a report saying some advertising was near Nazi content, Musk lashed out, telling them to “go f—yourself."
A bestselling biography by Walter Isaacson this year gave a new term for Musk’s infamous dark-mood swings: “Demon Mode." And the FU episode answered one of the year’s enduring questions: Would Linda Yaccarino, whom he hired away from NBCUniversal to be X’s chief executive and woo advertisers back on to the platform, be able to rein in her boss’s impulses?
Nope.
Forget being the Technoking. This year Musk was the DramaKing.
Tim Higgins writes a weekly Wall Street Journal business column, typically focused on Elon Musk, his companies and his rivals. Email him at tim.higgins@wsj.com.
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