Elon Musk’s deputy Steve Davis has been helping the billionaire cut costs at companies like SpaceX, The Boring Company and Twitter for more than 20 years, so much so that he has been appointed by Musk’s Office of Government Efficiency ( Training for his new role at DOGE made becoming an engineer a natural choice. short.
In addition to his day job as president of Musk’s tunnel-boring startup, The Boring Company, Davis helps hire staff for DOGE, Musk’s effort to reduce government waste.
At Boring Co., Mr. Davis is known as a frugal man, signing deals for as little as a few hundred dollars, according to people familiar with the conversations, which comes at a time when the company has raised about $800 million in capital. This is said to be unusual. He also deals heavily with suppliers of raw steel, sensors and even small items like hose fittings, said the people, who asked not to be identified.
His favorite instruction for negotiating staff is to “go back and ask again.” Mr. Davis has emerged as a central figure in Mr. Musk’s stable of corporate executives. An aerospace engineer by training, he spent time at SpaceX and Boring and was brought in to help with the acquisition of Twitter (now called We have significantly reduced our workforce.
Davis was so passionate about the job that for a time he even slept in Twitter’s office with his partner and their new baby.
DOGE is not a formal government agency. Its powers and duties remain largely unknown. But Davis’ presence suggests the program could replicate some of the aggressively frugal and sometimes chaotic change efforts that have become a hallmark of Musk’s leadership in the private sector. are.
Davis began working for Musk in 2003 when he joined SpaceX, then a startup. He had just earned a master’s degree in aerospace engineering from Stanford University and rose to prominence at startups by solving difficult engineering problems.
At one point, Musk tasked his engineers with finding a cheaper alternative to a part that cost $120,000. Davis spent several weeks working on the challenge and figured out how to make it happen for $3,900, according to Musk’s biography. (Mr. Musk responded via email with a simple message: “Thank you.”)
Mr. Davis stuck with Mr. Musk and by 2016 was leading the Boring Company, a startup aiming to create a subway “transportation solution.” Boring built several short tunnels in Hawthorne, California, Greater Austin, and Las Vegas. An avid reader who could quote Ayn Rand, Davis brought rigor and eccentricity to the company, according to those who worked with him. He gave some of the company’s giant boring machines literary names, such as “Prufrock.”
Davis’ relationship with the government has not always been positive. Boring Co. must navigate a quagmire of national, state and local rules to build the tunnel, but it faces significant regulatory challenges, especially regarding environmental requirements that determine when the first shovel can hit the ground. facing. Neighboring residents are also experiencing difficulties. At one point, Davis was on track for a proposed project in Los Angeles, but neighbors learned of the project’s existence, filed a lawsuit, and the plan fell through.
The work in Las Vegas created a unique set of regulatory practices for bowling. The tunnel the company built to connect the Las Vegas convention center to two nearby hotels, the Wynn Encore and the Westgate, remains closed to the public more than a year after its completion. The Nevada Occupational Safety and Health Administration fined Boring Co. $112,504 after investigating conditions during construction. Complaints from workers included toxic waste falling from overhead conveyor belts and overloaded bins collapsing and spewing their contents across the worksite.
Frustration with government regulations is a recurring theme for Musk, whose net worth recently surpassed a record $400 billion. Aside from Boring’s challenges, SpaceX and Tesla have their own issues with regulators, from launch approvals to mask mandates. Critics of DOGE have speculated that the billionaire and his associates could use their influence to cut the budgets of regulators that are handicapping his company, for example. Asked about Musk’s potential conflicts of interest, President-elect Donald Trump said Musk puts the country’s interests first.
Mr. Davis represented Mr. Musk when he acquired Twitter in October 2022 to help him cut costs, cut jobs and rein in an environment that Mr. Musk deemed too liberal. Davis and his family slept in temporary bedrooms at the company’s headquarters during work hours because Musk instructed his staff to be “extremely hardcore.”
At the time, some speculated that Davis might become Twitter’s CEO. Instead, Davis returned to Bowling, which has major facilities in Las Vegas and Bastrop, Texas, near Austin.
There he honed his reputation as a cost cutter and dedicated boss. Davis tends to spend more time in Las Vegas than in Bastrop, staying in a mobile home alongside other workers’ trailers while in town. During those hours, he would often be seen as a silhouette in the window, pacing around the kitchen table and talking hurriedly into his cell phone late into the night, according to people familiar with the company. .
Former employees tell stories of being sent on flights between Austin and Las Vegas to collect or drop off needed parts, such as sensors for tunnel boring machines. The company was so strict with delivery deadlines that Davis sometimes preferred to get parts the same day rather than wait for next-day air commercial shipping.
Former employees recall the surprise that occurred when a critical part was left behind on its way to Las Vegas in a Hotshot truck, a vehicle used to transport small cargo from point to point. The truck Boling was monitoring remotely stopped for several hours in Arizona for unknown reasons. The pressure to meet Mr. Davis’ deadline was so intense that the Boring Company paid relatives of its employees who lived in the area to track the truck and urge the driver to get back on the road.
Mr. Davis often scheduled meetings for engineers after 7 p.m., some people said. He typically participates remotely. One person who spoke to him frequently on the phone said he aims to multitask during meetings and eat while on the phone.
Multitasking is a Davis trait, and it dates back to his school days. While working on his doctorate in economics at George Mason University in Fairfax, Virginia, Davis worked full time for SpaceX and ran a frozen yogurt shop called Mr. Yogat in Dupont Circle in Washington. was. Alex Tabarrok, one of Davis’ professors, remembers Davis juggling multiple roles.
“I said to him, ‘Look, you have a Ph.D., but you can’t work and run a business at the same time,'” Tabarrok recalls. Please.”
But Davis didn’t give up on his pursuits, at one point incorporating Yogat’s business trends into an academic paper and even bringing yogurt into class to sample. Tabarrok can’t remember Davis’ grades, but says he was outstanding. He was “very energetic, very entrepreneurial,” Tabarrok said. “It’s kind of exciting to see him become one of Elon’s most trusted right-hand men.”
McBride writes for Bloomberg.
