In a stunning disclosure, Elon Musk is saying that two different, unrelated men have attempted to assassinate him in recent months, going so far as to travel to the billionaire’s hometown of Austin, Texas with weapons to carry out the murder. 

In an X audio space with Canadian professor Gad Saad on Sunday, Mr. Musk said that there have been two individuals in just the last six months who traveled to Texas in order to kill him. 

“It’s very rare for me to get actual death threats or anything,” Mr. Musk said when asked about his fame and personal security requirements. “No one’s ever said: ‘I’ve got this terrible beef against you and I’m going to kill you because of the following well thought-out ideas.’”

“I have had two cases in the last six months of two people who are unfortunately very mentally ill” threatening to kill him, Mr. Musk continued. “They have come to Austin to try to kill me … with guns.”

“One guy thought I put a chip in his head, like a Neuralink or something,” Mr. Musk said, citing his neurotechnology company that aims to cure physical disabilities like quadriplegia through brain implants. “Basically, just an extreme schizophrenic,” Mr. Musk said of the first man. 

The other would-be assassin had stopped taking his medication and suffered from “total detachment from reality,” Mr. Musk said. 

Messrs. Musk and Saad were discussing the realities of being the world’s richest man and his inability to walk through life in anonymity. Mr. Musk said that he had experienced “a decrease in happiness that occurs when the fame level exceeds that which is useful,” noting that he remembers being famous enough to get a good table at a restaurant on short notice, but now cannot dine out without being bothered by other patrons. 

“People are very nice to me … but I do often get stuck in the, ‘Can I have a selfie?’ infinite loop,” Mr. Musk continued, saying that it was his “personal hell.”

These issues of stalking and the potential of violence have followed Mr. Musk for years. During the pandemic, a Florida student set up an account on the site that was then known as Twitter called @ElonJet, which tracked Mr. Musk’s private jet and provided real-time travel information about the aircraft. Mr. Musk called the account a “direct personal safety risk” and later shut down the account and the student’s other accounts when he purchased Twitter in 2022.