[hdhdhsjsbdh]

> Elon Musk has moved the needle much more than all of the universities combined it seems like.

This is incredibly narrow-sighted. How many of “Elon Musk’s” (really, the people he employs) achievements have been made possible by foundational scientific research funded by public grants and made available to the broader community? I would argue a nontrivial amount. Much of tech entrepreneurship is technology transfer, not foundational. These are all parts of a complex ecosystem and no one piece is solely responsible for moving the needle.

[jeffbee]

Nothing from any of Musk’s enterprises has been even slightly innovative, scientifically. He is an industrial technologist, which is fine, but it means he scales up known processes.

[chasd00]

I would argue the material science done that enabled the raptor and raptor2 rocket engine (the o2 side pre-burner specifically) was pretty innovative scientifically.