During an interview with Andrew Ross Sorkin at the 2023 New York Times DealBook Summit, Musk recalled a severe existential crisis he experienced as a teenager. He said he repeatedly asked himself, "Does it all have no meaning? Why exist?" He even contemplated, "Why not just end my life?"

He sought answers in philosophical books, but it backfired. He read Schopenhauer and Nietzsche, stating, "These German philosophical books made me quite depressed." Years later, he advised, "People should not read Schopenhauer and Nietzsche in their teenage years."

What helped him out of his predicament was the science fiction novel "The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy" by British author Douglas Adams, which he read between the ages of 12 and 15. In the book, the supercomputer "Deep Thought" took 7.5 million years to calculate that the ultimate answer to "life, the universe, and everything" is 42; no one understood what this number meant, and the computer explained that the problem was they hadn't figured out what they were really asking.

This plot changed his way of thinking. Musk said Adams made him realize, "Many times the question is harder than the answer; if you can articulate the question clearly, the answer is the easier part." He concluded that humanity should expand the scope and scale of consciousness to better understand the universe and know what questions to ask. He once said on a CBS program, "My philosophical foundation is consistent with Douglas Adams." He called Adams his favorite philosopher.

This book later directly influenced xAI's products. In November 2023, xAI launched the chatbot Grok, which the company claims is based on "The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy," featuring "a bit of wit" and a "rebellious streak," willing to answer "spicy questions" that other AIs avoid. The name Grok comes from Robert Heinlein's 1961 science fiction novel "Stranger in a Strange Land," meaning "to understand profoundly." xAI's corporate goal is set as "understanding the true nature of the universe." Grok was bundled with the X platform's $16 monthly Premium+ subscription upon launch.

In market mechanisms, "understanding the universe" is both Musk's personal philosophy and xAI's fundraising narrative. In February 2026, SpaceX acquired xAI in an all-stock deal, with a combined valuation of $1.25 trillion; according to SpaceX's IPO documents, xAI's revenue in 2025 is projected at $3.2 billion, with a corresponding loss of $3.2 billion. The bill is footed by secondary market investors and subscription users betting on Musk's long-term vision, with funds flowing from SpaceX's Starlink cash flow and IPO fundraising into Grok's model training and computing power development. The beneficiaries are Musk's ecosystem, which attracts talent and capital with a "mission narrative"; the pressured parties are other AI companies that need to compete with more pragmatic revenue logic.

Source: Public Information