Claim: Elon Musk has acquired Stanford University.
Fact: Elon Musk has not acquired Stanford University at all; the claim originates from a satirical article published in the student-run newspaper The Stanford Daily.
On 5 September 2024, Facebook user ‘Tam M Pham’ posted (archive) a screenshot of an article with the headline, “Elon Musk acquires the university formerly known as Stanford,” and a cover image showing a caricature of the billionaire setting a bird free from its cage.
The Facebook user captioned the post as, “His dream is big 👂”
An investor and business magnate, Musk has founded and co-founded numerous companies working in the fields of spacecraft engineering, automotives, infrastructure and equipment, artificial intelligence (AI), and neurotechnology, such as SpaceX, Tesla, Inc., The Boring Company, xAI and OpenAI, and Neuralink, respectively.
The billionaire also “entered a Stanford Ph.D. program in physics at the age of 24” but dropped out only two days later, according to this report (archive) and his 2015 biography “Elon Musk: Tesla, SpaceX, and the Quest for a Fantastic Future,” written by American reporter and writer Ashlee Vance.
Fact or Fiction?
Soch Fact Check searched for any relevant news articles for the claim as it is significant enough to be reported on by reputable media outlets; however, we did not find credible reports.
We did come across an article (archive) with the same headline published on 3 September 2024 by The Stanford Daily, an independent newspaper run by students of Stanford University.
The article, written by a Shivam Verma, was posted in The Stanford Daily’s ‘Humor’ section and included the following editor’s note right at the start:
“This article is purely satirical and fictitious. All attributions in this article are not genuine, and this story should be read in the context of pure entertainment only.”
Soch Fact Check, therefore, concludes that the claim that Musk has acquired Stanford University is false.
Virality
Soch Fact Check found that multiple social media users fell for the satirical article. Some of the posts on Facebook, X (erstwhile Twitter), and Reddit can be found here, here, here, here, here, here, and here.
Some websites also published the false claim here, here, here, and here.
Conclusion: Social media users fell for a satirical article published in the ‘Humor’ section of the student-run newspaper The Stanford Daily, which included an editor’s note with the disclaimer that the piece is fictitious. Therefore, the claim that Elon Musk has acquired Stanford University is false.
Background image in cover photo: Stanford
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