Talk:Elon Musk

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There is consensus to describe Musk as a supporter of far-right political parties per RfC and to include that he received widespread criticism for what some perceived as a Nazi salute, per RfC.

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Frequently asked questions

Q1: Can I write a message to Elon Musk here? (No.)

A1: No. The "Talk:Elon Musk" page is not for writing messages to Musk. It is only for discussing changes to the Wikipedia article about him. Writing a message to Musk here is pointless and disruptive, and such messages will be removed as an improper use of the page.

Q2: Can you update the article to call Musk a "business magnet"? (No.)

A2: No. Musk once suggested in an interview that his Wikipedia article be changed to describe him as a "business magnet" rather than a magnate. The tone of that interview was not very serious; he also claimed to be an alien.^[1] Wikipedia doesn't have to do what Musk says, and this request has been made and declined dozens of times already. New requests may be removed without a response so that other discussions are not disrupted.

Q3: Should Musk be identified as South African in the opening sentence?

A3: Musk is a US citizen (since 2002) born and raised in South Africa, and also acquired Canadian citizenship via his mother. Including these nationalities in the opening sentence in a balanced way would be complex, and the consensus is that they should instead be explained later in the lead.

Q4: Can you change "Tesla CEO" to "Tesla Technoking"?

A4: No, because he is still CEO according to company records and that is a common corporate title that readers will understand, unlike "Technoking". The goal of the article is to inform people, which would be hindered by raising a confusing technicality.

Q5: Should the mention of Errol Musk having an interest in an emerald mine be removed in view of Elon's denials?

A5: While Elon today vehemently disputes any history with an emerald mine, he formerly accepted and even confirmed it. Specifically, a 2014 report originally printed in the San Jose Mercury News (and cited in the article) stated that Errol Musk had "a stake in" a mine. Elon affirmed his father's mine involvement in an interview with Jim Clash, a career interviewer of public figures, that was published by Forbes and withdrawn without explanation a few months later. Elon biographer Ashlee Vance likewise confirmed Errol's mining interest, with Elon's objections but not denials, in a 2020 interview report with Elon. Errol has stated that he received hundreds of thousands of dollars' worth of emeralds from his dealings.

Q6: Should "Bachelor of Arts in Physics" be "Bachelor of Science" instead?

A6: No. Although it may seem counterintuitive, "Bachelor of Arts" is awarded for all undergraduate degrees at the College of Arts and Sciences at the University of Pennsylvania. His economics degree however is from the Wharton School which does award a "Bachelor of Science" degree.

Q7: Should the article acknowledge doubts about Musk's academic record?

A7: Wikipedia policy on biographies of living persons requires that negative information about a person must be attributed to reliable published sources, and excludes both self-published sources (e.g. Twitter threads) and court trial records. The article states that sources disagree about when Musk obtained bachelor degrees, and that he did not attend Stanford for any significant amount of time. Any doubts beyond this require appropriate sources.

Q8: Why doesn't this article describe Musk as an engineer?

A8: Musk is chief engineer of SpaceX, a title that applies within the company and that the press regularly mentions. He is not a professional engineer, a distinction within engineering that carries certain legal privileges in the United States, nor has he completed an engineering training program, nor has he ever been hired as an engineer. The article therefore does not include any of these claims. It does note that, from time to time, Musk has made initial product proposals at his companies that his trained engineers then research and develop. He does hold IEEE Honorary Membership.

Q9: Why doesn't the article identify Musk as co-founder of PayPal?

A9: Because that could mislead readers that Musk was involved in the creation of the PayPal service and brand, when he was not. Instead, as the article states, he co-founded a company (X.com Corporation) that acquired the company that had developed PayPal (Confinity Inc.) and then renamed itself as PayPal, Inc.

Q10: Why does this page include criticism of Musk's actions and stances?

A10: Musk is criticized/praised a lot in many reliable sources, and as such we need to talk about these criticisms and praise. To quote from Wikipedia's policy on a neutral point of view, articles must represent "fairly, proportionately, and, as far as possible, without editorial bias, all the significant views that have been published by reliable sources on a topic."

Q11: Why is this a "good article" when some people consider Musk a bad person?

A11: "Good article" on Wikipedia refers to the way the article is written, not what kind of person Musk is. Good articles have been found to satisfy Wikipedia editorial standards for accuracy, verifiability and balanced presentation.

Q12: Why doesn't this page call Musk African American?

A12: African Americans are an ethnic group of Americans with total or partial ancestry from any of the Black racial groups of Africa. Reliable sources do not use this term to describe Musk.

References

^ "Joe Rogan Experience #1169 - Elon Musk". The Joe Rogan Experience. September 6, 2018. Event occurs at 9:53. Retrieved October 2, 2020 – via YouTube.

Elon Musk is a former featured article candidate. Please view the links under Article milestones below to see why the nomination was archived. For older candidates, please check the archive.

Elon Musk has been listed as one of the Social sciences and society good articles under the good article criteria. If you can improve it further, please do so. If it no longer meets these criteria, you can reassess it.

Article milestones
Date	Process	Result
June 4, 2021	Good article nominee	Listed
July 24, 2021	Peer review	Not reviewed
August 23, 2022	Featured article candidate	Not promoted
November 1, 2022	Good article reassessment	Kept
A fact from this article appeared on Wikipedia's Main Page in the "Did you know?" column on June 15, 2021. The text of the entry was: Did you know ... that Elon Musk* lost $16.3 billion in a single day, the largest in the history of the* Bloomberg Billionaires Index?
Current status: Former featured article candidate, current good article

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Reference ideas for Elon Musk

The following references may be useful when improving this article in the future:

Breland, Ali (2024-08-20). "The Far Right Is Becoming Obsessed With Race and IQ". The Atlantic.{{cite news}}: CS1 maint: url-status (link)

Elon Musk in popular culture was nominated for deletion. The discussion was closed on 14 May 2022 with a consensus to merge. Its contents were merged into Elon Musk. The original page is now a redirect to this page. For the contribution history and old versions of the redirected article, please see its history; for its talk page, see here.

Other activities of Elon Musk was nominated for deletion. The discussion was closed on 7 February 2025 with a consensus to merge. Its contents were merged into Elon Musk. The original page is now a redirect to this page. For the contribution history and old versions of the redirected article, please see its history; for its talk page, see here.

This article has been mentioned by multiple media organizations:

Isobel Asher Hamilton (December 23, 2019). "Elon Musk fact-checked his own Wikipedia page and requested edits including the fact he does 'zero investing'". Business Insider. Retrieved December 23, 2019.
Don Reisinger (December 23, 2019). "Elon Musk Took Issue With His Wikipedia Page, So He Asked the Community to Fix It. They Did". Inc. Retrieved December 23, 2019.
Sissi Cao (December 23, 2019). "Elon Musk Says His Wikipedia Page Is 'Insanely' Inaccurate". Observer. Retrieved December 27, 2019.
"Wikipedia locks Elon Musk's page after he 'begs' Twitter users to 'trash him' on site". The Tribune (Chandigarh). August 17, 2020. Retrieved August 17, 2020.
Sanya Jain (August 17, 2020). "Elon Musk Is Begging - Yes, Begging - To Be Trashed On Wikipedia. True Story". NDTV. Retrieved August 17, 2020.
Stephen Harrison (May 3, 2022). "The Controversy Brewing on Elon Musk's Wikipedia Page". Slate. Retrieved May 3, 2022.
Dave Lee (October 26, 2023). "Now Elon Musk is attacking Wikipedia". Australian Financial Review. Retrieved October 31, 2023.
CT Jones (October 24, 2023). "Elon Musk Offers to Also Ruin Wikipedia". Rolling Stone. Retrieved November 5, 2023.
Will Bunch (December 29, 2024). "Explaining the right: Why Musk and MAGA are so mad at Wikipedia". Daily Kos. Retrieved December 29, 2024.
Oliver Willis (December 29, 2024). "Forget Greenland. Trump and Musk's real WWIII is an all-out war on the truth". The Philadelphia Inquirer. Retrieved December 31, 2024.
Marcie Jones (January 8, 2025). "Wikipedia Won't Let Elon Musk Fluff His Resume. Heritage Foundation Will Help By Terrorizing The Editors". Wonkette. Retrieved January 8, 2025.
Anthony Blair (January 21, 2025). "Elon Musk lashes out at Wikipedia over 'Nazi salute' claims at Trump's inauguration as he calls for site to be defunded". The Sun. Retrieved January 21, 2025.
Madeline Sherratt (January 22, 2025). "Elon Musk furious after Wikipedia page calls his controversial gesture a 'Nazi salute'". The Independent. Retrieved January 22, 2025.
Sophie Thompson (January 22, 2025). "Elon Musk is now demanding action against Wikipedia following inauguration gesture fallout". Indy100. Retrieved January 22, 2025.
Becca Milfeld (January 23, 2025). "Musk calls for defunding of Wikipedia over description of gesture". The Japan Times. Retrieved January 23, 2025.
Io Dodds (January 23, 2025). "'He is world's leading free speech hypocrite': Elon Musk's battle with Wikipedia is part of his war on truth". The Independent. Retrieved January 24, 2025.
Damien Leloup (January 29, 2025). "Why Elon Musk is calling for a boycott of Wikipedia". Le Monde. Retrieved January 30, 2025.
Sarah Grevy Gotfredsen (January 30, 2025). "The Right Takes Aim at Wikipedia". Columbia Journalism Review. Retrieved January 30, 2025.
Tobias Carroll (February 5, 2025). "How Long Can Wikipedia Hold On?". InsideHook. Retrieved February 6, 2025.
Lila Shroff (February 5, 2025). "Elon Musk Wants What He Can't Have: Wikipedia". The Atlantic. Retrieved February 6, 2025.
Henry Chandonnet (February 21, 2025). "How Wikipedia became a political lightning rod". Fast Company. Retrieved February 23, 2025.
Margaret Talbot (March 4, 2025). "Elon Musk Also Has a Problem with Wikipedia". The New Yorker. Retrieved March 4, 2025.
Martha Ramirez (March 6, 2025). "Who's Funding Wikipedia and Why Is It Under Attack?". Inside Philanthropy. Retrieved March 6, 2025.
Feven Merid (March 13, 2025). "Wikipedia's Reluctant Resisters". Columbia Journalism Review. Retrieved March 18, 2025.

Text has been copied to or from this article; see the list below. The source pages now serve to provide attribution for the content in the destination pages and must not be deleted as long as the copies exist. For attribution and to access older versions of the copied text, please see the history links below.

Copied pages:

Copied Elon Musk's submarine (history) → Elon Musk (diff) on 22 August 2018
Copied Views of Elon Musk (oldid, history) → Elon Musk (diff) on 30 January 2025
Copied Wealth of Elon Musk (oldid, history) → Elon Musk (diff) on 30 January 2025
Copied Business career of Elon Musk (oldid, history) → Elon Musk (diff) on 31 January 2025
Copied Acquisition of Twitter by Elon Musk (oldid, history) → Elon Musk (diff) on January 31, 2025
Copied Twitter under Elon Musk (oldid, history) → Elon Musk (diff) on January 31, 2025
Copied Elon Musk (oldid, history) → Other activities of Elon Musk (diff) on January 31, 2025
Copied Elon Musk (oldid, history) → Business career of Elon Musk (diff) on 31 January 2025

Section sizes

Section size for Elon Musk (35 sections)
Section name	Byte count	Section total
(Top)	7,411	7,411
Early life	15,775	27,563
Education	11,788	11,788
Business career	59	82,007
Zip2	3,051	3,051
X.com and PayPal	4,446	4,446
SpaceX	10,671	19,998
Starlink	9,327	9,327
Tesla	12,862	20,362
SolarCity and Tesla Energy	7,500	7,500
Neuralink	5,774	5,774
The Boring Company	5,225	5,225
X Corp.	23,092	23,092
Other activities	21	12,279
Hyperloop	2,710	2,710
OpenAI and xAI	4,244	4,244
Private jet	5,304	5,304
Politics	34,476	54,033
Trump's inauguration	7,699	7,699
Department of Government Efficiency	11,858	11,858
Views	29,596	38,525
International relations	8,929	8,929
Legal affairs	14,947	14,947
Personal life	15,724	34,111
Relationships and children	18,387	18,387
Wealth	75	6,208
Musk Foundation	6,133	6,133
Public image	5,118	21,131
Accolades	8,290	8,290
In popular culture	7,723	7,723
Notes	26	26
References	30	30
Works cited	1,501	1,501
Further reading	1,611	1,611
External links	6,033	6,033
Total	307,416	307,416

This article has been viewed enough times to make it onto the all-time Top 100 list. It has had 108 million views since December 2007.

This article has been viewed enough times in a single year to make it into the Top 50 Report annual list. This happened in 2017, 2018, 2019, 2020, 2021, 2022, 2023, and 2024.

This article has been viewed enough times in a single week to appear in the Top 25 Report 79 times. The weeks in which this happened:

Political party

Is there any source behind him being a registered independent? If the most recent source is from before 2022, would it be possible to find more up to date sources that either still support him being a registered independent or support him changing political affiliations? CY223 (talk) 00:05, 4 April 2025 (UTC)[reply]

It's very, very safe to call him a Republican, calling him an independent is like Heinrich Himmler an independent who has no affiliation to the Nazi party. Dual The Eggist (talk) 19:23, 7 April 2025 (UTC)[reply]

"President Elon" listed at Redirects for discussion

The redirect President Elon has been listed at redirects for discussion to determine whether its use and function meets the redirect guidelines. Readers of this page are welcome to comment on this redirect at Wikipedia:Redirects for discussion/Log/2025 April 4 § President Elon until a consensus is reached. Jay 💬 18:47, 4 April 2025 (UTC)[reply]

"Melon Musk" listed at Redirects for discussion

The redirect Melon Musk has been listed at redirects for discussion to determine whether its use and function meets the redirect guidelines. Readers of this page are welcome to comment on this redirect at Wikipedia:Redirects for discussion/Log/2025 April 4 § Melon Musk until a consensus is reached. Cyber the tiger🐯 (talk) 20:10, 4 April 2025 (UTC)[reply]

Short Description

The current "short description" is 49 characters, which though not excessively long, it is also not that near the ideal "40 characters or under" that should be sought after whenever possible per WP:SDESC and WP:SD40. "Short descriptions exceeding 40 characters may be truncated in some contexts". The current short description says, "Businessman and U.S. political figure (born 1971)" I think it would be an improvement to either remove "U.S." from between the "and" and "political figure" due to the global impact Musk has been involved in (think Germany most recently). There might be other, better, suggestions on how to shorten it, and though this only removes 4 characters, it is an improvement over leaving it in, in my view. Iljhgtn (talk) 02:01, 15 April 2025 (UTC)[reply]

I think the birth year can be removed. It can be an important disambiguation for some BLP articles, but Musk is extremely well known, and I'm not aware of specific need for date-based disambiguation here. As WP:SDDATES says, other information can be higher-priority than dates. WeyerStudentOfAgrippa (talk) 14:20, 15 April 2025 (UTC)[reply]

How about this, "Businessman, engineer and political figure"? That comes to 42 characters then and incorporates your idea of removing the birth year data point. Iljhgtn (talk) 14:26, 15 April 2025 (UTC)[reply]

What is the view on replacing "Businessman" with "entrepreneur"?Iljhgtn (talk) 22:48, 15 April 2025 (UTC)[reply]

[1] "Joe Rogan Experience #1169 - Elon Musk". The Joe Rogan Experience. September 6, 2018. Event occurs at 9:53. Retrieved October 2, 2020 – via YouTube.

[1]