WI: Elon Musk remains in South Africa

[NibiruMul]

Elon Musk (whom I can't stand, but that's room for another discussion) was born in South Africa, but moved to the US in 1989 and became an American citizen,

But what if Elon Musk had remained in South Africa? What do you think his career would have been like if he never immigrated to the United States? Do you think he could have become successful in his own country?

 

[Seandineen]

Perhaps he could have allied with the IFP the most pro capitalist party in the republic

 

[Sekhmet_D]

I don't see why he shouldn't have.

 

[Strategos' Risk]

He founds the company from Chappie

Tetravaal Tactical Robotics

Tetravaal Tactical Robotics (formerly Tetravaal Aerostructures) is a South African robotics company that sells robotic police officers to the Johannesburg Police Force. It first appeared in the 2015 dystopian science-fiction film, CHAPPiE. Tetravaal began its entry into the world of robotics...

fictionalcompanies.fandom.com

 

[Schlock]

Considering that South Africa is essentially a failed state, it is inevitable that he would emigrate eventually. So, likely he'll either end up in the US later or he'll go somewhere similar, most likely Perth in Western Australia due to the proximity and climate similarities.

 

[tonsofun]

Going to the United States was supposedly his dream ever since he was a kid. His dad tried to dissuade him of this by sending all the staff home and showing him how life in the US would be, but he still went as soon as he knew he had to do his national service.
But if he does stay, then there isn't much change to the world. Tesla will still be a highly reputable company and there will be no cybertruck. X would still be Twitter and all the banned people would still be banned from there so would be no Threads.

Source: Behind the bastards podcast.

 

[Marius]

Considering that South Africa is essentially a failed state, it is inevitable that he would emigrate eventually. So, likely he'll either end up in the US later or he'll go somewhere similar, most likely Perth in Western Australia due to the proximity and climate similarities.

It really isn't though.

 

[twovultures]

Elon Musk (whom I can't stand, but that's room for another discussion) was born in South Africa, but moved to the US in 1989 and became an American citizen,

But what if Elon Musk had remained in South Africa? What do you think his career would have been like if he never immigrated to the United States? Do you think he could have become successful in his own country?

I don't see why he wouldn't have become successful in South Africa, although he probably would not have been able to gather the venture capital that he did in the US to launch himself to billionairehood. Still, Elon Musk is a heck of a salesman and has a wealthy background that could help support him while tries found a startup and/or help him purchase an established but struggling business that he then pushes to new heights. So, he becomes a millionaire in a tech-adjacent field, maybe running a telecom company, and to his credit grows the money he started with instead of just coasting on it.

Whether he keeps growing it long-term is another thing, of course, but that's dependent on a lot of factors and not just him. The problems with the cybertruck and twitter show that he can get some really dumb ideas, but I actually do think not being a billionaire will help him make better decisions. This is because he will have more people willing to push back on his out there ideas and tell him no, since even if he is rich he won't have "fuck-off money". That and avoiding some of the bad cultural practices of silicon valley (i.e. recreational ketamine) will help him stay more grounded as a businessman than OTL.

For the American businesses that he doesn't buy ITTL, Tesla I think is interesting in how it has the potential to shape American futures. Elon Musk's salesmanship certainly pushed the company-and therefore, the electrification of American cars-far ahead. On the other hand, his constant overpromising and focus on style over substance has deeply damaged the company, as shown by the debacle of the cybertuck. IMO, the best-case scenario for Tesla is that it gets a couple VP's from in the tech world, who have similar personalities and skills to Elon Musk, but poaches a CEO from outside the tech world in car manufacturing. This could be one of the American Big Three, or someone from Germany, Japan, or Korea-someone with experience of the nuts and bolts (har!) of manufacturing, of process improvement in a factory setting, in other words, someone who is skilled at and focused on just building good cars and who can guide the company to prioritize on that instead of chasing self-driving vaporware. I'm afraid I'm not a guy who pays much attention to who's who in the c-suites of the world, so I don't have an ATL candidate in mind, but I would love to hear what other posters think!

 

[Warthog]

A lot of overlap with this thread

What if Musk hadn't left South Africa and had consequently received a draft notice for 2 years of military service as soon as he left school?

Would Musk have realistically been able to obtain some form of deferment or exemption from service?

There's the military service matter, delaying university until he was 20, so he'd have been at university at the dawn of democracy, and looking for his first job during the Mandela administration. He could have started with one of the telecoms, or Denel or Sentech.

 

[Warthog]

Considering that South Africa is essentially a failed state

No, not by any normal definition.

There are problems, but government bureaucracies function, utilities are on, schools are open etc etc

 

[aaronupright]

You can split the difference. He goes to the US, but retains major links to SA and his primary home remains there from his thirties onwards. This is quite a common thing in the S Asian sub-continent for instance.
I think SpaceX is out, unless he becomes a US Citizen.

 

[TheKutKu]

You can split the difference. He goes to the US, but retains major links to SA and his primary home remains there from his thirties onwards. This is quite a common thing in the S Asian sub-continent for instance.
I think SpaceX is out, unless he becomes a US Citizen.

It could be interesting to have SpaceX as a Rocket Lab equivalent, homegrown South African rocket company eventually moving to the USA (but still keeping susbtantial involvement in SA).
There would be a larger skill base coming from the defence industry to hire from in SA compared to New Zealand, but the country is less close to the USA which could make working with NASA , the DoD and American investors more difficult, so it may have to move out more of SA.