Lovers and haters are erecting monuments for his or her favourite tech billionaire, Elon Musk.
Simply north of the US-Mexico Border, close to Brownsville, Texas, sits Starbase, SpaceX’s large rocket launch and improvement website. In 2025, the encircling space grew to become integrated because the City of Starbase, with a inhabitants of greater than 500 residents, although 1000’s of individuals work on the complicated.
Lately, Starbase has changed into a locus of monuments tied to Musk and the achievements — or excesses, relying in your perspective — of his firms.
A French foundry group, Atelier Missor, shared pictures on X final week, displaying its progress in erecting a statue close to the complicated.
The group wrote that the monument depicts Prometheus, a Greek mythological determine, holding a torch, and is meant to face 50 ft tall. Prometheus is famously referred to as the titan who stole fireplace from Zeus and gave it to humanity.
Final 12 months, Atelier Missor wrote on X that it wished to supply “a colossal titanium statue of Prometheus to Starbase,” including that “SpaceX makes humanity dream.” The group has additionally publicly reached out to Musk about its plans.
It is unclear whether or not the CEO ever responded to the put up immediately or whether or not Atelier Missor contacted him privately. Musk has interacted with Atelier Missor’s X posts earlier than, giving the group props for a few of its ideas.
Atelier Missor didn’t reply to a request for remark.
One unlikely group can also be main the cost for an additional Musk monument, however for solely completely different causes.
Cards Against Humanity, the makers of the raunchy, fill-in-the-blank card sport, made a public call-to-action on Thursday to lift cash for a monument meant to “f—ok with Elon Musk.”
A spokesperson for Playing cards Towards Humanity informed Enterprise Insider that SpaceX’s actions at Starbase had broken the parcel of land the corporate bought in 2017 to decelerate the primary Trump administration’s plan to construct a wall on the US-Mexico border.
Playing cards Towards Humanity
The spokesperson added that it has been working to revive the realm, however these plans are additionally sophisticated by new housing for SpaceX employees.
The land dispute went by means of the courts in 2024, when the sport firm sued SpaceX over the property and reached a confidential settlement the next 12 months. Playing cards Towards Humanity mentioned on the time that SpaceX later eliminated its tools from the property.
“Once we first bought this land, it was a good looking lot surrounded by nothing however a peaceable river and open fields,” the spokesperson wrote. “Now, it is surrounded by a ‘city’ referred to as ‘Starbase’ — company hellscape suffering from damaged rockets and ugly mansions for Musk’s s—t-eating executives.”
The corporate organized the “Official Elon Musk is a Unhappy Little B—h with No Buddies Monument Design Committee” and is amassing $10 from contributors to the initiative.
The spokesperson mentioned over 12,000 members have signed up as of Thursday night, and the corporate raised about $150,000.
When requested what Musk represents to Playing cards Towards Humanity, the spokesperson mentioned, “the type of humanity we’re truly towards.”
A SpaceX spokesperson didn’t reply to a request for remark.
One other monument was put up close to Starbase two years in the past, commissioned by a crypto outfit that launched a memecoin referred to as ElonRWA.
The cofounder of ElonRWA, who has solely been recognized on-line as Louis XXII, informed Artnews on the time that the statue was meant to resemble a poorly-drawn model of the SpaceX CEO that had gone viral on the web.
“We needed to carry this meme into the true world,” Louis XXII informed Artnews. “How may we have an effect on the true world? We’re a bunch of fellows on computer systems lively on X, however we needed to the touch extra individuals.”
Sergio Flores/AFP through Getty Photographs
In April 2025, the statue was defaced with massive gashes round the fitting cheek and chin, ABC Information reported. The vandalism occurred across the time of nationwide protests against Trump and Musk, when the CEO helped lead DOGE’s efforts to chop federal spending.
A big pink sticker resembling a bandage was later positioned on the cheek.
