Elon Musk's Ultimate Dinner Guests: 3 People Dead Or Alive, Here's His Picks
Elon Musk is an investor, entrepreneur, leader and many more titles thanks to his various roles across companies like xAI, SpaceX and Tesla Inc (NASDAQ:TSLA). That could make picking three people, dead or alive, to have an epic dinner with near impossible to choose from. Musk tried his best to pick three in a December 2025 interview.
Musk's Dinner Guests
The idea for Tesla may have come from a lunch conversation between Musk and several others, originally intended to discuss space travel and hydrogen-powered airplanes.
While that meal may have been one of the most important in Musk’s life, podcaster Katie Miller recently tasked the billionaire with creating an epic dinner party.
Miller asked one of the famous questions many people have had before, asking if he could have a dinner with three people, dead or alive, who would he choose and what would they eat.
"Maybe Shakespeare, Ben Franklin, Nikola Tesla," Musk answered, picking playwright William Shakespeare, founding father Ben Franklin, and inventor Nikola Tesla.
The answer came quickly, with Musk listing the names without hesitation or debate.
"There's a lot of people I would've liked to have talked to," Musk added.
When tasked with selecting what food they would eat, Musk said, given the once-in-a-lifetime opportunity, he might opt for a 12-course meal or something.
"Probably not going to serve cheeseburgers."
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Why Musk Chose These Three Guests
Musk's guests may be surprising to some and unsurprising to others who have followed the billionaire for years.
The Tesla CEO has quoted lines from William Shakespeare’s plays in the past on social media.
"O Wonder! How many godly creatures are there here! How beauteous mankind is! O brave new world, That has such people in't," a tweet from Musk read prior to sending a letter to Twitter executives over potential bot accounts.
The lines come from the Shakespeare play "The Tempest." The tweet came during the saga of Musk’s Twitter takeover.
"From Shakespeare's The Tempest, but I much prefer it literally vs ironically," the billionaire later said.
Musk was later asked by a follower which of Shakespeare’s plays was his favorite.
"Romeo and Juliet" was Musk's response.
Musk previously shared a theory of how he thinks Nick Szabo is the real Bitcoin (CRYPTO: BTC) founder Sathoshi Nakamoto, but also that it doesn't really matter.
"What is a name, anyway? It's a name, attached to an idea. What does it even mean really?" Musk said. The quote contains a piece of a famous line said by Juliet in "Romeo and Juliet."
When Greek composer Vangelis passed away recently, Musk used a line from Shakespeare’s "Hamlet."
"Good night, sweet maestro, and flights of angels sing thee to thy rest."
In 2016, Musk named Shakespeare as his favorite poet when asked by a follower.
"Shakespeare. Then love-devouring death do what he dare; it is enough I may call her mine."
The selection of Franklin may be less obvious to many, but the United States’ founding father has long been a favorite of Musk.
One of Musk's favorite book recommendations in the past has been "Benjamin Franklin: An American Life," by Walter Isaacson, who also wrote a book about Musk.
“I would say, certainly, he’s one of the people I most admire,” Musk said in an interview with Kevin Rose. “Franklin was pretty awesome.”
Franklin's inventions of items like the lightning rod and bifocal glasses helped inspire Musk.
“You can see how [Franklin] was an entrepreneur. He started from nothing. He was just a runaway kid.”
Perhaps the most obvious dinner guest picked by Musk is inventor Nikola Tesla, famous for his contributions to electricity.
Musk previously praised Tesla's contributions to electricity.
"Nikola Tesla was great and AC was the right move back then," Musk tweeted. "These days, with the proliferation of electronics that use DC and advanced power electronics, it would be better to use DC. High voltage DC is also materially more efficient for long distance electricity transmission."
While it is debated who founded Tesla, the name traces back to the early days. Musk has said in past interviews that he paid $75,000 for the rights to the Tesla Motors name and trademark, and without it, the company may have been called something else.
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Image created using artificial intelligence via Gemini.