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Former featured article candidateElon Musk is a former featured article candidate. Please view the links under Article milestones below to see why the nomination failed. For older candidates, please check the archive.
Good articleElon 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.
Did You Know Article milestones
DateProcessResult
June 4, 2021Good article nomineeListed
July 24, 2021Peer reviewNot reviewed
August 23, 2022Featured article candidateNot promoted
November 1, 2022Good article reassessmentKept
Did You Know 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

Nuance in the wording in the lede on the term "early investor in Tesla"

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Yes Elon Musk was an "early investor" in Tesla, however I think some additional clarification or wording is needed to avoid the default assumption that is made when people read that statement. As written it basically implies that Musk had no involvement in the company after investing and "early investment" brings an image of a company that already exists and is growing at the time of investment. Neither of which is true. Simply saying he helped found the company isn't accurate either but wording that represents the position somewhere in the middle is needed. Does anyone have any suggestions? Can we simply add "very" to "early"? What about "invested in and became involved with"? I'll make an edit and then we can discuss further changes. Ergzay (talk) 19:20, 15 June 2024 (UTC)[reply]

The original wording in no way implies universal acceptance of Musk as making antisemitic statements, so the addition is superfluous. Additionally, the edit is paradigmatically weasel wording, so I recommend all invested editors (re)read the appropriate MoS section closely. QRep2020 (talk) 01:45, 16 June 2024 (UTC)[reply]
@QRep2020 It's the opposite of weasel wording. Weasel wording is when you use words to prop up a statement. What I'm doing is properly contextualizing wikivoice into closer to what the rest of the article states.
Quoting: "The examples above are not automatically weasel words. They may also be used in the lead section of an article or in a topic sentence of a paragraph, and the article body or the rest of the paragraph can supply attribution." Ergzay (talk) 03:44, 16 June 2024 (UTC)[reply]
What part of "In 2004 he contributed most of the initial investment in and became heavily involved with electric vehicle manufacturer Tesla Motors, Inc. (later Tesla, Inc.). He became the company's chairman and product architect, and in 2008 assumed the position of CEO." has weasel words? Ergzay (talk) 03:51, 16 June 2024 (UTC)[reply]
You are proposing or making so many changes so quickly to this article that I ended up referring to changed text in the wrong place. As you could obviously tell, what with me discussing antisemitic matters instead of what he was doing in 2004. Take a breather. QRep2020 (talk) 06:49, 16 June 2024 (UTC)[reply]
The following text was reverted by QRep2020 claiming above that it contains weasel words:

In 2004 he contributed most of the initial investment in and became heavily involved with electric vehicle manufacturer Tesla Motors, Inc. (later Tesla, Inc.). He became the company's chairman and product architect, and in 2008 assumed the position of CEO.

back to:

In 2004, Musk was an early investor in electric vehicle manufacturer Tesla Motors, Inc. (later Tesla, Inc.). He became the company's chairman and product architect, assuming the position of CEO in 2008.

Pinging some people to see if there is consensus for this change. If you have issues with it, be constructive. @Slatersteven @Feoffer @BoldGnome @ReferenceMan @Tikaboo. Ergzay (talk) 04:05, 16 June 2024 (UTC)[reply]
I have no view on this matter other than that it's abundantly obvious to anyone with any sense or understanding of weasel words that neither text includes weasel words. BoldGnome (talk) 04:11, 16 June 2024 (UTC)[reply]
I like the change, it's a little less vague with more detail. Tikaboo (talk) 04:18, 16 June 2024 (UTC)[reply]
This is a toughie cause I do see what we're trying to do by improving on "early investor". He wasn't just an early investor, he was (my OR words) early and pivotal. That said, the first text feels REALLY forced, like we're going out of our way to remind the reader how important he was.
My instinct is to try to find a RS quote calling him something more than an mere "early investor"? How much is "most", what is "heavily involved" -- we can pin that down more. Feoffer (talk) 04:19, 16 June 2024 (UTC)[reply]
Something like "He was an early investor who provided most of the initial financing in electric vehicle manufacturer Tesla Motors, Inc. (later Tesla, Inc.)." Describing him becoming the chairman, etc. in the following sentence already implies his heavy involvement. QRep2020 (talk) 07:08, 16 June 2024 (UTC)[reply]
Works for me. Feoffer (talk) 11:05, 16 June 2024 (UTC)[reply]
How about "In 2004, Musk led the initial funding for electric vehicle manufacturer Tesla Motors, Inc (later Tesla, Inc.), and became the company's chairman. He later became the product architect, and in 2008 the CEO."
Citation: Isaacson, p. 128. "Eberhard faced a problem. He had an idea and a name, but he had no funding...After a follow-up meeting that included Tarpenning, they agreed that Musk would lead the initial financing round with a $6.4 million investment and become chair of the board...The pieces thus came together for what would become the world’s most valuable and transformative automobile company: Eberhard as CEO, Tarpenning as president, Straubel as chief technology officer, Wright as chief operating officer, and Musk as the chair of the board and primary funder. Years later, after many bitter disputes and a lawsuit, they agreed that all five of them would be called cofounders." ReferenceMan (talk) 14:05, 16 June 2024 (UTC)[reply]
Nice -- I think my favorite wording for the first sentence is yours: "In 2004, Musk led the initial funding for electric vehicle manufacturer Tesla Motors, Inc (later Tesla, Inc.), and became the company's chairman. " I think I would like to see the $6.4M figure included and "chairman" specified as 'of the board' for people readers who aren't familiar with corporate structure; see what others think. Feoffer (talk) 14:23, 16 June 2024 (UTC)[reply]
I think we should say he bought a majority stake rather than 'led the initial funding', which doesn't have clear meaning to most readers I think. Tikaboo (talk) 14:37, 16 June 2024 (UTC)[reply]
OK. How about: "In 2004, Musk provided most of the initial funding for electric vehicle manufacturer Tesla Motors, Inc (later Tesla, Inc.), and became the chairman of the board. He later became the product architect, and in 2008 the CEO."
ReferenceMan (talk) 14:48, 16 June 2024 (UTC)[reply]
@Tikaboo, "majority stake" sort of suggests maybe they had lots of funding already but Musk bought those funders out; I don't think that's the case.
I'm good with your first sentence if others are. Product architect is its own thing, I don't [yet] know what it means or when it happened. Feoffer (talk) 14:52, 16 June 2024 (UTC)[reply]
Product architect is a good question. The earliest reliable source I've found is from 2009:
https://www.newyorker.com/magazine/2009/08/24/plugged-in
"Musk, thirty-eight, is the chairman, C.E.O., and product architect of Tesla Motors"
which is corroborated by a tesla.com blog post from 2010:
https://www.tesla.com/blog/stanford-business-school-taps-tesla-motors-global-executive-program-customer-in
"said Tesla CEO and Product Architect Elon Musk."
ReferenceMan (talk) 16:34, 16 June 2024 (UTC)[reply]
@Feoffer It was more than "majority stake". Majority stake just implies over 50%, whereas Musk was at 90%. I think it's important to clarify, in effect, the company was almost fully owned by him from the day the company really got going. Ergzay (talk) 06:19, 18 June 2024 (UTC)[reply]
More than the numeric value I think it's important that the percentage value be important, which was according to available sources, 90%. Ergzay (talk) 06:16, 18 June 2024 (UTC)[reply]
Sure why not. QRep2020 (talk) 18:52, 17 June 2024 (UTC)[reply]
Why add words? Slatersteven (talk)
I combined people's thoughts and have added the wording to the article as follows:

In 2004, Musk was an early investor who provided most of the initial financing in electric vehicle manufacturer Tesla Motors, Inc. (later Tesla, Inc.) becoming the company's chairman. He later became the product architect, and in 2008 the CEO.

Any thoughts @Feoffer @QRep2020 @ReferenceMan @Tikaboo @Slatersteven? Ergzay (talk) 05:00, 9 July 2024 (UTC)[reply]
I only now noticed the inflected repetition of 'become'. What about "assuming the role of the company's chairman"? Minor thing, otherwise the edit works. QRep2020 (talk) 06:01, 9 July 2024 (UTC)[reply]
Ah good point. I'll fix that. Ergzay (talk) 07:48, 9 July 2024 (UTC)[reply]
Actually on second thought I think "assuming the role" has the wrong implication. A chairman isn't just a "role". Some other type of wording is needed. Ergzay (talk) 07:50, 9 July 2024 (UTC)[reply]
I'm going to go with "assuming the position of the company's chairman" for the moment. Ergzay (talk) 07:50, 9 July 2024 (UTC)[reply]

Extended-confirmed-protected edit request on 8 July 2024

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Add sentence noting disputed immigration status of Elon and Kimbal Musk in section "Zip2" c. 1994. Ref links: Watch Elon Musk Talk About Being an Illegal Immigrant (Gizmodo)

Transcript for: Elon Musk and the frontier of Technology. TurtlyBurtly (talk) 23:46, 8 July 2024 (UTC)[reply]

The second link does not dispute his immigration status. The first link is about a tweet, taken out of context, and it was Kimbal Musk obviously exaggerating for a crowd. (Also it's just poor journalism, the video has been publicly available on youtube for anyone to look up the entire time. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=CgV2KzyWKx0 ) Ergzay (talk) 05:07, 9 July 2024 (UTC)[reply]
Kimbal may be exaggerating, he may not be - not sure how you can assume his intent from the clip, and to be clear, I'm suggesting that a sentence be added acknowledging that there is disagreement, not conclusive evidence. Elon is very cagey about his past, particularly pre-PayPal. He claimed in a 2018 tweet to have arrived in North America around 1988 and per an interview quoted in Snopes was in the US with an H-1B visa. This would require him to be employed in a "specialty occupation" per the USCIS, which dropping out of graduate school to start a tech company would not qualify for. From H-1B Visa: "A person in H-1B status must continue to be employed by their employer in order to stay in H-1B status. If the person's employment ends for any reason, the person must leave the United States, unless the person applies for and is granted a change of status or finds another employer compatible with the H-1B status." Elon's own words indicate he probably was in violation of this. TurtlyBurtly (talk) 19:34, 9 July 2024 (UTC)[reply]
None of that makes sense though as an H-1B Visa is not what you are on when you're getting a college degree in the US. That would be an F-1 visa or something else. This is a page that is a biography of living persons. Just making vague statements that his immigration status may or may not be valid feels like it's standing on shaky ground. Anyway I've said my piece. I won't reply anymore on this and if other people want to add it we can discuss then on exactly what should be added. Ergzay (talk) 02:09, 12 July 2024 (UTC)[reply]
Okay, I let this sit for about a week to see if anyone else wanted to jump in to discuss. I disagree with @Ergzay's assessment that the vagaries of the discussion make it not worth mentioning in the body of the article. The key point here, to me, is that Musk's interviews and tweets are inconsistent enough that establishing a consistent narrative of his immigration status from 1991-1995 is difficult, and he has been evasive in providing sources while providing plenty of metaphorical "smoke" to fuel conjecture. So:
Please add sentence: "Musk's US immigration status during this time is disputed." I have provided links from contemporary and subsequent sources, including Musk himself, above that should at least cover that claim. TurtlyBurtly (talk) 17:15, 16 July 2024 (UTC)[reply]
"Musk's US immigration status during this time is disputed." Disputed by what reliable secondary source? Wikipedians are not investigative journalists conducting WP:SYNTH and a Gizmodo article opining about how it would be "ironic if it turned out Musk himself was testing the boundaries of U.S. immigration law" is not sufficient. – macaddct1984 (talk | contribs) 15:17, 19 July 2024 (UTC)[reply]
 Not done for now: please establish a consensus for this alteration before using the {{Edit extended-protected}} template. Left guide (talk) 06:16, 20 July 2024 (UTC)[reply]

Where do we want to cover the Errol stuff?

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Errol has falsely claimed to have funded Zip2, was reliably accused of abuse of his wife and children, reportedly suffers from very severe mental illness, and fathered two children with his former stepdaughter. He also claims to have shot and killed multiple people.

On the one hand, Errol's primary notability (aside from 1970s politics) is from the abuse allegations against him. I created Familial relationships of Errol Musk try to get that info OFF Elon and Maye's respective BLPs -- you don't document an abuser on their victim's BLP; but that article has its own problems because it doesn't cover Errol's political career like a BLP should.

Where should we put what is known about Errol? If he weren't a media figure with famous family, perhaps we could just delete him away, but because he's become a media gadfly, it's not fair to Elon et al for us to NOT document his behavior somewhere. Could we put it in a sub-article of Elon's or Maye's BLP? Feoffer (talk) 10:32, 12 July 2024 (UTC)[reply]

Errol's primary notability is being the father of Elon, and Wikipedia is not a soapbox for scandalmongering even if is done in the name of fairness. 2601:642:4600:D3B0:F957:2BB0:729:9CD1 (talk) 01:08, 13 July 2024 (UTC)[reply]


Draft:America PAC

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I have created a draft for America PAC, a newly founded political action committee that Musk has pledged to give $45 million a month to. Any help with expansion would be appreciated. Thriley (talk) 01:42, 16 July 2024 (UTC)[reply]

Endorsement for 2024 presidency

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There is a paragraph in Politics devoted to Musk's endorsements of American political candidates, mostly ones that ran for president. In one of its sentences, the article states Musk "has declined to endorse" a candidate for 2024. In the very next sentence, it states that Musk "endorsed Trump", the de facto Republican candidate. The language here is confusing to say the least. QRep2020 (talk) 17:03, 16 July 2024 (UTC)[reply]

That's because Elon's own wording is confusing. Lots of news agencies are inferring that he's endorsed Trump but all he has done was tweet something vague that sort of implied that. Not a full endorsement statement like many others have done. Ergzay (talk) 20:13, 16 July 2024 (UTC)[reply]
What about this: https://x.com/elonmusk/status/1812932793250509144 QRep2020 (talk) 21:42, 16 July 2024 (UTC)[reply]
Maybe? It's not really a normal endorsement. But yeah maybe it counts. Still feels flaky. Ergzay (talk) 02:18, 17 July 2024 (UTC)[reply]
That is not the word I would use to describe what he is doing. QRep2020 (talk) 06:26, 17 July 2024 (UTC)[reply]
I agree with QRep2020. Wikipedia has a well-known liberal/leftist bias, and this is shown once more. The whole article is clearly very critical of him. One could say the article is following the bias of mainstream media, which is adversarial towards him, except for Fox and a few others that are neutral on him. Each topic comes with a negative connotation. For example, when the topic is Neuralink, they brought up the "animal welfare" narrative. Then, regarding his acquisition of Twitter, there's selective information about his tweet on Twitter's former CEO. The text still accomplishes its militancy when it diverts the topic to his followers and supposed "sexist" comments (absurd comments follow the tweets of every worldwide famous person, especially someone as popular as Musk). On the problem raised above, admitting his CLEAR support of Trump in this election would help Trump, another highly criticized figure in this encyclopedia, which clearly has a bias against both for the reasons stated above. Musk has already called Wikipedia by "Wokepedia", so this 'accusation' of bias against him is not new and is far from being only mine. LeonardoXS (talk) 01:04, 20 July 2024 (UTC)[reply]
Bordering on WP:NOTFORUM, but if you have specific improvements you'd like to make to the article, please suggest them. As for Musk's endorsement, the article has stated Musk has endorsed Trump for days now. – macaddct1984 (talk | contribs) 13:04, 20 July 2024 (UTC)[reply]
Macaddct1984 appears to be right, the article currently includes his endorsement and nobody seems to be trying to remove it wholesale. Horse Eye's Back (talk) 17:24, 22 July 2024 (UTC)[reply]
IMO, enough posts have been made by him now that he's clearly endorsing the the DT/Vance ticket. Ergzay (talk) 15:32, 22 July 2024 (UTC)[reply]
His endorsement is in the article: After the attempted assassination of Donald Trump, Musk wished Donald Trump a speedy recovery and endorsed him for president. – macaddct1984 (talk | contribs) 15:36, 22 July 2024 (UTC)[reply]
Yes, I realize. Was not my point. Ergzay (talk) 16:03, 22 July 2024 (UTC)[reply]

Consensus about interviews with otherwise unreliable sources

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Hey, quick question - Elon did an interview with Jordan Peterson recently that was streamed on the Daily Wire. Not a reliable source normally, but here it’s straight from the horse’s mouth. What are everyone’s feelings on using articles quoting that interview as a source for such? Snokalok (talk) 23:56, 22 July 2024 (UTC)[reply]

Let's wait a day or two and see if a more reliable publication reports on the contents of the interview (as I suspect one will). QRep2020 (talk) 01:54, 23 July 2024 (UTC)[reply]
Since it is a video interview and it would pass the verifiability test, it seems good to me. Any other publication will simply repost the original video, no not sure how that improves anything. Just my thoughts. JamieBrown2011 (talk) 08:10, 23 July 2024 (UTC)[reply]

Extended-confirmed-protected edit request on 23 July 2024

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Much of the below paragraph is largely embellished and misrepresent the facts. The articles referenced are subjective opinion pieces. Much of what is written in the paragraph also echos the opinions of the articles, and whomever wrote the paragraph initially. This should state facts only, and not be embellished or stuffed full of unqualifiable opinions. Below is the original paragraph, and a rewrite:

Please change X: Musk has expressed views that have made him a polarizing figure.[5] He has been criticized for making unscientific and misleading statements, including COVID-19 misinformation, promoting right-wing conspiracy theories, and "endorsing an antisemitic theory",[6] the latter of which he later apologized for.[5][7] His ownership of Twitter has been similarly controversial, being marked by layoffs of large numbers of employees, an increase in hate speech, misinformation and disinformation posts on the website, and changes to Twitter Blue verification.

To Y: Musk has been seen as a polarizing figure. He has criticized COVID-19, made comments that would generally support right-wing ideas, and made a comment regarding a version of the “great replacement theory." He later apologized for this statement. Upon acquisition of Twitter, Musk laid off a large number of employees and make changes to the "Twitter Blue" verification system. Mst3kfan13 (talk) 19:14, 23 July 2024 (UTC)[reply]

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