I agree with you, yet in a somewhat different way.

He is an investor investing in science fiction. This isn't even implied, he comes out and says it again and again.

I'm reminded of xerox parc's "The best way to predict the future is to invent it" and I think that's his philosophy.

As to "businesses he knows well" I do not agree. He didn't go into electric vehicles, rockets, robots or neural interfaces as "business he knows well".

Just read about musk going to russia to try to get a launch vehicle going and coming back insulted and frustrated. So he broke down the problem and learned how to solve it.

Also "Private Equity" has a connotation of rent seeking nowadays, like "buying all dentists and monetizing to extract profit".

I don't see him that way philosophically. I see him as a pure creator, not a rent seeking wealth extractor.

With Twitter/X he definitely did act like a PE firm with deep cuts and a simplified operating model (eg. no moderation.)

Although strangely he destroyed the revenue model at the same time, which is something a PE firm would be careful to avoid.

The danger is his focus on living on Mars with no accountability.

It’s like letting a ten year old have unlimited access to the Halloween candy, except the candy is society.

Both the typical PE scum and lunatics like Musk are the textbook example of why business needs to be on a leash.

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