Elon Musk Powers Up: Inside Tesla's $5 Billion Gigafactory
Fast Company|December/January 2016

Elon Musk, the CEO who made electric cars sexy and commercial space travel a reality, is venturing into the messy battery business. Here’s why it’s his boldest bet yet.

Max Chafkin
Elon Musk Powers Up: Inside Tesla's $5 Billion Gigafactory

Elon Musk walks briskly onto the stage as hard rock blasts in the background. The guitar riff, which sounds like entrance music suitable for a professional wrestler or a minor-league cleanup hitter, fades out, and Musk surveys the crowd, nodding his head a few times and then sticking his hands in his pockets. “What I’m going to talk about tonight,” he says, “is a fundamental transformation of how the world works.”

The 44-year-old CEO of Tesla Motors and SpaceX (and the chairman of the solar energy provider SolarCity) is wearing a dark shirt, a satin-trimmed sports coat, and, at this moment, a knowing smirk. An admirer of Steve Jobs, Musk is an heir to the Silicon Valley titan in some psychic sense, but in a setting like this, he’d never be mistaken for the Apple founder. Jobs worked the stage methodically, with somber reverence and weighty pauses, holding tightly choreographed events on weekday mornings for maximum media impact. Musk’s events, which are generally held at the press-unfriendly hour of 8 p.m. Pacific time, have a more ad hoc feel. His manner is geeky and puckish. He pantomimes and rephrases, rolls his eyes, and cracks one joke after another— his capacity for expression barely keeping pace with the thoughts in his head.

Musk begins by showing an image of thick yellow smoke pouring out of a series of giant industrial chimneys, contrasted with the Keeling Curve, the famous climate-change chart that shows more than 50 years of carbon dioxide levels soaring toward a near-certain calamity. It could be mistaken for something out of Al Gore’s An Inconvenient Truth. “I just want to be clear,” Musk says, with a nervous giggle, his accent betraying his boyhood in South Africa. “This is real.”

この記事は Fast Company の December/January 2016 版に掲載されています。

7 日間の Magzter GOLD 無料トライアルを開始して、何千もの厳選されたプレミアム ストーリー、9,000 以上の雑誌や新聞にアクセスしてください。

この記事は Fast Company の December/January 2016 版に掲載されています。

7 日間の Magzter GOLD 無料トライアルを開始して、何千もの厳選されたプレミアム ストーリー、9,000 以上の雑誌や新聞にアクセスしてください。

FAST COMPANYのその他の記事すべて表示
Where the Clean Energy Jobs Are
Fast Company

Where the Clean Energy Jobs Are

A data-driven guide to the skills you need and the opportunities you'll find

time-read
5 分  |
Winter 2024 - 2025
CAN WWE PIN THE WORLD?
Fast Company

CAN WWE PIN THE WORLD?

AS IT MAKES ITS $5 BILLION NETFLIX DEBUT AND PREPARES FOR A GLOBAL AUDIENCE, WWE IS STILL WRESTLING WITH THE TOXIC LEGACY OF ITS COMPLICATED FOUNDER.

time-read
10 分  |
Winter 2024 - 2025
RADICAL VISION
Fast Company

RADICAL VISION

POLICE DEPARTMENTS ACROSS THE COUNTRY ARE EMBRACING AI-ENHANCED SURVEILLANCE IN THE NAME OF STOPPING CRIME. HERE'S HOW ONE SECURITY FIRM IS LEADING THE EFFORT AND PROFITING OFF OUR FEARS

time-read
10+ 分  |
Winter 2024 - 2025
Brands That Matter
Fast Company

Brands That Matter

Our annual look at standout brands encompasses 130 honorees in nine categories, including the inaugural CMOs of the Year. Here's how 12 of those brands and three top CMOs stake out the intersection of business and culture.

time-read
10+ 分  |
Winter 2024 - 2025
The Future According to Google
Fast Company

The Future According to Google

Google DeepMind, the tech giant's internal AI research lab, isn't just racing to beat OpenAI to market. Under Nobel laureate CEO Demis Hassabis, it's the \"engine room\" of the entire company.

time-read
10+ 分  |
Winter 2024 - 2025
EYE OF THE BEHOLDER
Fast Company

EYE OF THE BEHOLDER

SEPHORA HAS GROWN SO POWERFUL THAT IT CONTROLS WHICH BRANDS LIVE OR DIE IN THE $30 BILLION HIGH-END COSMETICS INDUSTRY. IN THIS BEAUTY CONTEST, SEPHORA ALWAYS WEARS THE CROWN.

time-read
10+ 分  |
Winter 2024 - 2025
CULTURE WARS
Fast Company

CULTURE WARS

Brands on the Run Why Harley-Davidson, Caterpillar, and other masculine\" brands are caving to anti-DEI crusader Robby Starbuck

time-read
6 分  |
Winter 2024 - 2025
WORK LIFE
Fast Company

WORK LIFE

Law Roach, image architect and educator, answers our career questionnaire.

time-read
2 分  |
Winter 2024 - 2025
The AI Gadget Debacle
Fast Company

The AI Gadget Debacle

Here's why you shouldn't expect any mind-blowing AI-powered gifts anytime soon.

time-read
6 分  |
Winter 2024 - 2025
Why the future workplace will feel more like a hotel
Fast Company

Why the future workplace will feel more like a hotel

REVEALS WHY THIS IS IMPORTANT TO CORPORATE STRATEGY AND EMPLOYEE ENGAGEMENT

time-read
2 分  |
Winter 2024 - 2025