When Elon Musk bought Twitter for $44 billion in October 2022, he didn't just bring his high-flying visions to transform it — he brought his cousins too.
In Walter Isaacson's biography of Musk, new details reveal just how far the family tree rooted itself during the infamous first days of the acquisition. In a chapter dubbed "Let that sink in," Isaacson writes that Musk's paternal cousins James Musk, a 29-year-old who could pass as Elon's mirror image, and his tech-savvy younger sibling, Andrew Musk, spearheaded code reviews and the layoffs of thousands.
While it's been no secret that Andrew and James have been working at Twitter for nearly a year, there has been little insight into their roles until now. The familial pair—joined by a Ross Nordeen, a computer expert James apparently met during his travels and now a technical program manager at Tesla—found themselves at the helm of a dynamic crew of roughly thirty-six engineers from Tesla and SpaceX, entrusted with the mission of orchestrating the transformation of Twitter.
Musk is known for mixing family and business. His younger brother Kimball is on the board of Tesla, and two other Musk kinsmen, Lyndon and Peter Rive, founded SolarCity, which Tesla acquired in 2016.
Before the chaotic Twitter acquisition, James and Andrew had a shared enthusiasm for technology that, coupled with their family ties, secured their positions at Tesla and Neuralink. In fact, the duo have long been devotees to their famous cousin.
Isaacson explains that ever since James was 12 years old, he has avidly followed Elon's adventures and even penned regular letters to him. Eager to follow in Elon's footsteps, James left South Africa, briefly living a nomadic lifestyle in youth hostels before pursuing a higher education at UC Berkeley (for which Elon paid). After graduating, he joined Tesla just in time to be enlisted by Elon for the frenetic 2017 surge at the Nevada battery factory, according to Isaacson. There, he became an integral part of the Autopilot team, contributing to the development of neural network planning paths that analyze video data from human drivers to refine self-driving car behavior. Then there's Andrew, who researched blockchain technology at UCLA and snagged a job at Elon's brain chip startup Neuralink.
Nordeen, James and Andrew were tasked with the "audacious" and "awkward" endeavor of scrutinizing the coding skills, work output, and even the dispositions of over two thousand Twitter engineers in order to determine who, if any, should stay employed.
Once the trio had meticulously curated a list of indispensable engineers, effectively signaling the expulsion of thousands not fortunate enough to make the cut, Musk was determined to do the layoffs quickly. His aim was to orchestrate a sweeping round of layoffs before November 1st, thus sidestepping the financial commitments tied to employee bonuses and options grants maturing on that day, the book says. However, the HR team at the company administered a stern reality check, warning him of the astronomical penalties California's labor laws would levy for such a breach—a sum far exceeding the cost of the bonuses themselves.
The ensuing saga, as described by Isaacson, unfolded as a "three-round bloodbath." On November 3rd, half of the company worldwide and 90% of some infrastructure teams were fired, along with most of the human resources managers.
Isaacson spent two years shadowing and interviewing Musk and his entourage for the nearly 700-page book, titled "Elon Musk," which goes on sale on Tuesday.
Dhaval Shroff, another Tesla autopilot engineer aiding Elon in the transition, said Twitter's managers were "pretty unhappy" when they were told to get rid of up to 90% of their employees.
"They argued that the company would just crash," Shroff is quoted saying in the book, but his response to them was, "Elon has asked for this, and this is how he operates, so we have to come up with a plan."
