Source: Lao Yu Random Talk
In the past decade or so, Elon Musk has almost become a recognized person who wants to "change the world." From Tesla, SpaceX, the original Twitter, to brain-computer interfaces and Starlink, Musk has become the embodiment of technological innovation, a hero of the free market, and even a leader in human exploration of outer space.
However, from 2024 to 2025, The Wall Street Journal launched a series of 14-month in-depth investigations on Musk, which revealed his unspeakable behavior in corporate governance, political activities, international transactions, and media manipulation.
The Wall Street Journal has just won the Pulitzer Prize for this batch of reports, and the reason for the award is "exposing the serious problems between power, interests and public responsibility of one of the most powerful technology figures in contemporary times."
This is a victory for news investigation, revealing to the public a fact: Musk is not a savior, he is just a person who is frantically making money by using the information discourse power and institutional loopholes he has mastered.
Inside Elon Musk’s Warped Workplace, the Wall Street Journal’s long report on Musk, interviewed 34 current or former employees of Tesla, SpaceX, Neuralink, and X. These people described a highly "personalized" management system, including Musk's moods, habits, sleeping habits and even whims, which directly affect the company's strategy and the fate of employees.
The report pointed out that Musk often issued instructions via email or Slack at 3 a.m., requiring "immediate execution"; some executives were fired on the spot for "making Musk feel disrespected at board meetings many times"; at SpaceX's Texas base, female employees were humiliated because their clothes were "considered not to be like engineers."
In Musk's company, "either live on your knees or get out" has become an informal code for employees.
This set of reports not only reveals the role of "terrifying mentor" played by Musk himself in the workplace, but also reflects his almost pathological pursuit of "absolute control" over employees.
Since Musk acquired Twitter in 2022, he claimed to build it into a "bastion of free speech", but the investigation of The Wall Street Journal showed a completely different fact.
The report "How Musk’s Takeover of Twitter Amplified Conspiracies and Silenced Critics" pointed out: Internal data confirmed that Musk personally ordered the closure of hundreds of accounts criticizing him, including some New York Times reporters.
During the 2024 US midterm elections, the X platform pushed a large amount of far-right content about "vote fraud" and suppressed voting mobilization posts related to the Democratic Party; Musk has close ties with many far-right social media opinion leaders (such as Jordan Peterson and Tucker Carlson), and collaborates with them to promote vaccine conspiracy theories.
An internal video shows that Musk told X employees: "What we want to create is not free speech, but free authority."
This completely shattered Musk's lie of creating a "neutral platform."
Another report of the Wall Street Journal, "SpaceX Sold Starlink Access to Sanctioned Regimes", revealed that Musk's SpaceX secretly sold a large number of Starlink satellite terminal devices to Iran, Saudi Arabia, the Burmese military government and Venezuela through third-party agents.
These devices were used to monitor the opposition and track activists; they were used by the military for border communications and battlefield coordination; and they all bypassed the US export control system and were settled through shell companies in the UAE.
Although SpaceX officials denied knowing about it, emails obtained by the Wall Street Journal showed that Musk himself approved at least one "special approval channel" for the Burmese military regime. After the incident was exposed, the US Treasury Department has officially launched an investigation.
This is not only a technology outflow, but also a betrayal of democratic values. It can be seen that Musk will not hesitate to choose the former between "profit" and "justice".
《Musk’s Numbers Game: The Hidden Risks Behind Tesla’s Financial Reports》is one of the most technically detailed in-depth reports on Musk by the Wall Street Journal.
The reporter obtained the inventory records and sales system data of Tesla’s warehouses in many locations and found that as many as 27% of the delivered vehicles were not actually delivered to users, but were "first recorded" and then returned; Tesla has repeatedly used this "hidden unsalable inventory" to maintain its stock price and price-earnings ratio.
Musk himself also sold Tesla shares worth hundreds of millions of dollars 10 minutes before learning about the US government’s news on "auto tariffs". This group of investigations directly led to the intervention of the US Securities and Exchange Commission and triggered multiple class action lawsuits. The report pointed out: "This is not a technical problem of financial reporting, but a systematic systemic corruption."
During Trump's second term, Musk was appointed as the head of the "Government Efficiency Department". Although this agency is nominally "cutting government waste", the Wall Street Journal investigation found that it is actually an important means for Musk to trade cryptocurrencies.
"Elon Musk, the White House, and the Dogecoin Scheme" pointed out: Musk has repeatedly proposed "letting the federal payment system pilot to accept Musk's Dogecoin"; he holds at least 38 anonymous wallets related to Dogecoin through subsidiaries, and builds positions before the release of major policies of the Government Efficiency Department.
Musk's virtual currency Dogecoin is exactly the same as the abbreviation DOGE of the Government Efficiency Department. This is not accidental. Musk often uses puns to hype on the Internet.
Musk used the X platform to promote the narrative of "Dogecoin is the future payment of the United States" and hype himself. Musk made more than $12 billion in profits from Dogecoin-related transactions.
The Wall Street Journal's group of reports won the Pulitzer Prize based on three factors.
First, the evidence collection method is meticulous and the legal grasp is accurate: the newspaper's reporter team obtained materials through anonymous interviews, internal emails, financial data, court documents, etc., strictly distinguished the level of news sources, and conducted more than three rounds of cross-verification for each piece of news.
Second, these reports are not celebrity gossip, but focus on major social issues such as "institutional risks", "national security", "financial transparency" and "technological ethics", which have far-reaching public policy value.
Third, in an era when the American news ecosystem is increasingly compromising with traffic, the Wall Street Journal can still challenge one of the most powerful people in Silicon Valley with a large-scale investigation, which is a return to the value of the traditional news industry itself.
After the release of this investigation series, the US Department of Justice, the Securities and Exchange Commission, and the Treasury Department jointly established a special investigation team against Musk; a number of lawsuits entered the jury stage, including charges of financial fraud, insider trading, and export violations.
Tesla's sales fell 14% year-on-year, and senior executives resigned frequently; SpaceX's multiple military orders were questioned by Congress; and the X platform's advertisers lost a lot.
It is obvious that all of Musk's companies are operating around his personal likes and dislikes, lacking effective governance mechanisms and accountability systems. Whether it is the political, business or media circles, Musk has been deified as a "savior" in the past decade, and even turned a blind eye to his behavior. Until the investigation of the Wall Street Journal broke this situation.
In an era where the owner of social media can determine the flow of information, in an era where government efficiency managers can manipulate the value of virtual currencies, and in an era where "private entrepreneurs" can interfere in global military transactions, we must rethink: Who will supervise these super capitals?
The Wall Street Journal's award this time marks a victory for traditional media, and also reminds the world: Everyone, including business geniuses, must survive under the rule of law and public opinion supervision.
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