‘Bust-ups with everybody': Elon Musk's long history of having a short fuse exposed
Characters as diverse as Silicon Valley tech moguls and Canadian alt-pop singer Grimes have all entered his personal orbit before later screeching out again, usually followed by some degree of scorched earth via social media.
There is no greater example than Mr Musk's relationship with now-President Donald Trump, The New York Post reports.
Everyone knew the richest man in the world would fall out with the most powerful, but few predicted it would happen so quickly — just six months after the inauguration.
'He is prone to lash out,' Faiz Siddiqui, author of Hubris Maximus: The Shattering of Elon Musk, said. 'He is insulated and can make his point.'
Regardless of how sharp the point may be, Mr Musk can shed a friend and walk away unscathed.
'He has an army, the largest following on X (the social media platform), that will back him,' Siddiqui said.
Here then is a sampling of former friends, colleagues and loved ones who once embraced Mr Musk, only to later feel the burn.
Larry Page
Google co-founder Larry Page and Elon Musk were so chummy Mr Musk routinely crashed at Mr Page's home. Fortune magazine included the pair in a story about 'eight business leaders you didn't know were BFFs'.
But things fell apart when Mr Musk hired a top scientist away from Google in 2015.
Mr Musk's artificial intelligence company, xAI, paid Ilya Sutskever $US1.9 million ($2.9 million) to head up its new lab.
According to Musk, by Walter Isaacson, the poaching ended their friendship.
'Larry felt betrayed and was really mad at me,' Mr Musk told Mr Isaacson in the book.
'He refused to hang out with me anymore.'
Zack 'Asmongold' Hoyt
It's hard to imagine the world's richest man in a childish spat with an online gaming streamer. But that was the situation with Mr Musk and Zack 'Asmongold' Hoyt.
Like other professional gamers, Mr Asmongold watched Mr Musk playing Path of Exile 2 on a livestream. Following common sentiment, he alleged Mr Musk paid other people to play for him, which is called 'boosting'.
Apparently insulted by the allegation, Mr Musk unfollowed Mr Asmongold and removed his blue checkmark from X.
In response, Mr Asmongold posted a YouTube video called 'Elon Musk has Lost It.'
Mr Musk went on to push out private direct messages between them.
Forbes summed up the fallout by noting about Mr Musk, 'He may not really have time to beef with Twitch streamers … Yet, here we are.'
Justine Wilson
Justine Wilson was married to Musk from 2000 to 2008.
She watched him become a billionaire and bore six children (one of whom died tragically at 10 weeks due to Sudden Infant Death Syndrome). She later described herself as a 'starter wife'.
Mr Musk, according to Ms Wilson, told her, 'If you were my employee, I would fire you.'
After eight years and three sessions of couple's counselling, Mr Musk filed for divorce.
During two years of litigation – which Mr Musk said cost him $US4 million ($6.2 million) – she rallied for their house in Bel Air, 10 per cent of his Tesla shares, 5 per cent of his SpaceX shares, $US6 million ($9.2 million) and a glacier blue Tesla Roadster.
But thanks to a prenup, Ms Wilson said, 'I had effectively sold away all my rights as a married person.'
She wound up with far less than the billions won by other tech divorcees like Bill Gates' ex Melinda French and Jeff Bezos' firs wife, MacKenzie Scott.
While Forbes estimates Wilson's wealth at $US18 million ($28 million), they also estimate she would have $US17.3 billion ($26.7 billion) had she received the settlement requested.
Vivian Jenna Wilson
Originally named Zavier, Vivian Jenna Wilson was born male, to Musk and Justine, along with a twin sister, in 2004.
Responding to Vivian's transgender identity, Musk publicly maintained that his offspring was 'not a girl' and described them as being 'dead' to him.
Vivian went to a California court to change their name and distance themselves from their father.
'I no longer live with or wish to be related to my biological father in any way, shape or form,' Vivian stated in the filing.
Philip Low
After meeting Elon Musk socially in 2011, neuroscientist Philip Low, who had been a test subject for Stephen Hawking, became fast friends with the Silicon Valley mogul.
Soon after, Low launched a company called NeuroVigil, which boasted a non-invasive device for brain monitoring. Musk invested and joined the board.
In 2021, according to Politico, Musk – who had his own brain implant company, Neuralink – wanted to resign from the other company's advisory board.
Not wanting him to exercise his stock options, which could significantly hurt Neurovigil, Low fired him.
He sent an email to Musk, warning, 'Don't f*** with me.'
According to Politico, Low '(cast Musk) as obsessive, prone to seeking revenge, power hungry and in constant search of dominance'.
Martin Eberhard
In 2003, Martin Eberhard was one of two co-founders who incorporated Tesla.
Mr Musk invested in the company and, one year later, became chairman. Mr Musk was later recognised as a co-founder, following a lawsuit.
'That was a side issue and it got sorted out,' Siddiqui told The Post.
The falling out has more to do with Mr Musk 'claiming that he was almost solely responsible for the company'.
It doesn't help that Mr Musk ousted Mr Eberhard from his CEO post in 2007, according to Business Insider.
Mr Musk has since described Mr Eberhard as 'by far the worst person I've ever worked with in my entire career'.
In 2009, Mr Eberhard sued Mr Musk for defamation. Though the suit was settled out of court, in Isaacson's Musk bio, Mr Eberhard does marvel,
'This is the richest man in the world beating on someone who can't touch him.'
Sam Harris
Disagreeing with Elon Musk might not be a good way to foster a friendship with him.
The neuroscientist Sam Harris discovered this the hard way.
Harris and Musk first became acquainted in 2008. They fell out in 2020 when Mr Musk tweeted 'the coronavirus panic is dumb'. Mr Harris has claimed that he asked Mr Musk to 'walk back' from the position.
'There was a question about Musk weighing in on something that he does not have the expertise to weigh in on,' said Siddiqui. 'Is that putting people at risk?'
Mr Harris claimed Mr Musk bet $US1 million ($1.5 million) with him that there would be no more than 35,000 Covid-19 cases in America.
If the number exceeded 35,000 Mr Harris would be paid $1 million, to go to a charity. If it did not, Mr Musk would get a $US10,000 ($15,400) bottle of tequila.
Mr Harris obviously won. But did the million materialise?
His texts went unanswered. Since then, via X, Mr Musk called Mr Harris 'mentally ill'.
Mr Harris said there is 'something seriously wrong with (Musk's) moral compass.'
Grimes
The singer whose real name is Claire Boucher was romantically involved with Elon Musk from 2018 until 2021.
They have three children with unique names: X AE A-XII (aka, X), Exa (aka, Y) and Techno Mechanicus. There have also been suits and countersuits over custody.
In February 2025, Grimes posted to X Mr Musk should respond to a 'medical crisis' involving one of their children.
When somebody questioned her taking a private situation to social media, she replied, 'If I have to apply public pressure then I guess that's where we're at.'
X accompanied Mr Musk when he met with President Donald Trump in the Oval Office.
Grimes allegedly posted to X she does 'not approve that in every conceivable way … I am desperate to solve it … But currently I don't know how to do it.'
Sam Altman
In 2015, Mr Musk, Mr Altman and others founded artificial intelligence company OpenAI as a non-profit.
It then launched its for-profit arm, ChatGPT.
Mr Musk and Mr Altman then fell out over the direction of the company.
'Musk wanted OpenAI to hold onto this idea that it is a non-profit,' said Siddiqui.
'Like that it would be for the good of humanity.'
When Mr Musk moved to buy OpenAI, Mr Altman accused the tech billionaire of being in 'a position of insecurity,' adding 'I feel bad for the guy.'
'Elon busts up with everybody, that's what he does,' the 40-year-old behind ChatGPT told The Post.
Mr Musk has taken to referring to Mr Altman as 'Scam Altman'.
Jack Dorsey
Mr Dorsey co-founded microblogging site Twitter, which Mr Musk eventually bought and renamed X.
In 2022 as the deal was about to go through, Mr Dorsey went so far to say he had faith in Mr Musk's 'mission to extend the light of consciousness'.
But once in place, Mr Musk made job cuts, changes in policy and the name change.
By 2023, Mr Dorsey was saying Twitter 'went south' after his purchase.
Peter Thiel
Peter Thiel and Elon Musk have known each other long enough for their relationship to be complicated. In 2000, they combined their respective banking companies to create PayPal.
By 2025, it's been a bit of a roller coaster.
According to Thiel biography The Contrarian, the two men realised their differences early on. Soon after the merger, Mr Musk crashed his million dollar McLaren while driving Mr Thiel to a meeting. Mr Thiel, according to the book's author, saw Mr Musk as reckless. Mr Musk viewed Mr Thiel as profit driven.
Following the merge, while Mr Musk was on his honeymoon, Mr Thiel and his loyalists pushed Mr Musk out of his CEO spot. But the grudge didn't hold. After all, when Mr Musk's SpaceX was going through choppy times in 2008, Mr Thiel provided a $20 million investment that set the company right — and its rocket entered orbit on its next attempt.
Though they have called one another unflattering names – according to Business Insider, Mr Musk regards Mr Thiel as 'a sociopath' and Mr Thiel views Mr Musk as 'a fraud' – Siddiqui sees common ground.
'I think philosophically they are largely aligned,' he said. 'In the political arena, they have advocated for a lot of the same policies.'
Vernon Unsworth
Sometimes two people try to do the right thing and it goes terribly sideways.
Such was the case when Elon Musk and British caver Vernon Unsworth pitched in to save 12 boys trapped in a waterlogged Thai cave system for 15 days.
Mr Musk sent engineers from Tesla and a mini submarine to the site. Mr Unsworth took a more traditional approach, finding skilled cave divers and dispatching them to where the boys – members of a Thai soccer team – were trapped.
Mr Musk's vessel never got used and Mr Unsworth dubbed it a PR stunt, suggesting that he 'stick his submarine where it hurts'.
Musk entertained his 30 million followers on X by dubbing the diver 'pedo guy' in a since deleted tweet.
Mr Unsworth sued for defamation Mr Musk insisted that, in his native South Africa, 'pedo guy' is a common phrase.
The kids were saved, Mr Musk was found not guilty of defamation.
Mr Musk's lawyer stated the obvious in his summing up: 'In arguments, you insult people.'
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