Is Elon Musk building himself a literal glass house?
Glass Houses
Tesla appears to be building a massive glass structure on the outskirts of Austin, Texas, close to the automaker's gigafactory.
At first glance, that doesn't seem like the biggest deal. But as The Wall Street Journal reports, the nature of the structure has drawn regulator scrutiny. Though the effort has been outwardly known as "Project 92," it's reportedly been known internally that the structure is to be a house for Tesla CEO Elon Musk — and regulators are thus asking why, if that's indeed the case, Tesla's been ordering millions of dollars of specialized glass on its own dime.
The Hex
Per the WSJ, the project was started last year, and several different concepts for the building have been presented over time. In one drawing, the glass building takes the form of a twisted hexagon; in another, it's simply a large glass box.
But according to the report, it seems that the project began to raise eyebrows rather quickly, with sources telling the newspaper that multiple Tesla "lawyers and board members" grew suspicious of the building's cost and intent. Limited liability companies related to Musk were meanwhile reportedly snagging up land, and after that million-dollar glass order, Tesla board members went as far as to investigate "whether company resources had been misused and if Musk, himself, had a role," as sources told the WSJ.
It's also worth noting that the former Tesla official who actually ordered the glass, Omead Afshar, faced public scrutiny last year amid the investigation, though the whole "maybe building Musk a house" element of it all wasn't yet known at the time. The news also comes a few months after it was reported that Musk is building a town for his employees to live and work in.
Pay to Play
Importantly, the results of the board investigation are unknown, and it's unclear where Project 92 currently stands. That said, though chief executives often receive big perks, the construction of a multimillion-dollar glass house would be pretty extreme. Plus, as Engadget notes, by Tesla's own policies, any expense over $120,000 wherein any major executive has a material interest has to go under board audit.
And in any case, at the end of the day: Amazon founder Jeff Bezos paid for his own mermaid-engraved megayacht, and Facebook-formerly-Meta CEO Mark Zuckerberg uses his own cash for his approximately one gazillion hobbies. If you want a giant, hexagon-shaped glass house and you're actually the richest man in the world, you do you. Just maybe don't use company funds — if such is the case — to do it, though.
More on Musk's spenditure (or lack thereof): Broke Boy Elon Musk Struggling to Pay Bills
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