Tesla’s Top Secret ‘Project 42’ Is Reportedly an All-Glass House Being Made for Elon Musk

Despite tweeting that he will “own no house” in May 2020, the Tesla CEO might be moving into a permanent home in Texas

Elon Musk, billionaire and chief executive officer of Tesla, at the Viva Tech fair in Paris, France, on Friday, June 16, 2023.
Elon Musk at the Viva Tech affair in June 2023. Photo:

Nathan Laine/Bloomberg via Getty

Elon Musk may be looking to snag a property of his own after all. 

After famously tweeting that he will “own no house” in May 2020, the Tesla CEO, 50, reportedly has an all-glass home being made for him, according to The Wall Street Journal. The top secret construction is known as “Project 42” to Tesla employees, who have allegedly been working on it over the past year. 

While there are reportedly multiple concepts for its design, the completely transparent structure will be located just outside of Austin, Texas, with Tesla’s headquarters visible in the distance. One plan features waterfront views and a hexagonal shape, while another plan showed a box shape “reminiscent of Apple’s store on Fifth Avenue in Manhattan,” the outlet states. 

A view of the 5th Ave. flagship Apple store on March 21, 2023 in New York City.
Manhattan's Fifth Avenue Apple store which reportedly looks like one concept of Musk's Project 42.

Roy Rochlin/Getty 

WSJ cites unnamed people with knowledge of the situation claiming that some employees were concerned about the reason for the large order.

According to the outlet, some alleged that the order sparked an investigation into whether company resources had been misused. The WSJ reported that it is unknown what the outcome of Tesla’s investigation was or if there is an update on the current status of the project.  

News of the glass house may come as a surprise to those who have been following the billionaire for years, especially since Musk has expressed little interest in ever owning a home of his own. 

In May 2020, he tweeted: “I am selling almost all physical possessions. Will own no house.” He later went into more detail about his living situation during a 2022 interview with TED head Chris Anderson.

An aerial view of Elon Musk's Snailbrook community under construction on March 13, 2023 in Bastrop County, Texas. Elon Musk has reportedly bought thousands of acres of land in a plan to build a town where employees could live and work.
Aerial view of Elon Musk's "Snailbrook" community in March 2023.

Brandon Bell/Getty

When Anderson asked him about his take on critics who are “hugely offended” by billionaires and their lavish lifestyle, Musk responded, "For sure, it would be very problematic if I was consuming billions of dollars a year in personal consumption."

He continued, "But that is not the case. In fact, I don't even own a home right now. I'm literally staying at friends' places. If I travel to the Bay Area, which is where most of Tesla's engineering is, I basically rotate through friends' spare bedrooms." The Tesla headquarters officially moved from California to Texas back in 2020.

He added that he doesn’t own a yacht or take vacations, but he did admit, “The one exception is a plane. If I don't use the plane, then I have less hours to work."

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In March, it was revealed that Musk is building a “Texas utopia” for his Tesla employees and those who work for his tunnel construction company called The Boring Co. According to Austin's KVUE-TV, modular homes have already been built in the Bastrop County area which is within 35 miles of the capital city. 

According to WSJ, Musk’s former girlfriend, Grimes, and friend Kanye West were consulted on the project.

Musk's team did not immediately respond to PEOPLE's request for comment.

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