Elon Musk’s Totally Awful, Batshit Crazy, Most Excellent Year and More Power Profiles From the VF Archive

[View in your browser]( | [Update your preferences](newsletter=vf) [Vanity Fair Hive logo image]( Elon Musk’s Totally Awful, Batshit Crazy, Most Excellent Year and More Power Profiles From the VF Archive On this Thanksgiving weekend, all eyes are on Twitter’s new owner, Elon Musk, whose antics have put the social media giant in a dangerous state of flux, making Nick Bilton’s [2020 profile]( of the billionaire all the more prescient. Speaking of billionaires, this month we witnessed crypto titan Sam Bankman-Fried’s spectacular [fall from grace](, inviting comparisons to Elizabeth Holmes, the now convicted fraudster who was also [profiled]( by Bilton back in 2016. And how could we forget Mark Zuckerberg, whose pivot into virtual reality, as [detailed]( by Max Chafkin in 2015, [could run]( Meta into the ground? Zooming out from the tech world, it’s a perfect time to dive back into Michael Wolff’s [juicy feature]( on Rupert Murdoch’s media dynasty, which recently cast off Donald Trump following the GOP’s less-than-stellar performance in the midterms. And as Joe Biden nears two years as president, with unique political challenges lying ahead, it’s also worth [revisiting]( how the commander in chief overcame a tragic past. [Elon Musk’s Totally Awful, Batshit Crazy, Most Excellent Year]( By [Nick Bilton]( [In 2020, the COVID-doubting, media-hating Twitterholic CEO became the third-richest man alive, SpaceX launched two astronauts into orbit, and Tesla became the most valuable car company on the planet. Nick Bilton gets inside the mind of Silicon Valley’s most vainglorious villain.]( [Read more button](   [The Talented Ms. Holmes]( By [Nick Bilton]( [From the moment Elizabeth Holmes arrived on the tech scene, around 2003, as a 19-year-old Stanford dropout with a world-changing idea, an epic ambition, and a Steve Jobs-ian aura, her rise was meteoric. By last October, her revolutionary blood-testing start-up, Theranos, was valued at some $9 billion, and she had been anointed the world’s youngest self-made female billionaire. Then a Wall Street Journal reporter began looking at the science. In the wake of Theranos’s stunning collapse, amid civil and criminal investigations and class action lawsuits, Nick Bilton explains why Silicon Valley saw only what Holmes wanted it to see.]( [Read more button](   [It’s All in the Eyes]( By [Max Chafkin]( [Another geek. Another garage. Another world-changing technology? That’s the $2 billion bet that Mark Zuckerberg is making on a virtual reality headset called the Oculus Rift, brainchild of 22-year-old Palmer Luckey, who sold his Kickstarter-funded breakthrough to Facebook this spring. With the Rift about to hit the market, and the competition (from Sony, Microsoft, Google, Magic Leap, et al.) heating up, Max Chafkin reports on what lies ahead.]( [Read more button](   [The Secrets of His Succession]( By [Michael Wolff]( [With six children from three marriages, Rupert Murdoch’s family is a source of endless drama and speculation—most recently about his attractive third wife, Wendi Deng, and their two kids—its dynamics tightly bound to his News Corp empire. In an excerpt from his forthcoming book about Murdoch’s takeover of The Wall Street Journal, Michael Wolff has an inside look at the shifting power struggles and emotional inheritances of Prudence, Elisabeth, Lachlan, and James Murdoch, as well as Deng’s ascent, for a portrait of that rare phenomenon: the 21st-century dynasty.]( [Read more button](   [Joe, Mourning]( By [David Kamp]( [In a cruel twist, Joe Biden’s planned 2016 presidential campaign was upended by the death of its foremost booster, his 46-year-old son, Beau, from brain cancer. Will the former vice president make a run in 2020? With the publication of his book Promise Me, Dad, recalling that tragic period, Biden opens up to David Kamp about the emotional—and political—challenges he is facing.]( [Read more button](   Get on the list Subscribe to our Hollywood newsletter for your essential industry and awards-season news, every day. [Sign Up Now](   [Facebook]( [Twitter]( [Instagram]( [LinkedIn](   This e-mail was sent to you by The Hive. To ensure delivery to your inbox (not bulk or junk folders), please add our e-mail address, vanityfair@newsletter.vf.com, to your address book. View our [Privacy Policy]( [Unsubscribe](newsletter=vf) Sent from Condé Nast, 1 World Trade Center, New York, NY 10007 Copyright © 2022 Condé Nast