There is probably no contemporary figure more baffling—and polarizing—than Elon Musk. Alongside his outsize entrepreneurial ventures—Tesla and SpaceX, among them—there is his public persona: charming, puckish, combative, mercurial. He has aroused admiration and scorn in about equal measure. What are we to make of him?
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A robot from AgiBot is seen during the Global Developer Conference, organized by the Shanghai AI Industry Association, in Shanghai on February 21, 2025. (Hector Retamal via Getty Images)