1 Elon Musk, Walter Isaacson, Simon & Schuster, 2023
Note: this book is a biography authorised by Elon Musk, who read it over, and it may therefore contain a dose of storytelling meant to burnish his legend.
2 Japanese term for foreigners residing in Japan
3 How To Be Successful, Sam Altman, 25 January 2019
4 These emails come from several leaks organised by an OpenAI co-founder, who passes them on to anyone willing to read them.
5 Sam Altman told Elon Musk is was worried Google Deepmind was…, Business Insider
6 AGI: artificial general intelligence, an autonomous machine able to perform all the intellectual tasks a human being can.
7 Department of Government Efficiency
8 We got a DOGE staff list. From a McKinsey alum to a former Clarence Thomas clerk, here are the workers powering Elon Musk's cost-cutting squad., Jack Newsham, Katie Balevic, Lakshmi Varanasi, and Kenneth Niemeyer , Business Insider, 11 February 2025
9 Young Aides Emerge as Enforcers in Musk’s Broadside Against Government, Theodore Schleifer, Nicholas Nehamas, Kate Conger and Ryan Mac, The NY Times, 7 February 2025
10 General Services Administration
11 Chief Information Officer
12 Office of Personnel Management
13 Diversity, equity and inclusion
14 Consumer Financial Protection Bureau
16 United States Agency for International Development
17 Federal Emergency Management Agency
18 The Memo: Musk rivals Trump as most controversial figure on political stage, Niall Stanage, The Hill, 12 February 2025
19 Consumer Financial Protection Bureau
20 National Labor Relations Board
21 Board of directors
22 “L’agence Associated Press dénonce une « escalade très inquiétante » face aux restrictions de la Maison Blanche contre ses journalistes” [Associated Press denounces a “very worrying escalation” in the face of White House restrictions on its journalists], AFP - Le Monde, 14 February 2025
23 Elon Musk savaged as SpaceX gets new $40m defense contract amid his cutting of federal spending, Mike Bedigan, The Independent, 13 February 2025
24 Elon Musk says he is not interested in buying TikTok, Gursimrankaur Mehar, Reuters, 9 February 2025
25 Elon Musk’s X debt: Bank consortium sells $5.5 billion of loans amid rising investor demand, The Economic Times
26 Known in the UK as Dragons’ Den.
27 Pause Giant AI Experiments: An Open Letter, 22 March 2023
28 OpenAI asks investors to avoid five AI startups including Sutskever's SSI, Anna Tong, Kenrick Cai and Krystal Hu, Reuters, 3 October 2024
29 “Reid Hoffman, « athée mystique » et gourou de l’intelligence” [Reid Hoffman, “mystical atheist” and guru of intelligence], Arnaud Leparmentier, Le Monde, 8 April 2024
30 Inflection AI, The Year-Old Startup Behind Chatbot Pi, Raises $1.3 Billion, Alex Konrad, Forbes, 2023
31 The new Inflection: An important change to how we'll work, Inflection, 2024
32 A King of Connections Is Tech’s Go-To Guy, Evelyn M. Rusli, The New York Times, 5 November 2011
33 A Billionaire Defends Modern Philanthropy, Alana Semuels, The Atlantic, June 2017
34 Leaked Trump vetting docs, Exclusive: Leaked Trump vetting docs, Jonathan Swan, Juliet Bartz , Alayna Treene, Orion Rummler, Axios, 23 June 2019
35 Elon Musk spotted aboard yacht in Greece, Fox News, July 2022
36 Ari Emanuel Offered to Run Twitter for $100 Million, but Musk Rejected the ‘Insulting’ and ‘Insane’ Proposal, Book Claims, Todd Spangler, Variety, 15 September 2023
37 Abu Dhabi sovereign fund dedicated to AI, created in 2024 by Mubadala.
38 Assets under management: the total market value of the investments a person or entity manages on behalf of investors.
39 Abu Dhabi Targets $100 Billion AUM for AI Investment Firm, Ben Bartenstein, Bloomberg, March 2024
40 “La Cour suprême rejette un recours d’Elon Musk concernant des tweets sur Tesla” [The Supreme Court rejects an appeal by Elon Musk over tweets about Tesla], AP/La Presse, April 2024
41 Market manipulation that consists of artificially inflating an asset before selling it at the top