The ascent of Musk

Musk’s business empire is nothing less than the stuff of boyhood fantasy

Profile Elon Musk

Factfile

Age:44

Appearance: boyish superhero meets blocky Bond villain

Newsworthiness: the mega-rich industrialist is spearheading a $1 billion artificial intelligence project, and worrying about World War III

Ashlee Vance, a reporter who earlier this year published a biography of Elon Musk, says the billionaire businessman keeps two large posters above his desk.

One is a picture of the planet Mars, and the other is an imagined version of what it ...