I'm not sure. There have been numerous rich, powerful, and otherwise highly intelligent, rational people who became obsessed with peculiar ideas. At a certain point, without an effective feedback mechanism I believe most of us would fall prey to eccentric behavior. My personal favorite is that of Pythagoras's eccentricity. In his later life, he formed a religion. One of the central tenets was though shall eat no beans. One goal of his religion was to strive for inner peace. The bean, with its penchant for causing gastrointestinal distress, didn't simply represent, but was the manifestation of the antithesis of his world view. It was the harbinger of disorder and chaos. There's also a lot of funny, apocryphal tales of his death.

Musk's hero, Nikola Tesla, also had quite a few peculiar beliefs.