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winning shot), an outdoor pool, and a footpath leading to a giant tree upon which Musk, the father of then-seven-year-old twins and five-year-old triplets, all boys, planned to build a tree fort. The inside was just as grand, with all the expected billionaire trappings, down to the cavernous wine cellar and the master bathroom so big Musk put a treadmill in it.
    What was missing from all of this, though, was any sign of actual people. The white shelves in a towering library stood embarrassingly bare. (Musk devours books exclusively on his iPhone, including
The Autobiography of Benjamin Franklin
and Walter Isaacson’s
Steve Jobs
.)
    The pool was covered, the manicured backyard devoid of toys, lawn chairs, or a grill. The boys were at school—Musk, having been through a much-publicized divorce, shared custody of his sons with his college sweetheart, Justine. His second wife, Talulah Riley, a twenty-eight-year-old British actress, was, I was told, back in her home country filming a movie. There was no evidence—clothes, shoes, makeup—of a female inhabitant. There weren’t even any personal photographs to speak of, save a three-foot-wide panoramic shot of Musk and Riley watching an eclipse in front of a private yacht on some remote tropical beach, his arms wrapped around her as they both gaze skyward, laughing. On another wall, a photo of a chair seemed to be the placeholder that came with the frame.
    I asked Musk if he had a dog. Yes, he said, two. But no dish, leashes, or chew toys were in sight. The house, he told me, is leased. So was the furniture. Although Musk lived here, in other words, it would be an exaggeration to call it his home. It was a way station, the perfect place to play dystopian video games.
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    AT SIX FOOT ONE, with broad shoulders and legs that match his first name (Elon is Hebrew for “oak tree,” although Musk’s family comes from Pennsylvania Dutch stock, not Jewish), he filled out the burgundy Tesla Roadster—which he chose over his Audi Q7 and Porsche 911—for the twenty-mile drive to the Hawthorne-based headquarters of SpaceX. Pulling onto the 405, he attentively configured the optimum temperature and wind levels for the convertible; programmed a mix of Robbie Williams, Adele, and Beethoven’s Fifth; and drove fast and clinically. It was all done in a manner that reflects his public perception as a robotic genius—the real-life inspiration for the Tony Stark character in Jon Favreau’s
Iron Man
. Much of that reputation is deserved.
    â€œIf I was walking with the three kids and Elon disappeared, he was in a bookstore,” recalled his mother, Maye, who, at 63, remains an in-demand fashion model. (While in her sixties, she posed in the buff with a fake baby bump, Demi Moore–style, for the cover of
New York
magazine.) “He’d be sitting on the ground in a world of his own. He read the entire
Encyclopedia Britannica
when he was only eight or nine—and he remembered it!”
    Growing up in Pretoria, South Africa, Elon alienated schoolmates by correcting their minor factual errors. He thought he was doing them a favor; they thought he was arrogant and responded by bullying him.
    â€œHe can be brutally honest, where you’re like, Oh my God, that stuff hurts,” said his sister, Tosca. “He’s not trying to be mean or make you feel bad. And he appreciates honesty in return.”
    By college—Musk studied physics and business at the University of Pennsylvania, then more physics and science at Stanford—he had matured physically but retained his blunt intensity, channeling it into his studies to the point where Maye felt the need to check on him to make sure he was at least getting something to eat and wore a fresh pair of socks every day. He has “become a better man” since college, said his Penn roommate Adeo Ressi, another tech entrepreneur. “Now he will make