Elon Musk’s drills are boring below cities; his rockets and satellites are circling the globe; and his vast AI ambitions are just starting to take shape. But he courts controversy relentlessly—most recently endorsing an antisemitic post on X that caused several blue-chip advertisers to pull their business from the site. In many ways he is his own worst enemy. Though he's ubiquitous, his bigger-than-life persona and penchant for wild exaggeration make it hard to comprehend what he’s actually building and where his larger aims may lie. Fortune’s investigation into his holdings reveals an unusual mix of true technological breakthroughs in some corners, dashed hopes at projects that no longer hold his attention, and a corporate culture that one employee said resembles a "big fire drill every single day." Taken together this is an unauthorized look at how the world’s richest man runs an unprecedented empire of corporations that are endlessly controversial, wildly unconventional, and poised to shape our lives for decades to come.