If you repeat your lies enough, you'll end up believing them yourself. Especially if you surround yourself with yes-men. It's entirely possible Musk genuinely believed he was a savior of humanity.

I think there's a long way between what you're saying (which is true particularly as there seem to be a lot of thin skinned leaders of the tech industry) and ending up being responsible for teenage mental health crises, assisting genocide and destroying foreign aid.

You don't hear this sort of stuff about ebays founder, for instance.

Normal people who have basic needs met will self actualize. Elon like most of us in the juseo-Christian/Hollywood West, sees himself as a potential messiah; Bruce Wayne or Tony stark or bono or something. A good thing that, what kendrick Lamar called “the anxiety of influence.” Should not the richest man want to save the world? Alas, a messiah complex is short lived in the public sector. Lazy narcissists belong in politics, crazy narcissists in industry. Elon is the latter.