Have you heard of Elon Musk? If you’ve been paying attention to business news at all in the past few years (or even before that), you’ve probably seen his name all over the place. For those who might not know, Musk is the co-founder and CEO of both SpaceX and Tesla, as well as an early investor in the internet payment company, PayPal. SpaceX and Tesla are two giant companies that seem primarily designed to push the world into the future through space travel and solar cars, respectively, and Musk’s vision has made him worth approximately $20 billion today.
And what is he planning to spend that money on next? Candy.
According to reports, Musk’s next big business move is to start a game-changing candy company.
For fans or followers of Musk-related news, this development probably seems a little bit unusual. The news first broke on Twitter after a few unusual tweets, the first one a business announcement:
He followed that up with a quick musing about Willy Wonka:
As it turns out, the decision is a little more personal and business-savvy than it may seem at first.
According to the New York Times, the decision likely came as a result of arguments between Musk and billionaire investor Berkshire Hathaway. It all started on a Tesla sales call when Musk announced that he thought “economic moats [were] lame.” In case you don’t know, an “economic moat” is when a business has a defensive advantage from being devalued—like a great brand, a lot of infrastructure, market dominance and so on. According to Musk, that way of thinking is outdated and not innovative.
It didn’t take long for Warren Buffett to respond to publicly respond to the comments himself.
The response came at a shareholders meeting for Berkshire Hathaway, Buffett’s infamous investment company.
At the meeting, Buffett reportedly addressed Musk by name with some implications about the comments he’d made:
“Elon may turn things upside down in some areas . . . [but] I don’t think he’d want to take us on in candy.”
The joke was a reference to See’s Candies, a division of Berkshire Hathaway and an enormous and well-established candy company in its own right.
The comments reportedly drew plenty of laughter from the audience—but not from Musk.
While various articles have questioned whether Musk is making a joke, he certainly appears serious at the moment.
Of course, there are a lot of different angles to a story like this. For business-heads, there’s a big question about business strategies from two multi-billionaires: is it safer to make investments based on established and relatively unchangeable factors? Or is futuristic thinking and innovation the only way to play the game?
On the other hand, people who who like candy and are Elon Musk fans are likely wondering what the inventor can cook up when it comes to delicious candy—especially in light of his recent Willy Wonka comments! For those who still think it’s all just a joke, Musk seems to already be doing some market research with his Twitter account:
And more to the point, Musk couldn’t resist getting one last jab out about Buffett’s comments as well:
There’s a lot of food for thought in this story. Hopefully, there will also be actual sugary food coming out of all this back-and-forth on Twitter as well!
Please SHARE this with your friends and family.
