Nikola Tesla and Elon Musk
Nikola Tesla is likely turning in his grave. As I write this, Elon Musk, the richest man on the planet with a net worth of over $400 billion, is now the most powerful influencer in the U.S government. The irony may be lost on Mr. Musk.
The two men have things in common beyond the name “Tesla.” The imaginations of both Musk and Tesla changed our world. Musk’s technological innovations were marketed as beneficial to the planet and its inhabitants and led to great corporate and personal gain. Tesla – inventor, pacifist, philosopher, futurist, human rights visionary – opposed corporations and worked to serve humanity on a personal and collective level.
“What we want now is closer contact and better understanding between individuals and communities all over the earth,” Tesla wrote in 1919, “and the elimination of egoism and pride which is always prone to plunge the world into primeval barbarism and strife . . . Peace can only come as a natural consequence of universal enlightenment.”1
Tesla, born in the small town of Smiljan (now in Croatia), arrived in New York on June 6, 1884. Twenty-eight and broke, his mind was brimming with ideas. Seven years later he became a U.S. citizen. By then he was famous for the development of alternating current (AC) and the induction motor, and five years later he brought the Niagara Falls power station to life. His work laid the foundation for the second industrial revolution – the technological change that led to many of the needs and conveniences we take for granted today. “My coming to this country was a great adventure – every detail of which is still vivid in my memory,” Nikola wrote. “My intention [was to become] a citizen of this glorious country and in due course I secured my papers making me a proud and happy man.” 2
Elon Musk, born in Pretoria, South Africa in 1971, immigrated to Canada and in 1995 moved to California to attend Stanford University. $200,000 from his father laid the foundation for his first company. He attained U.S. citizenship in 2002, the same year eBay acquired PayPal for $1.5 billion. Musk was the largest shareholder, which gave him a personal fortune of $175 million, money he used to start SpaceX.
Engineers Martin Eberhard and Marc Tarpenning founded Tesla Motors in Silicon Valley in 2003. The company was aptly named: Nikola Tesla had been working on the development of an electric car for years when in 1904 he wrote “There is no doubt that a highly successful machine can be produced . . . this new type of automobile, introducing electricity between the prime mover and the wheels, has, in my opinion, a great future.”3 Musk, an early investor in Tesla Motors, became chairman in 2003 and then CEO, and simplified the name.
1884 was a banner year for U.S. immigration, welcoming people from Europe and beyond. This fueled the growing industrial sector. Tesla believed immigration and diversity were good for the country, and the responsibility of the wealthy, and indeed all people, was to help others, regardless of race, religion, gender, or economic status.
Musk and Tesla also share an interest in Mars. In 1899, at his laboratory in Colorado Springs, Tesla detected faint signals which he felt might be from intelligent entities on Mars, “our brother planet.” He wrote the Red Cross, a favorite charity, that “ere long all human beings on this globe, as one, will turn their eyes to the firmament above, with feelings of love and reverence, thrilled by the glad news: Brethren! We have a message from another world, unknown and remote.”4 Musk’s master plan for establishing a U.S. colony on Mars is typified by his slogan “Occupy Mars.” He plans to land people in ten years, establish a city in 20 years, and “for sure in 30, civilization secured.” He has famously said, "I would like to die on Mars.”5 The cost is unfathomable.
Nikola Tesla spent money as quickly as he earned it, pouring funds into his laboratory, his charities, and supporting his assistants and secretaries (in an era of no health insurance, he paid for their dental care). He eschewed personal wealth and shunned the values of Gilded Age giants like J.P Morgan, Astor, and Vanderbilt, even as he moved in their social and intellectual circles. In the absence of government or university funding for his research, Nikola Tesla necessarily had to depend on them for financial support. Morgan’s support was mercurial and Astor went down on the Titanic. It was a risky strategy.
The Gilded Age brought extraordinary economic growth to the wealthy and extreme poverty for the working classes. The “robber barons” of this era controlled the economy and corruption was rampant. This came to an end with the reform measures of Theodore Roosevelt and led to the Progressive Era, which furthered social and political reform, curbed political corruption caused by political machines, and limited the political influence of large corporations.
Musk believes that too many laws and regulations are bad for society, and that the “social safety net” of state and federal payments merely incentivize citizens and immigrants to take advantage of the system when that money could go to lowering taxes for the wealthy. “I’m pretty optimistic about the next four or five years,” he said. “We have the potential for a Golden Age. It’s very important to get rid of the mountain of regulations that are holding things back.” 6
We are now economically steamrolling into The Gilded Age 2.0.
What makes a country, and a man, great? Nikola Tesla, the son of a priest, grew up in a war-torn country and lived through World War I and the beginning of World War II. For decades he worked to invent a technological solution to end war, but ultimately believed that the key to peace was “the eradication from our hearts of nationalism” and replacing “blind patriotism” with a “love of nature and scientific ideal,” which he felt was the only way permanent peace could endure.7 In 2003 Elon Musk tweeted, “I prefer peace, but if they want war, they will get it.”
Musk, now leading Trump’s efforts to cut the federal government posthaste in ways that affect every man, woman, and child in this country, uses his wealthy status to drive his political views, and his social media as a bullhorn to scapegoat all but the most wealthy and privileged. We should all be grateful to Nikola Tesla – a penniless immigrant – not only for his technological genius but also his compassion and care for common humanity, regardless of wealth and borders.
Nikola Tesla, “My Inventions.” Electrical Experimenter Magazine, 1919.
Letter to the National Institute of Immigrant Welfare, May 11, 1938.
Manufacturers’ Record, Dec. 29, 1904.
Tesla to the American Red Cross, New York City, Dec. 1900.
South by Southwest (SXSW), 2013.
January 8, 2025.
Nikola Tesla, “My Inventions.” Electrical Experimenter Magazine, 1919.