How toxic is too toxic?

The latest charges against Elon Musk — an in-flight massage, an indecent proposal involving a horse and a reported $250,000 settlement — are as lurid as they are predictable. Musk has denied the accusation that he sexually harassed a SpaceX flight attendant, but to be frank, given the Tesla chief’s reputation for allowing sexism to run rampant at his companies, it’s not entirely surprising.

Then there’s the fact that he once proposed an academic institution called TITS U. If Musk doesn’t want people to think of him as a sexist creep, he’s not exactly helping his case.

Yet Musk’s toxicity doesn’t seem to be exacting a business cost. The only thing holding back Tesla from selling more cars is the global chip shortage and other supply constraints.

• Tesla still rules the American electric vehicle business, which doubled from the first quarter of 2021 to the first quarter of 2022. Tesla had 75% market share in the first three months of the year, according to Kelley Blue Book.
• Tesla buyers are largely white and male, though not as Democratic-leaning as you might think. Perhaps, if anything, Musk’s macho Twitter persona is helping broaden the electric-vehicle customer base into red states, like Tesla’s new home of Texas.
• SpaceX, which depends heavily on government contracts, also doesn’t seem to be suffering much from Musk’s antics. After Musk smoked pot on-air during an interview with Joe Rogan — a breach of rules for government security clearance holders — taxpayers picked up the bill for a safety review.

The truth is that Silicon Valley loves toxic leaders. The cult of personality that has built up around Elon has played out many times in the industry.

• Steve Jobs was a screamer during his first run at Apple. He fired marketer Andy Cunningham five times. But Apple brought him back to scream some more. A few trillion dollars later, shareholders aren’t complaining.
• Uber’s Travis Kalanick is the rare example of a combative founder who was successfully forced out. Even the #DeleteUber customer revolt wasn’t enough; it took a whistle-blowing essay by engineer Susan Fowler, and an already restive board, to unseat him.
• It’s not just founders: Former Google CEO Eric Schmidt’s relationship antics, which at times bled over into the business, reportedly bothered even Larry Page and Sergey Brin. But the company was minting money, and no one seemed to want to do anything about the situation.

Will Twitter change Musk, or will Musk change Twitter? If the deal happens, that is: The $44 billion purchase seems to be hanging by a thread, with Musk appearing to want to wriggle out of it and Twitter’s board holding fast.

• Last month, Musk criticized top Twitter lawyer Vijaya Gadde, who then became the target of racist and sexist attacks by his followers.
• Twitter employees are understandably worried about what will happen to the company’s culture if Musk does take it over.
• Some Twitter users, too, worry that the service will be overrun with harassing trolls if Musk carries through his plans to lighten up on content moderation.

But there just don’t seem to be consequences that carry any weight with Musk. A $250,000 sexual harassment settlement, if SpaceX paid it, is meaningless to a man of his wealth. He has no shortage of defenders and cheerleaders on Twitter ready to counter any critics. It’s not clear he even wants the Twitter deal to go through, so no loss there if it falls apart. Perhaps what would really hurt is people buying electric cars that aren’t made by Tesla. But it’s unclear if any auto companies plan to leverage Musk’s bad PR to hype their own EVs — and whether that would even work.

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