Elon Musk has been an omnipresent figure in the news so far in 2025, most recently attacking Sir Keir Starmer over ‘grooming gangs’ in Britain.
But while he has been busy making friends (and then falling out) with Nigel Farage, a section of the internet has been wondering if the Twitter and Tesla boss has an alter ego.
A conspiracy is rising that Mr Musk is masquerading as a gamer and all-around computer wizz called Adrian Dittmann.
It’s hardly Darth Sidious rising to power in Star Wars while moonlighting as Emperor Palpatine (Mr Musk is unable to run for president… as things stand). But the apparent similarity between the two has intrigued a small but involved section of the web.
Here is how this strange saga is playing out.
I am Adrian Dittmann. It’s time the world knew.
— Elon Musk (@elonmusk) January 5, 2025
Who is Adrian Dittmann?
The origins of the story
Mr Dittmann is said to be a German Musk fan living in Fiji, according to the Spectator.
The right-wing journal has a picture of him, showing a blonde-haired young man wearing a white polo shirt. He is said to have launched multiple businesses in Fiji: a forestry venture, a bottled water company and a marina and yachting facility.
His profile on X reads: “Life is too short to worry about stupid things. Have fun. Fall in love. Regret nothing, and don't let people bring you down. Study, think, create, and grow.”
Join The Conversation https://t.co/8ZxNafzRlT
— Adrian Dittmann (@AdrianDittmann) January 6, 2025
How did the comparison to Elon Musk begin?
Mr Dittman is said to be a keen player of the video game Fortnite and other players have picked up on his voice and humour being similar to that of Mr Musk, reports Sportskeeda.
On X, where he has been active since 2021, Mr Dittmann has been an enthusiastic cheerleader for Mr Musk - reposting Space X news and innovation. None of this marked him out as unusual, but Mr Dittmann supposedly came to his idol’s attention when he featured on an X Spaces event - where Mr Musk noticed their voices were similar, reports Rolling Stone.
Fans took a greater interest from this point and began to draw more comparisons, noticing that Mr Dittmann had commented on a post written by Mr Musk’s former partner Grimes.
“Love lost is a pain unlike any other,” he wrote last March.
The apparent relative lack of information about Mr Dittmann has users wondering if it is a “burner” account, the modern equivalent of Donald Trump calling the press while pretending to be a lawyer called Mr Barron (not to be confused with his lanky son Barron Trump!).
Mr Musk has previously said he has burner accounts of his own.
Is Elon Musk the same person as Adrian Dittmann?
No, although they haven’t always helped themselves.
Both have long denied they are the same person, only for Mr Musk himself to tweet on Sunday: “I am Adrian Dittmann. It’s time the world knew.”
The post violated the rules of X (despite Mr Musk owning the site himself) and was perhaps an unhelpful move in the saga, with many apparently believing they are one and the same.
But the evidence suggests they are indeed different people and have been seen in the same room together - albeit a virtual one.
The two also interacted at an X Space session last year. Furthermore, deeper analysis shows that Mr Dittmann posts from Twitter’s Android app, unlike Mr Musk.
The issue was put to bed in a thorough going over by Infoepi which stated: “I would be more surprised if it turned out to be Musk, given the amount of time the other account spends in Twitter Spaces, but that's me making assumptions about how busy the CEO of multiple companies might be.”
Mr Dittmann shared a meme on Sunday of his profile photo dressed up as the famous “I’m Spartacus” scene from the 1967 film, to suggest we are all him. Or maybe we are all Elon Musk, which is a strange thought.
