There's barely a place left on Earth outside the gravitational pull of Elon Musk’s empire. How far does Elon's clout really stretch—and what conflicts of interest are emerging as he wields the power of the federal government? WIRED pulled the data and mapped out the key places that shape Elon's Empire.
Map of Starlink satellites courtesy of satellitemap.space
Director: Lisandro Perez-Rey
Director of Photography: Constantine Economides
Editor: Louis Lalire
Host: Dhruv Mehrotra
Line Producer: Joseph Buscemi
Associate Producer: Paul Gulyas; Brandon White
Production Manager: Peter Brunette
Production Coordinator: Rhyan Lark
Camera Operator: Chris Eustache
Sound Mixer: Sean Paulsen
Production Assistant: Ryan Coppola
Post Production Supervisor: Christian Olguin
Post Production Coordinator: Rachel Kim
Supervising Editor: Eduardo Araujo
Assistant Editor: Fynn Lithgow
Map of Starlink satellites courtesy of satellitemap.space
Director: Lisandro Perez-Rey
Director of Photography: Constantine Economides
Editor: Louis Lalire
Host: Dhruv Mehrotra
Line Producer: Joseph Buscemi
Associate Producer: Paul Gulyas; Brandon White
Production Manager: Peter Brunette
Production Coordinator: Rhyan Lark
Camera Operator: Chris Eustache
Sound Mixer: Sean Paulsen
Production Assistant: Ryan Coppola
Post Production Supervisor: Christian Olguin
Post Production Coordinator: Rachel Kim
Supervising Editor: Eduardo Araujo
Assistant Editor: Fynn Lithgow
Category
🤖
TechTranscript
00:00His satellites shape wars, his tweets shape elections.
00:03There's barely a place on Earth that doesn't feel the gravitational pull of the Brolligarg,
00:07whose grand gestures are erasing the line between private enterprise and political power.
00:12But just how far does Elon's clout really stretch, and what conflicts of interest are emerging?
00:17Wired pulled the data and mapped out the key places that shape Elon's empire.
00:26Our first stop is Washington, D.C.
00:28Musk was the single largest individual political donor in the 2024 election,
00:33and now he has his very own office right next door to the White House.
00:36From here, he administers the newly created Department of Government Efficiency,
00:40or DOGE, whose goal is to slash a trillion dollars in so-called government waste.
00:45With little transparency, Musk and team have fired thousands of federal employees
00:50and even locked out members of Congress from government offices.
00:53He is someone who operates with a startup mentality, move fast, rake things.
00:58He is bringing those same tactics into the infrastructure of the federal government,
01:02and that is what we are seeing play out in real time.
01:05Musk is basically leading a restructured and rebranded U.S. digital service,
01:09the department responsible for streamlining data from across the federal government.
01:13So Musk and team now have access to sensitive data about government employees,
01:17and possibly proprietary data about U.S. companies that are government contractors,
01:21including his own competitors like GM, Ford, subcontractors for OpenAI,
01:26Boeing, and Jeff Bezos' Blue Origin.
01:29Plus, Musk is now weakening agencies that have sued or fined him in the past,
01:34such as the SEC, the FAA, and the National Labor Relations Board,
01:39which had 24 open investigations into Musk's companies as of 2025.
01:44Their investigations involve alleged surveillance of Twitter employees
01:47and interference with union organizing at Tesla.
01:50At least five inspector generals that were looking into
01:55Elon Musk's companies were fired by the Trump-Musk administration.
02:00Just a few blocks over here is where Doge first set up shop before Inauguration Day,
02:05in the offices of SpaceX's Global Government Affairs and Global Satellite Policy teams.
02:10Sources tell Wired that SpaceX engineers have been brought in as senior advisors
02:14inside the Federal Aviation Administration,
02:16the agency responsible for regulating commercial space launches.
02:19SpaceX has received upwards of $18 billion in federal contracts,
02:23mainly from NASA, the Defense Department,
02:26and its National Reconnaissance Office based in Chantilly, Virginia,
02:29which awarded SpaceX a $1.8 billion contract to develop a network of hundreds of spy satellites
02:35that aims to provide continuous real-time surveillance capabilities globally.
02:39In 2022, Musk played a crucial role in restoring Ukraine's communication infrastructure.
02:44This was done in partnership with USAID.
02:47However, his decisions to restrict military use in certain areas
02:50led to geopolitical controversy over the privatization of critical battlefield technology.
02:55In May of 2024, the inspector general of USAID
02:59revealed that the agency was, quote,
03:01examining USAID's oversight of Starlink satellite terminals in Ukraine.
03:05Musk, who became publicly hostile to USAID,
03:08recently shut down the agency with the blessing of Donald Trump,
03:11sparking concerns over a conflict of interest.
03:13Although U.S. sanctions prohibit Starlink operations in Russia,
03:16Ukrainian soldiers have claimed that Putin's military utilizes the service.
03:20So, how extensive is Elon's web of satellites?
03:24This constellation of dots represent thousands of satellites
03:28that were shot into space on SpaceX rockets on behalf of its subsidiary, Starlink.
03:32They're designed and manufactured in Redmond, Washington,
03:35to deliver satellite-based internet service to over 4 million global subscribers.
03:39Because Starlink satellites are in a low-Earth orbit,
03:42the time it takes for data to travel between the satellite and the user
03:45is much lower compared to traditional geostationary satellites.
03:48So it has the potential to compete with traditional broadband internet services worldwide.
03:53Starlink launched its service in Nigeria in early 2023,
03:56and demand across Africa has surged.
03:58Interestingly, not in rural areas as anticipated, but in major cities.
04:03Maybe Starlink's reputation for sudden rate hikes, as high as 97% in Nigeria,
04:07contributed to the slower adoption in less-developed regions of the continent.
04:11Musk's internet service has yet to get the green light in his native South Africa.
04:16One possible reason is that by law there, companies applying for communications licenses
04:20must be at least 30% owned by persons from historical disadvantaged groups,
04:24which includes Black people, women, youth, and people with disabilities.
04:28Apparently, Starlink does not meet those requirements.
04:31Recently, Musk has called the South African government racist
04:34because of a law he says unfairly targets white minority Afrikaners.
04:38Trump echoed Musk's position and cut aid to South Africa,
04:42most of which supports health programs, particularly for HIV-AIDS treatment.
04:46One place you definitely won't get Starlink is Taiwan.
04:49Why?
04:50Well, according to an article in the Wall Street Journal,
04:52Musk has been in contact with Russian President Vladimir Putin since late 2022,
04:57though the Kremlin denies this and Musk has not commented.
05:00Allegedly, Putin requested Musk refrain from launching Starlink's service in Taiwan
05:05as a favor to China,
05:06whose military has been increasingly aggressive against its island neighbor.
05:09As of February 2025, Musk has not publicly addressed these allegations,
05:13and the Kremlin has dismissed the claims as absurd.
05:16Elon Musk has strong business interests in China,
05:20has openly said he thinks Taiwan should just go to China.
05:24Starlink's goal is to grow its constellation to 42,000 satellites,
05:28radically expanding its ability to beam the internet into more homes from space.
05:33But on the ground, Musk's influence doesn't stop at providing internet.
05:36It extends to controlling the conversation itself through social media.
05:40In 2022, Musk bought Twitter for $44 billion,
05:44took it private, and eventually rebranded it as X.
05:47It's now worth $15 billion.
05:49With a user base of hundreds of millions of active accounts worldwide,
05:52the social media platform's strong presence in countries like the U.S.,
05:56Japan, Brazil, and India highlights its significant impact across diverse regions.
06:01But has it delivered on its promise of free speech?
06:04After acquiring Twitter, Musk fired most of the workforce,
06:07including much of the trust and safety staff,
06:09leading to a surge in hate speech and misinformation on the platform.
06:13Allegedly, at Musk's direction,
06:15X implemented code to boost his posts by a factor of 1,000
06:18to ensure they outrank others in the feed.
06:20He has also been criticized for complying with demands from authoritarian governments
06:24to take down certain posts and for suspending journalists who were critical of him.
06:28Musk's vision is to transform X into an everything app
06:32that even offers payment and financial services.
06:35This would put X under scrutiny from the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau.
06:38As of the filming of this video,
06:40Doge is currently working to dismantle this agency,
06:43which is designed to protect consumers from financial abuse.
06:47Musk is no stranger to financial services.
06:49Here in Palo Alto, he founded another company called X.com in 1999,
06:54which ultimately became PayPal.
06:56He sold his stake in PayPal to the tune of $180 million after taxes.
07:00Historically, Musk's businesses have been deeply tied
07:03to California's tech and innovation hubs.
07:05Here in Mountain View is the former site of Zip2,
07:08which Elon and his brother Kimball founded in 1995
07:11to provide online maps to newspapers.
07:14Compaq bought it four years later for $304 million.
07:17All the way down the coast in Hawthorne, California,
07:20we can see where the Boring Company dug its first hole in 2017.
07:23A test of the feasibility of high-speed underground transportation,
07:27the 1.14-mile-long test loop ran from here to here
07:32under the parking lot of what was then the SpaceX headquarters at One Rocket Road.
07:36In this office, Elon Musk famously burned the midnight oil,
07:40often working 80 to 100 hours per week,
07:42setting the tone for what former employees described
07:45as a hardcore, high-pressure environment driven by relentless deadlines.
07:49Musk built quite the resume in the Golden State,
07:51but in 2020, in search of lower taxes, less regulation, and more space,
07:56he started the process of closing down the headquarters
07:59of just about all of his businesses and moving to Texas.
08:02He even sold three of his homes in Los Angeles.
08:04Right now, only a few major businesses remain headquartered in Silicon Valley
08:08in order to remain close to its specialized talent pool.
08:11Here in Fremont is the headquarters of Neuralink.
08:14Valued at $8 billion, the company hopes to treat neurological conditions
08:18and achieve human-AI symbiosis,
08:20but has only implanted three brain-computer interfaces so far in humans
08:24while euthanizing an estimated 1,500 test animals since 2018.
08:28Also in Fremont, one of America's largest Tesla factories
08:31employs 20,000 workers that make sedans and SUVs.
08:35And X.A.I. in nearby Palo Alto,
08:37Musk's artificial intelligence startup birthed the AI chatbot Grok.
08:42It was recently revealed that Grok was given instructions by X.A.I. programmers
08:46to ignore all sources that mention that Elon Musk and Donald Trump spread misinformation.
08:51Down in L.A. in Hawthorne, SpaceX keeps the lights on for the Falcon 9 rocket program,
08:56which launched in Santa Barbara County over here,
08:59which the company leases from the U.S. military
09:01to send classified payloads for intelligence agencies into space.
09:05Typically, the reusable rocket lands somewhere over here,
09:08on the drone ship named, of course I still love you,
09:10Elon's nod to a sentient spaceship in Iain Bank's sci-fi classic,
09:14The Player of Games.
09:16But these days, Musk's game is increasingly played in Texas.
09:20X.A.I. relocated to Bastrop, 30 miles outside of Austin,
09:24and so did the Boring Company, right across the street.
09:26Not far away is the site of the Ad Astra School,
09:29Musk's private school which recently opened for enrollment to students aged three to nine.
09:33Tax filings reveal that Elon Musk's foundation
09:36contributed $100 million to support the school's launch.
09:39Musk had previously expressed support for abolishing the Department of Education.
09:43Also in Austin is the home base of the conservative America PAC.
09:46Musk was the primary donor to the PAC,
09:48providing 91% of the over quarter of a billion dollars raised.
09:52The Musk Foundation is also based in Austin.
09:55Despite its $9.5 billion in cumulative assets in 2021, 2022, and 2023,
10:02the Musk Foundation dispersed less than legally required
10:05in order to keep its tax-exempt status.
10:07The foundation has thus far saved Musk an estimated $2 billion plus in tax breaks.
10:12Neuralink is building new digs here in Del Valle, Texas, a suburb to the east of Austin.
10:17Outside of Corpus Christi in Robstown, Texas,
10:20Tesla built the first large-scale battery-grade lithium refinery in North America.
10:24In McGregor, Texas, about 20 miles southwest of Waco,
10:28is SpaceX's primary rocket engine testing and development facility.
10:32And all the way down here near the Mexican border is SpaceX, headquartered in Brownsville.
10:36This area is the hub for the development of the massive Starship project,
10:40featuring the largest rocket ever built, designed to carry humans and cargo to the moon.
10:45Starship's human landing system, designed specifically for NASA,
10:48will also ferry astronauts between lunar orbit and the moon's surface.
10:52And since we're up here, we may as well do a small detour over to Mars.
10:56Several uncrewed SpaceX Starships are slated to launch to Mars in 2026.
11:00Currently, launches are estimated at around $100 million per launch.
11:04Elon has also said it costs about $1 billion per ton to send cargo to Mars.
11:08Just outside the city limits of Austin is the Tesla Corporate Headquarters and Gigafactory,
11:13the primary production site for the Cybertruck and Model Y.
11:16The company's market cap has dipped to below $1 trillion recently, from $1.54 trillion,
11:22and its once 140,000-plus employees all over the world is down to 120,000.
11:27Tesla produces 1.77 million vehicles annually,
11:31but it only has the production capacity of 375,000 vehicles annually.
11:36650,000 Teslas can be produced annually in the Old Fremont plant, here.
11:40But the vast majority are made in the Shanghai China Tesla Factory,
11:44which has the capacity to roll out 950,000 Model 3 and Model Ys
11:48for the global market of Europe and Asia.
11:50Another up to 375,000 can be built in Grunheide, near Berlin, Germany.
11:55Not far away in Prüm, there's a Tesla factory that specializes
11:58in advanced automation systems for manufacturing.
12:01Musk seems invested in German politics,
12:04publicly endorsing the far-right party there.
12:12Tesla claims to have 60,000 global superchargers.
12:15In the U.S., there are nearly 30,000 ports.
12:18That accounts for 57% of all direct current fast-charging ports in the U.S.
12:23Over here in Buffalo, this Tesla Gigafactory makes solar roof tiles
12:27for the Energy Generation and Storage Division.
12:29In 2023, the division generated approximately $6 billion in revenue.
12:34This Gigafactory way over here in Sparks, Nevada,
12:36produces battery packs for 1.3 million Tesla vehicles per year.
12:40Another Musk company made its mark on Nevada.
12:42The Boring Company has been building a privately-operated 68-mile tunnel system,
12:4740 feet below the ground, designed to transport passengers at speeds
12:50up to 150 miles per hour using autonomous Teslas.
12:53The stretch goal is to eventually connect all the way to Los Angeles.
12:57However, as of January 2025, after several years in operation
13:01and several unresolved workplace safety violations,
13:04the Boring Company has only completed a few miles of tunnels.
13:07Here in Abilene, Texas, the first data center of Stargate AI Initiative,
13:12launched by OpenAI, SoftBank, and Oracle, is being built.
13:15They seem to be in direct competition with XAI's Colossus supercomputer,
13:19which came online in September 2024 here in an industrial park in South Memphis, Tennessee.
13:24Powered by 200,000 GPUs, Musk has said he plans on increasing that amount significantly,
13:30which has some locals worried about the strain the site places on the Memphis power grid
13:34and the potential increase in carbon emissions from the energy-intensive operations.
13:39Critics also point to the lack of transparency regarding water usage for cooling systems
13:43and reports of operating without proper environmental permits.
13:47This wraps up our tour of Elon's empire.
13:49The sheer scale of it is a lot to digest and the news cycle is moving quickly.
13:53More cuts are being made by Doge as of this video being released.
13:56Head to wire.com for immediate information as our coverage of the story is unfolding.
14:01Thanks for watching On The Grid.