Elon Musk

Elon Musk continues to befuddle Planet Earth. Every time one of his companies stumbles, the entrepreneur seems to have another spectacular idea to announce — a Martian colony, a space-based internet or an 800-mph transit system — to thrill and confuse. The co-founder of PayPal, Musk is the chief executive of both Tesla Inc., the electric-car pioneer, and Space Explorations Technologies Corp., or SpaceX, which ferries cargo for NASA. He is admired and even idolized in Silicon Valley. But there and elsewhere, some are starting to wonder whether he’s finally taken on too much. Is Musk trying to distract us from the troubling aspects of his companies, or are the doubters just the kind of shortsighted, risk-averse people Musk believes are holding us all back from a fantastic future?

The first half of 2018 was a critical time for Musk. In February, SpaceX demonstrated its new, more powerful Falcon Heavy rocket and managed to simultaneously recover not two boosters on land while sending a red Tesla Roaster off into space as the payload. Back on Earth, making cars in high volumes has been more challenging. Tesla has pushed back production targets for the more affordable Model 3 sedan several times, testing the patience of customers who put down $1,000 deposits when the car was first revealed in March 2016. The company is now racing to produce 5,000 Model 3s a week. In June, Musk announced that Tesla was laying off 9 percent of its salaried workforce, or more than 3,000 people, in an effort to become profitable for the first time in its 15-year history. He also warned employees of possible sabotage.