Musk announced yet another radical identity shift: his AI knowledge base, Grokipedia, will be rebranded to “Encyclopedia Galactica.” This isn’t just a random name change; it’s a direct lift from Isaac Asimov’s Foundation series, where the Encyclopedia is a repository meant to save human knowledge from a coming dark age.
The “PayPal trauma” and the origin of X
It all started in 1999 with X.com, his original online bank. Musk envisioned a financial “everything store,” but the brand failed with consumers who couldn’t associate “X” with banking. This led to a boardroom coup where he was ousted, and the company was rebranded to the much friendlier “PayPal.” This loss left a deep scar. When Musk bought back the X.com domain in 2017, it wasn’t for nostalgia, it was to finish what he started.
Tesla: More than just a car company
Musk applies this same aggressive philosophy to his other companies. In 2017, he quietly dropped “Motors” from “Tesla Motors.” This subtle shift told Wall Street to value Tesla as a tech ecosystem (batteries, AI, robotics) rather than just a car manufacturer, a move that helped skyrocket its stock price. He even forced his “S3XY” vehicle lineup (Model S, 3, X, Y) into existence, blending juvenile humor with rigid corporate planning.
Destroying the bird to build the “Everything App”
The transformation of Twitter into “X” is the ultimate expression of this strategy. Musk willingly destroyed billions in brand equity, destroying the globally recognized verb “to tweet”, to create a blank slate for his “Everything App,” modeled after China’s WeChat. However, this transition has been rocky. A 2025 University of California, Berkeley study found that hate speech on the platform increased by 50% following the takeover, complicating his goal of building the trust required for banking services. Despite this, the ecosystem is expanding; X Payments has secured money transmitter licenses in approximately 40 states, though it notably hit a regulatory wall in New York.
Grok and Encyclopedia Galactica
Musk’s branding is increasingly blurring the line between corporate strategy and science fiction fan fiction. This is most evident in his AI venture, xAI, which launched the chatbot “Grok”, a name taken directly from Robert Heinlein’s novel Stranger in a Strange Land. By July 2025, Grok reportedly reached 30.1 million monthly active users, with a user base that is roughly 60% male.
But Musk isn’t stopping at “Grok.” He recently confirmed that “Grokipedia”, the AI’s feature for generating real-time context, will be renamed in the future to “Encyclopedia Galactica.” This is a direct reference to Isaac Asimov’s legendary Foundation series, where the Encyclopedia is created to preserve civilization’s knowledge during a galactic dark age. It’s a revealing move: it suggests Musk sees his companies not just as businesses, but as civilizational safeguards, and he is willing to impose his personal “lore” onto products used by millions.
The high-stakes endgame
This approach is high-risk. He frequently ignores intellectual property norms, opting for “efficient infringement”, using names like “Grok” despite conflicting trademarks held by other companies, betting that his sheer size will outweigh legal penalties. Whether “X” becomes the world’s financial operating system or just a chaotic experiment in “Founder Mode” remains the unknown variable.
