Elon Musk is an 'avid' reader of science-fiction and likes to text about it, says Affirm CEO

Max Levchin, the 47-year old CEO of payments company Affirm. Kevin Dietsch/Getty Images

• Elon Musk texts Affirm CEO Max Levchin texts about their mutual love for sci-fi, Levchin told Wired.
• The 47-year PayPal co-founder said that his friendship with Musk is built "on a texting basis."
• Musk has talked about his love for sci-fi books and media in the past.

Max Levchin, the 47-year old CEO of Affirm and cofounder of PayPal, texts with Elon Musk about their mutual love for science fiction, Levchin told Wired in a recent interview.

"Our friendship is on a texting basis," Levchin told Wired. "We talk about sci-fi and things. We're both avid science fiction readers." 

Musk has spoken publicly about his love for the genre.

In April of 2022, Musk made a tweet pleading Netflix to focus on making sci-fi and fantasy content after tweeting that "The woke mind virus is making Netflix unwatchable," Insider reported.

He's also said he's a fan of the sci-fi TV series "Rick and Morty," even making a cameo in an episode as a character called "Elon Tusk" who leads a fictional company called "Tuskla."

Musk has also reportedly praised a number of sci-fi or fantasy novels over the last few years, such as Douglas Adams' "The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy" and J.R.R Tolkien's "The Lord of the Rings."

Musk's company Tesla has also made multiple references to the sci-fi movie and 1987 "Star Wars" parody, "Spaceballs," naming two driving features "Plaid Mode."

Levchin's comment came after Wired asked Levchin for his thoughts on why there was such a strong reaction to Musk taking over Twitter, and whether the two still talked.

"I think what's happening at Twitter is Elon is sort of making sense of it," Levchin said. "He's probably saying, 'What are we really working on? Do we have enough earning capacity? Do we have enough advertisers or whatever it is we need to make money?' That's probably his point of view on a daily basis." 

Levchin knew Musk back when they worked at early-stage PayPal together in 2000 — Levchin was CTO and Musk was CEO. But after Musk started a fight with Levchin and his co-founder Peter Thiel over what operating system to use, PayPal's board fired him, making Thiel the new CEO.

Since taking over Twitter in early November, Musk cut around half of the platform's workforce, though some staff have been asked to come back, Insider reported.