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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Bucket-wheel excavators mine rare earth materials on Ukrainian soil on February 25, 2025, in the Zhytomyr region of Ukraine. (Kostiantyn Liberov via Getty Images)