Musk Inc is under serious threat

SpaceX has new competition, Tesla is in trouble and the world’s richest man is distracted

UNTIL RECENTLY Elon Musk had little need to look over his shoulder. He once described competition for Tesla, his electric-vehicle (EV) company, as “the enormous flood of gasoline cars pouring out of the world’s factories every day”, rather than the “small trickle” of other EV-makers. SpaceX, his rocket firm, had so undercut and outwitted the bloated aerospace incumbents that it had developed an almost invincible aura.

This article appeared in the Business section of the print edition under the headline “An X on his back ”

From the March 29th 2025 edition

Discover stories from this section and more in the list of contents

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