In August 2013, Musk assigned engineers from SpaceX and Tesla to design a mode of transport between Greater Los Angeles and the San Francisco Bay Area, at an estimated cost of $6 billion. He dubbed the concept Hyperloop, but the project was discontinued in 2022. In December 2015, Musk co-founded OpenAI, a not-for-profitartificial intelligence (AI) research company. He pledged $1 billion of funding to the company, and as of 2023, he has donated approximately $50 million. In 2018, Musk left the OpenAI board, and in July 2023, launched the artificial intelligence company xAI, which aims to develop a generative AI program that competes with existing offerings like ChatGPT. The company hired engineers from Google and OpenAI. and Musk obtained funding from investors in SpaceX and Tesla.
A tube part of the 2017 Hyperloop pod competition, sponsored by SpaceX
In August 2013, Musk announced plans for a version of a vactrain and assigned a dozen engineers from SpaceX and Tesla to establish the conceptual foundations and create initial designs.[1] Later that year, Musk unveiled the concept, which he dubbed the Hyperloop.[2] The alpha design for the system was published in a white paper posted to the Tesla and SpaceX blogs.[3] The document scoped out the technology and outlined a notional route where such a transport system could be built between Greater Los Angeles and the San Francisco Bay Area, at an estimated cost of $6billion.[4] The proposal, if technologically feasible at the costs cited, would make Hyperloop travel cheaper than any other mode of transport for such long distances.[5] Biographer Ashlee Vance noted that Musk hoped Hyperloop would "make the public and legislators rethink the high-speed train" proposal current in California at the time and consider more "creative" ideas.[6]
In 2015, Musk announced a design competition for students and others to build Hyperloop pods, to operate on a SpaceX-sponsored mile-long track, for a 2015–2017 Hyperloop pod competition. The track was used in January 2017, and Musk also announced that the company had started a tunnel project, with Hawthorne Municipal Airport as its destination.[7] In July 2017, Musk said that he had received "verbal government approval" to build a Hyperloop from New York City to Washington, D.C., with stops in Philadelphia and Baltimore.[8] Mention of the projected DC-to-Baltimore leg was removed from the Boring Company website in 2021.[9] The tunnel project to Hawthorne was discontinued in 2022 and is planned to be converted into parking spots for SpaceX workers.[10]
Mobility experts have criticized the Hyperloop concept for potential safety issues, planning complexity, low passenger capacity, and extremely high costs.[11][12] Jose Gomez-Ibanez, a professor of urban planning and public policy at Harvard, said, "It gives me pause to think that otherwise intelligent people are buying into this kind of utopian vision."[13]
In December 2015, Musk co-founded OpenAI, a not-for-profitartificial intelligence (AI) research company aiming to develop artificial general intelligence intended to be safe and beneficial to humanity.[14] A particular focus of the company was to democratize artificial superintelligence systems against governments and corporations.[15] Musk pledged $1billion of funding to OpenAI.[16] In 2023, Musk said he had given a total of $100million to OpenAI. TechCrunch later reported that, according to its investigation of public records, "only $15million" of OpenAI's funding could be definitively traced to Musk. Musk subsequently stated that he had donated about $50million.[17]
In 2018, Musk left the OpenAI board to avoid possible future conflicts with his role as CEO of Tesla, as Tesla increasingly became involved in AI through Tesla Autopilot.[18] Since then, OpenAI has made significant advances in machine learning, producing neural networks such as ChatGPT (producing human-like text)[19] and DALL-E (generating digital images from natural language descriptions).[20]
On July 12, 2023, Elon Musk launched an artificial intelligence company called xAI, which aims to develop a generative AI program that competes with existing offerings like ChatGPT. The company hired engineers from Google and OpenAI.[21] Musk obtained funding from investors in SpaceX and Tesla.[22]
In February 2024 Musk sued OpenAI, its chief executive Sam Altman, and president Greg Brockman over the company violating its founding agreement by prioritizing profits over benefits to humanity.[23]
After 2020, thousands of acres of land just outside Austin, Texas, were acquired by Musk and his companies with a total value of $2.5billion.[24][25] The project to build the company town named Snailbrook in Bastrop County, Texas began in 2021 according to reports by The Wall Street Journal.[26] Musk's then-girlfriend Grimes and Kanye West were involved in the planning.[26] The name "Snailbrook" alludes to the Boring Company's stated goal of building a machine that can bore tunnels faster than a snail can move.[26] In 2023 the town had a reported population of 12 people.[27] There are plans to establish a school and a university there.[24]
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