Steve Davis was Elon Musk’s chief cost-cutter at X and the Boring Company. DOGE might be his next big project

It was the fall of 2022 when staff at Elon Musk's The Boring Company started noticing Steve Davis was nowhere to be found.

It was rarely hard to locate him since he was an extremely driven and seemingly indefatigable manager.

For $44 billion, Davis made his way to San Francisco. There, he was seen walking back and forth on the 10th floor of the company's headquarters, constantly calling people on the phone to ask them about which parts of the organization he could eliminate, seemingly without regard for anyone who might be listening.

Davis—Musk’s 22nd hire at SpaceX—has earned a reputation as a relentless cost cutter and as one of the select few Musk trusts to get things done. Those who have worked with Davis believe he'd be able to accomplish any task Musk assigns him—even if it seems overly ambitious and may jeopardize the jobs of others.

He is planning to run for governor of Ohio.

To cut approximately $2 trillion in government spending, or about 30% of the federal budget, over a few years.

If there's one Musk supporter bold enough to take on such a massive undertaking, it would be Davis.

Musk has been running the Boring Company for eight years now. The idea for quick underground travel came to him while he was stuck in Los Angeles traffic. Initially, Davis worked on a high-speed tunnel system to connect Baltimore and Washington, D.C. However, the project was put on hold after the federal highway regulator rejected the company's environmental assessment. Davis then shifted focus to a tunnel network under the Las Vegas Convention Center. Today, passengers are transported in Teslas driven by operators.

They were granted anonymity because they were afraid of backlash from the company for talking publicly about this. Employees from Boring Company, and X did not comment on the issues mentioned in this story.

Challenges were faced by suites for spreadsheets or documents, as well as small investments, were met.

Davis's focus on reducing costs carried over to X. "He was the one responsible for identifying where we were spending money unnecessarily, and determining which offices we could close," according to a former X employee who worked at the company when Davis joined, and who spoke anonymously out of fear of retaliation.

Ashlee Vance wrote a biography about Elon Musk in 2015. Davis fit the bill. He originally worked on the Falcon 1 in the Marshall Islands, often sleeping in a tent next to the rocket. He later worked on the Falcon 9, which is one of SpaceX's main workhorse rockets, and the Dragon Capsule. When Musk asked him to buy a part, an "electro-mechanical actuator" that had been quoted at $120,000 with a budget of $5,000, Davis came up with an unorthodox solution— designing a new actuator in just nine months that cost $3,900.

"He's shown time and again he can accomplish a lot with fewer resources," a former Boring employee notes.

Those who have worked with Davis describe him as sometimes coming across as "ruthless" or insensitive. One former employee remembered a situation where Davis scheduled a meeting on the same day as their 13th wedding anniversary. Despite being presented with the conflict, Davis refused to reschedule and never even showed up to the meeting. They also mentioned that Davis would frequently call at any time of day, such as a Friday evening at 11 p.m. with specific questions about their division within the company.

It remains to be seen whether Davis's cost-cutting efforts will ultimately benefit the organizations he is currently working for. In eight years, Boring Company has only completed a short tunneling project in Las Vegas, and former employees cite a high rate of staff turnover. Davis held a brief position at X, but as estimated by Fidelity, a company investor, X's value declined by 72% since Musk took control at the end of 2024.

At the time this happened, Davis and Musk's aggressive cost-cutting measures, including sudden layoffs and team reductions, led to unintended consequences. Their actions resulted in glitches and a major outage. In the context of government, one former Twitter employee commented, "the stakes are a little higher than with a social media platform." They added, "If you cut too many engineers from a platform, services may not work properly. Features might not function. However, in most cases, people aren't likely to lose their lives." They warned that reducing the workforce at something like the veterans' health care system could have more severe consequences.

Pressure to meet management's ambitious goals resulted in hazardous situations for workers and conflicts with regulators.

So, how will Musk and Davis' high-stakes, high-gain approach mesh with the government's tradition of being risk-averse? "These individuals are incompatible with how the government operates," one of the former Boring Company employees remarks. "People want to make cuts in theory, but not when it comes down to the real world." Then again, Davis has demonstrated an ability to turn abstract concepts into concrete reality, and do it fast.

This article will be featured in the February/March 2025 edition of When Elon Musk really needs some expert help, he often turns to Jim Breyer. In the same way, the DOGE may look to Fall 2023.

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