Film-maker Alex Gibney and former Maga influencer Ashley St. Clair debuted a four-hour documentary at the Venice Film Festival, revealing a rejected $40 million non-disclosure agreement and text messages detailing Elon Musk’s stated ambition to father a large family amid fears of civil war.
Directed by veteran film-maker Alex Gibney, Musk draws on a three-year production span, featuring rare interviews and an artificial intelligence avatar built from genuine statements to examine the complex intersection of private ambition and public power. The filmmakers secured legal approval before fully committing to using the Musk avatar, which uses an artificial intelligence avatar to conduct a simulated interview with the SpaceX and Tesla chief, built entirely from genuine statements he has made. Speaking in Venice on Tuesday before the project’s world premiere, filmmaker Alex Gibney described the choice as intentionally ironic, noting the goal was to capture the reality of what he’s done and unreality of his narrative.
The Venice Premiere and the $40 Million Nondisclosure Offer
Among the most striking disclosures emerging from the festival is an account shared by Ashley St. Clair, a former Maga influencer who shares a child with the SpaceX and Tesla chief born in 2024. Appearing alongside the director at the festival on Tuesday—joined by Zoë Schiffer and Alex Gibney at the screening during the 83rd Venice International Film Festival in Venice, Italy—St. Clair explained her decision to step forward in the project despite facing severe financial pressure to remain silent.
According to St. Clair, who was asked at a press conference why she agreed to be part of the documentary and stated she was offered the opportunity not to speak for $40 million, the settlement package offered by Musk’s team included a lump-sum payment of $40 million alongside a monthly stipend of $100,000 intended to secure her signature on a strict non-disclosure agreement. She rejected the proposal, stating that she chose to set an example for her children rather than trade her voice for material comfort. St. Clair previously took legal action against Musk’s AI company this year, alleging its Grok chatbot enabled users to generate sexually explicit deepfakes of her that resulted in humiliation and emotional distress.
Text Message Revelations Concerning a Legion of Children
The documentary also exposes intimate text communications between the tech titan and St. Clair. In the film, she recounts a message where Musk explained his motivation for expanding his family by stating that he needed to have a legion of children before the civil war. The couple had a son in 2024 but have since separated.
Gibney connects this preoccupation with civilisational collapse to the billionaire’s upbringing in South Africa. He had a childhood that was very difficult and traumatic, Gibney noted during the festival press conference, suggesting that the billionaire’s adult actions reflect an externalized processing of early distress. Spanning nearly four hours, Musk explores his difficult childhood—featuring an interview with his father, Errol Musk—and follows his trajectory from Silicon Valley to his DOGE assignment with the second Donald Trump administration and his international political activity. Gibney explained the project was intended to be much shorter until Musk integrated himself into Trump’s campaign.
Algorithmic Shifts and Warnings Over Democracy
Beyond personal dynamics, the documentary scrutinizes changes implemented on the platform formerly known as Twitter since its 2022 acquisition. Gibney argues that the narrative surrounding the enterprise resembles traditional financial speculation rather than straightforward technological innovation, characterizing the billionaire’s influence as an old wine in a new bottle. His story turns out to be the story of the confidence man, the stock pumper, with wealth and power coming from inflating stock.
Journalists and contributors featured in the project emphasize the real-world fallout of platform moderation policies. Reporter Zoë Schiffer noted that he has tweaked the algorithm, both to suppress mainstream journalism and then to augment some of the more inflammatory comments and voices on that platform. St. Clair echoed these concerns, warning that the digital environment is causing deliberate division that may be catastrophic if it’s not regulated or tamed, or if we don’t do our part in putting it down.
With a commercial theater release scheduled for October, the four-hour project brings together diverse perspectives—including Tesla co-founder Martin Eberhard, first wife Justine Musk, tech journalist Kara Swisher, neurologist Sam Harris, former USAID Administrator Samantha Power, and reporter Zoë Schiffer—to map out an unprecedented portrait of modern technological power.
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