A new documentary by veteran film-maker Alex Gibney, screened at the Venice film festival, offers an exhaustive account of how Elon Musk built his vast wealth and political influence. Gibney, known for previous films scrutinising the US military, the Catholic church, Vladimir Putin and Scientology, spent nearly four years investigating Musk and his circle, beginning before his embrace of Maga politics and Donald Trump's second term. Running at almost four hours, the film is described as striking less for any single revelation than for the cumulative picture it builds of Musk's rise.

Among the details highlighted: Musk repeatedly sought government support despite his anti-state rhetoric, including securing Nasa and military contracts for SpaceX and, the film suggests, exploiting Californian ZEV credits after over-promising a Tesla "battery swap" technology that was never properly rolled out. The documentary also portrays Musk's early engineering-driven ambition as more genuine than his current combative public persona, while linking his stated desire to father "a legion of children" — he has at least 14 known offspring, some conceived via transactional arrangements — to fears of civilisational collapse rooted in his South African upbringing, with his aide Jared Birchall handling related settlements and non-disclosure agreements.