According to Hubris Maximus, a new book by Washington Post reporter Faiz Siddiqui, Elon Musk once told a potential investor that he was destined for greatness because he was no ordinary entrepreneur. He claimed he was the reincarnation of one of history’s most legendary military leaders: Alexander the Great.
As reporter by The Daily Beast, the moment happened in the 1990s, during a lunch between Musk and venture capitalist Derek Proudian, who was with Mohr Davidow Ventures at the time. Musk’s first company, Zip2, was just getting off the ground. Proudian wanted to talk strategy—how to scale the startup smartly. But Musk had a much grander vision.
He told Proudian that Zip2 was “going to be the biggest company ever.” When the investor tried to change the topic, Musk dug in deeper.
“No—you don’t understand,” Musk said. “I’m the reincarnation of the spirit of Alexander the Great.”
Then he added, “I’ve got the samurai spirit. I’d rather commit seppuku than fail.”
Back then, Proudian brushed off the bizarre comments. Musk was just a young guy without “two nickels to rub together.” But now that Musk is a multibillionaire with massive political and corporate influence, Proudian says he’s seriously concerned.
“I am really concerned because I know how smart this guy is and I know how much money he has and I know how ruthless he is, and it’s playing out in front of my own eyes,” he told The Beast.
The book digs into Musk’s rise—from his early Silicon Valley hustle to his chaotic reign at Tesla and Twitter—and paints a picture of someone driven by power and allergic to limits.
Former Tesla investor Ross Gerber, once one of Musk’s biggest defenders, told Siddiqui that Musk “just basically has a complete disdain for any authority period.” Gerber, who later distanced himself from Musk, added: “I have a completely different opinion about the hubris of thumbing your nose at the people that could really hurt you.”
Others who worked closely with Musk say his lack of empathy and arrogance only grew with time.
Nathan Murthy, a former Tesla software engineer, pointed to Musk’s response to the George Floyd protests and the COVID pandemic. “We saw with definitive proof his true colors,” Murthy said. “I don’t know if he doesn’t want to empathize or if he feels he’s just too busy to empathize.”
The book also recounts strange moments that capture Musk’s leadership style. At Twitter, where Musk took over in 2022, a senior executive once waited outside his office for 90 minutes. When he was finally allowed in, Musk was watching a YouTube video on his phone. After a few minutes of silence, Musk shook the exec’s hand, said “thank you,” and returned to his screen.
When Siddiqui reached out to Musk for comment, Musk often replied with a jab: “Give my regards to your puppetmaster,” referring to Jeff Bezos, owner of The Washington Post.
Hubris Maximus also dives into Musk’s relationship with Donald Trump. The book claims that during a 2020 meeting on electric vehicles, Trump pushed Musk to build more factories in the U.S. Musk, who was also considering Mexico and Canada, didn’t bite. Trump later bragged, “I could have said, ‘drop to your knees and beg,’ and he would have done it.”
But the book tells a different story—one where Musk didn’t bend, didn’t beg, and kept doing things his own way.
From the moment he claimed to be Alexander the Great reincarnated, to brushing off the SEC and brushing off the president, the Musk in Hubris Maximus isn’t just confident—he’s untouchable.
Musk did not respond to a request for comment.
