ELON Musk has opened up about his journey with Asperger’s Syndrome and revealed why he thinks the condition may have helped him build Tesla.
Musk, who is in talks to buy Twitter in a $44billion deal, has slammed an executive after footage appeared to show him mocking the SpaceX founder's diagnosis.
In a clip that was caught by operatives from Project Veritas, Alex Martinez, a lead client partner for Twitter, branded Musk, 50, “literally special needs” and referred to him as a “loony tune”.
Hitting back, Musk tweeted: “Twitter exec trashing free speech and mocking people with Asperger’s.”
Last month, Musk offered an insight into his Asperger’s journey when being quizzed at the TED2022 conference held in Vancouver, Canada.
Responding to one question, Musk said: “I would just tend to take these things very literally but then that turned out to be wrong.
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“(People were not) simply saying exactly what they mean, there’s all sorts of other things that are meant, and [it] took me a while to figure out.”
People that have Aspergers can sometimes have difficulty in social situations but the condition also bestows super skills required to thrive in business or science such as original thinking or attention to detail.
Musk said he found it “rewarding” to program computers on his own, Axios reported.
He admitted: “But, I think that is not normal.”
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Musk revealed that he developed an obsession with physics.
He said: “My driving philosophy is to expand the scope and scale of consciousness so that we may better understand the nature of the universe.”
In May 2021, Musk revealed that he has Asperger’s when hosting the NBC hit show Saturday Night Live.
In his monologue, he said: “It’s great to be hosting Saturday Night Live and I really mean it.
“Sometimes after I say something, I have to say that I mean it.”
He admitted: “Look I know I sometimes say or post strange things but that’s just how my brain works.
“To anyone who’s been offended I just want to say I reinvented electric cars, and I’m sending people to Mars in a rocket ship.
“Did you think I was going to be a chill, normal dude?”
'HOW MY BRAIN WORKS'
Musk is currently the richest billionaire in the world and has a net worth of around $227.4billion, according to the Forbes Real-Time Billionaires List.
His net worth is around $80billion higher than the French tycoon and magnate Bernard Arnault – who is the chief executive of luxury brand LMVH.
Musk founded the online bank X.com in 1999, which later merged with Confinity to form PayPal. Paypal was bought by E-Bay in 2002 for $1.5billion.
And, in the same year, Musk founded aerospace manufacturer Space X and became CEO of Tesla in 2008.
Space X signed a $1.6billion deal with NASA in 2008 and years later, Tesla’s Model S car went into mass production.
Tesla’s share price has tripled to more than $1trillion over the last 18 months.
He also co-founded the neurotech company Neuralink in 2016.
Bosses are trying to develop telepathic links to machines that could help those who suffer from neurological conditions or spinal injuries.
Musk bought a 9.1 per cent stake in Twitter in April before submitting a takeover bid.
Last week, Musk revealed that the deal to buy Twitter was “on hold” amid concerns about the true number of fake accounts on the social network.
He's demanded proof of Twitter's claim that less than 5 per cent of users are bots.
Until then, the richest man in the world says the buyout "cannot move forward".
If he decides to give up, he'll have to pay a $1billion "breakup fee".
Twitter said: "The Board and Mr. Musk agreed to a transaction at $54.20 per share.
"We believe this agreement is in the best interest of all shareholders.
"We intend to close the transaction and enforce the merger agreement."
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Musk will have to pay a termination fee of $1billion if he walks away from the deal.
He was ridiculed on social media as he appeared to hit the pause button.
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