Sam Harris Claims Elon Musk Backed Out of $1 Million Wager, Discusses Break in Friendship with Ex-Associate

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Sam Harris has made no secret of the fact that he and Elon Musk had a falling out. But Harris was always loath to offer details as to why – until Wednesday.

In a Substack post, Harris explained that the beginning of the end of their friendship came in the early days of the Covid-19 pandemic.

Harris remarked, “Among all the extraordinary individuals I've encountered, Elon stands out as the one most poised to be a figure of historical significance—regardless of his attempts to play the fool. At the same time, he seems to be the one most at risk of wasting his vast chances for happiness, damaging his reputation and crucial relationships, and causing enduring negative effects worldwide. When we first crossed paths, none of this was apparent to me, and I have been truly astonished by Elon’s transformation, both personally and as a symbol of disorder.”

Harris recalled first meeting Musk in the late 2000s when Tesla was struggling to make payroll. According to Harris, Musk was living off loans from Google co-founders Larry Page and Sergey Brin, and was nothing like the person he sees in Musk today.

In March 2020, Musk posted a tweet that became widely recognized during the initial phase of the pandemic, which caught Harris's eye.

“The coronavirus pandemic is dumb,” Musk tweeted.

Harris remembered:

Worried about him, I decided to reach out with a personal message:

Hey, bro— I really think you should reconsider your tweet about the coronavirus. I understand there’s a way to interpret it that makes sense (“panic” is never a good idea), but I worry that’s not how most people are perceiving it. You have a huge following, and many people see you as a go-to source for technical matters. The coronavirus situation is extremely serious, and if we don’t act swiftly, we could find ourselves in a situation similar to Italy’s very soon. If you’re considering mobilizing some engineers to tackle this issue, now would be an idea