How many of Elon Musk's promises actually came true, according to Kirsten Grind's reporting?

Kirsten Grind and New York Times colleagues tracked more than 600 goals Elon Musk set for his businesses since 2011 and found that only about 19 percent came to fruition, with his yearly success rate falling even as he made more promises. Grind describes two habits: never following up, counting on short memories, and moving the goalposts, as when Mars colonization quietly became a moon plan after some 15 years of Mars talk.

• Grind says the promises worked better early on, before people caught on, citing the Hyperloop from Los Angeles to San Francisco.
• Faiz Siddiqui notes the SpaceX IPO documents still mention a million people on Mars.

▸In their words

“That's a wild thing to put into an S1, right?” Faiz Siddiqui · at 32:14 — open in the transcript →

Source: our own transcription of the episode. The full conversation is on On with Kara Swisher (2026-10-29). Read the whole episode summary →

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