Elon Musk’s use of illegal drugs was common knowledge among several current and former Tesla Inc. And SpaceX directors, the Wall Street Journal reported on Saturday.
There was concern about the volume of Musk’s illegal drug use and that he consumed drugs with some of his board members, the newspaper reported, citing people who have witnessed the drug use or were briefed on it. The board didn’t hold investigations on the issue, nor did it document any concerns, the paper said.
The relationship between Musk and his directors was slammed by a Delaware judge this week, who cited the board’s conflicts of interest in her ruling that Musk’s $55 billion pay package was excessive.
Musk and his lawyer, Alex Spiro, didn’t respond to the WSJ’s requests for comment. The paper previously reported that Musk has used LSD, cocaine, ecstasy and psychedelic mushrooms, often at private parties. Spiro told the WSJ in that report that Musk was regularly and randomly drug tested at SpaceX and had never failed a test.
Some friends and directors felt they they had to take illegal drugs with Musk as it could otherwise upset him, the paper reported Saturday, citing some of the people. They also didn’t want to risk “losing the social capital” of being in his circle, the paper said.
Musk responded on X to the WSJ story last month about his alleged drug use.
“Whatever I’m doing, I should obviously keep doing it!” Musk posted on X, citing Tesla and SpaceX as being the world’s most valuable car and space companies. “If drugs actually helped improve my net productivity over time, I would definitely take them!”
Musk oversees six companies: Tesla, SpaceX and X, the social media company formerly known as Twitter; the tunneling venture The Boring Co.; brain implant developer Neuralink; and artificial intelligence startup xAI.