Elon Musk undoubtedly belongs to a small group of exceptional entrepreneurs, such as Bill Gates and Steve Jobs, who have achieved an almost superhuman feat during their lifetime. What all three have in common is that they have produced innovations that – to put it somewhat dramatically – have an impact on all or at least large parts of humanity. The way billions of people use their desktop computers and smartphones today would be unthinkable without Gates and Jobs.

Bill Gates, Steve Jobs and Elon Musk

Bill Gates and Steve Jobs founded two of the most successful digital corporations in the world: Microsoft and Apple, respectively. But Elon Musk has gone a decisive step further: as a serial entrepreneur, he has launched a whole series of ventures – and almost every one of them has achieved a leading position, if not the decisive one, in its respective market segment. Tesla's leading role in electric cars is just as undeniable as SpaceX's pioneering role in the conquest of space. Both companies are outstanding examples of how Elon Musk manages to turn entire industries upside down with his entrepreneurial ideas. With Tesla, he has practically rammed all car manufacturers around the globe head-on and driven them into a corner. With SpaceX, he has succeeded in just a few years in outperforming both the US space agency NASA and the European Space Agency ESA.

The frequently criticised takeover of Twitter – now X – can probably be understood in the context of Elon Musk's prediction that social media will become the communication form par excellence in the future – far beyond today's level. And there are a whole range of other ventures with which he is in the process of shaping the future of humanity. Musk has made one thing clearer with X than it was previously visible: the jack-of-all-trades not only wants to own companies to make money, but also claims to have the power to exert a decisive influence on the future of billions of people. Whether he wants to use Starlink to re-connect humanity around the globe, to connect people's brains to form a kind of ‘internet of brains’ with Neuralink, or even to use SpaceX to embark on the colonisation of Mars – Elon Musk thinks big.

Depending on your point of view, it may be gratifying or grotesque to see how much influence a single person can have on our civilisation. Elon Musk is taking our modern world into spheres that we would have thought of as science fiction just a few years ago. How else do you classify a human-like robot, a computer connection to the brain or a trip to Mars? It is becoming clear that Elon Musk is no longer ‘just an entrepreneur’, but a geopolitical player who, in many respects, is playing in the league of powerful nation states. With his technological visions, which often seem ludicrous at first glance but then turn out to be realistic, he is expanding the global supremacy of the superpower USA to an extent that was previously difficult to imagine. In the process, the traditional territorial concept of nationhood is increasingly being replaced by a technological claim to power. This development has been emerging for some time and has become unmistakable at the latest since the ubiquitous digitalisation of our world: the internet and all the other essential components of digitalisation come from the USA. Without Microsoft's Office software, the administrative apparatus of the Federal Republic of Germany would collapse, to demonstrate US power with a single simple example.

Heads of state are the dinosaurs of world politics

The Russian attack on Ukraine and the unmistakable desire of the People's Republic of China for Taiwan make it clear that territorial considerations have not yet disappeared from power politics. But Vladimir Putin, Xi Jinping and, of course, Joe Biden and Donald Trump are ultimately dinosaurs of world politics. As early as 1960, at the age of 43, former US President John F. Kennedy said: ‘Control of outer space will be determined in the next decade. If the Soviets control outer space, they can control the earth, just as in past centuries the nation that controlled the oceans also ruled the continents.’

Elon Musk, today a little over ten years older than Kennedy was back then, is offering the U.S. the prospect of long-term strategic superiority in space – just as Bill Gates did before him in the software sector, Steve Jobs in the smartphone business, and the U.S. Department of Defense in the development of the internet in computer networking, to name just a few components of the technological superiority of the United States of America.

But never before has a single US citizen held as much global tech power as Elon Musk does today. The fact that the youngest armed force of the United States of America, the US Space Force, would basically be unemployed without Musk's rocket technology, speaks for itself.

And yet, Elon Musk has not yet revealed all his cards, let alone played his trump cards. These include, in particular, artificial intelligence (AI), which he is pursuing with X.AI. Tesla is less about cars and more about the vision of ‘artificial brains on four wheels’ driving on roads all over the world, observing their surroundings with great precision. But that's not all: Musk has long been working on androids, i.e. human-like robots, which are also equipped with AI, of course, that will romp around in our houses and take care of us there. If this already seems like a horror vision to you, it should be noted that Elon Musk is actually pursuing the vision of an ‘Internet of minds’, chip implants in the brain with which we can connect.

Like Leonardo da Vinci or Jules Vernes

The broad spectrum and the remoteness of these innovations may remind you of the inventive sketches of Leonardo da Vinci or the literary visions of the future of a Jules Verne. But unlike da Vinci and Verne, today's technical progress is so advanced, and is advancing in ever greater strides, that it seems realistic to realise Musk's dreams during his lifetime, or at least some of them.

Some of Musk's ideas may be dismissed as ludicrous speculations, but when they come from the man who, with Tesla, is revolutionising the global automotive industry and, with SpaceX, is revolutionising space travel, then it is worth taking a closer look and, above all, taking his plans seriously.

Is Elon Musk the most powerful man in the world?

Is Elon Musk the most powerful man in the world? Definitely more powerful than the German Chancellor – but that may not be the benchmark. But is he also more powerful than the presidents of the USA, Russia or China? That depends on your perspective. Of course, Musk does not have the direct authority of these three offices – and after all, the US president is generally considered the most powerful man in the world. But if you look at it closely, it is not the person Joe Biden who is the most powerful man in the world, but the office. With Musk, it is different: his power lies in his person. Biden did not create the USA, not even a fraction of it, but Musk founded all of his companies that have begun to change our world. In this sense, Elon Musk is undoubtedly the most powerful person alive.

When Elon Musk presented his first electric sports car, the traditional car industry laughed at him. But the car bosses' laughter has long since stuck in their throats. Musk's space ambitions were dismissed as crazy fantasies. Today, his activities form the backbone of the USA's conquest of space in competition with China and Russia. So you should take Elon Musk's seemingly “crazy visions” seriously.

The master plan of all master plans

A closer look at the schemes behind Musk's visions, which at first glance seem so different, reveals that behind each individual innovation there is a master plan, a clear idea of where the respective innovation should lead. Behind this is a decades-long way of thinking that thinks through an idea that initially seems impossible to realise to the end, or, more precisely, thinks from the end. Instead of taking individual steps from today's situation into an uncertain future, Elon Musk imagines this future very precisely – and then considers which steps are necessary to get there.

Meanwhile, Elon Musk obviously not only pursues a master plan in every single segment in which he is involved, but also a ‘grand master plan’, a ‘master plan of master plans’. This is gradually revealing itself in the interaction of the various fields. One example: the cars produced by Tesla are connected to the global satellite network Starlink, which is built and operated by the space company SpaceX. This interaction will become more and more apparent in the coming years and decades, from X to Neuralink to Hyperloop. Elon Musk's master plan for our world is obviously very far-reaching. However, the media hardly report on this because journalists only see the individual pieces of the puzzle, but rarely put them together.

What's more, most of Musk's innovations are so fundamental that they suffer from teething troubles when they are first implemented and repeatedly in between. These are then discussed at length in the media and often the entrepreneur behind them is discredited. We must not let this search for weaknesses here and now obstruct our vision into the more distant future!
The reasons for Musk's success also lie in the entanglements of his competitors. While Elon Musk thinks innovatively decades in advance and acts accordingly, many other business leaders look a few years ahead at best, driven by incremental advances that are light years away from the disruptive future concepts of an Elon Musk. In this sense, a warning is also directed at decision-makers in business and politics to broaden their horizons and replace the question ‘what will happen next year?’ with the much more far-reaching question ‘what will happen next decade?’

The text is an updated excerpt from the book ‘Masterplan: How Elon Musk is conquering our world’ (ISBN 978-3-98674-056-6; German version), published by the Diplomatic Council. Expect an updated English version in early 2025.