If there’s one thing Elon Musk has been really good at lately, it’s pissing people off. In fact, he may have just pissed off his own company, Tesla, which has reportedly investigated its own CEO over concerns that Musk was using company funds to build a house near its Gigafactory in Texas, according to The Wall Street Journal.
Nicknamed “Project 42,” the program is said to have involved the purchase of millions of dollars in special glass. It was apparently large enough to draw the attention of employees in 2022. After that large glass order, Tesla board members set out to investigate whether company resources had been misused and if Musk had a role in it himself. They also wanted to find out how much employee time had been spent on the project. LLCs also linked to Musk and other executives also reportedly bought large volumes of land in the area.
The Journal reports that the concept for the house included either a “twisted hexagon” or a glass cube that sort of looks like the 5th Ave Apple store, which is probably very warm and inviting. Plans have apparently changed over time as employees worked discreetly on the project. It’s hard to argue exactly what this building is, since plans included bedrooms, bathrooms and a kitchen.
There are even images that reportedly show a waterfall feature as part of the landscaping around the building, and there was speculation among employees that the project could include a museum.
Building a house would be a bit of a change for Musk, who has been a bit of a nomad recently, as reported by The Journal:
The 52-year-old executive has for much of his career maintained a rather nomadic lifestyle, playing down the need to own a house or many personal possessions.
Musk, who also owns social-media firm Twitter and runs rocket company SpaceX, is often travelling, bouncing back and forth between his companies’ various locations in Texas and California.
A self-described couch-surfer, he has talked about sleeping at Tesla’s California car factory during intense work periods. Since taking control of Twitter in late October, Musk has said he has slept at the social-media company’s headquarters in San Francisco.
Musk publicly vowed in 2020 to “own no house” and proceeded to sell seven houses in California.
In 2021, Musk said he had relocated his “primary” residence to a roughly $US50,000 ($69,410) South Texas cottage that he rented from SpaceX, where he is also CEO. He also had engaged a series of real-estate agents to show him Austin-area mansions and personally toured some homes, the Journal has reported.
Right now, no one knows what the status and result of the investigation are, and if you consider the fact Tesla doesn’t have a PR team, we may never really know. WSJ also reports that the company had considered cancelling the glass order, but it isn’t clear whether or not that happened.
One thing that is important to note – not that everything else wasn’t important – is the fact that Tesla has said in the past that the board’s audit committee has to review and approve transactions above $US120,000 ($166,584) in which a related person – like an executive officer – has a material interest. And while there isn’t any specific number given on how much that glass would have cost, it was enough to have needed that review and approval.