Elon Musk is making headlines for his latest idea: launching a candy company. It may seem like an unusually tame business for the SpaceX and Tesla entrepreneur, who is working on projects such as a settlement on Mars.
“I’m starting a candy company & it’s going to be amazing,” he tweeted on May 5. I am super super serious.”
There’s a bit of backstory to this new project, and it has nothing to do with a love for Willy Wonka (although Musk did comment on Twitter that the plot of the movie is “really messed up.”)
Musk and billionaire investor Warren Buffet recently had a bit of a disagreement over economic moats, a term that Buffet made up to describe a company’s competitive advantage. Musk called moats “lame,” and Buffet responded at his annual Berkshire Hathaway meeting by saying they are a still good idea. Buffet referred to his See’s Candies business as an example.
Musk couldn’t help but clap back. He wrote in a series of tweets: “Ok ok, just for sake of argument, what do u wish for in candy?…Cryptocandy…Then I’m going to build a moat & fill it w candy. Warren B will not be able to resist investing! Berkshire Hathaway kryptonite …I’m killin me lol…Saying you like ‘moats’ is just a nice way of saying you like oligopolies.”
Upon hearing about Musk’s candy plan, the twitter-sphere erupted with hilarious commentary.
“His plan must be to select the first group to go to mars by putting golden tickets in chocolate bars,” wrote one.
“If you could bring back lime flavoured runts, please,” another commented.
“My candy better be airdropped from a space station or I want my money back,” a third noted.
Musk’s initial tweet about starting a candy company has received over 234,000 likes and over 40,000 retweets. People made inquiries about when he was starting the business, whether he was hiring anyone, and how they could get involved in the project.
“I’d like to apply as the Candy Eating Officer, I have 24 years candy eating experience,” one person wrote.
It’s unclear whether Musk will actually launch a company for sweet tooths, but one thing’s for sure—if it’s as popular as his limited edition flamethrowers, he stands to make a lot of money.
