Interest
Billionaire Elon Musk Dreams of Giant Mecha
posted on by Lynzee Loveridge
SpaceX founder, former Tesla chairman, and otherwise controversial entrepreneur Elon Musk has set his sights on bringing mecha from the world of anime to reality. Musk tweeted on Sunday that it was time to create a mecha.
The tweet followed one earlier that day where Musk shared his love of Makoto Shinkai's your name. and Hideaki Anno's Neon Genesis Evangelion. The billionaire must have had anime on the brain on Sunday, but given his amassed wealth and resources in technology, Musk funding some kind of giant robot doesn't seem so outlandish. This is the same person who wants to colonize Mars.
Musk could turn to his already existing companies for the potential giant robot. Tesla manufactures solar panels, for instance, and Musk has already gotten his feet wet in the weapons market with flamethrowers marketed as something "kids love" to the tune of US$500. The 20,000 flamethrowers quickly sold out, garnering 4,000 pre-orders in just 24 hours. Like his mecha tweet, the flamethrower idea started as a lark. He promised to make them if his tunneling company The Boring Company (also started as a joke) sold 50,000 hats.
Musk is a recurring figure in the news lately. He recently had to resign as chairman of Tesla, a company he founded, and pay a fine of US$20 million to the the Securities and Exchange Commission for misleading investors after tweeting in August that he may make the company private. He's also facing a lawsuit in California by diver Vern Unsworth, one of the men responsible for saving the Thai youth soccer team from a cave in July, after Musk referred to him as a "pedo" and “child rapist.”
Other companies have thrown their hat into the giant mecha ring. Masaaki Nagumo and Sakakibara Machinery Works have created a limited number of man-controlled giant robots. Suidobashi Heavy Industry's million-dollar Kuratas and MegaBots creators Matt Oehrlein and Gui Cavalcanti sent their biggest rigs into the battle arena last year for a publicized face off.
Source: Elon Musk's Twitter account (Link 2), Business Insider (Alex Lockie)
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