Elon Musk posted a brief reaction to a tweet by physician Brandon Luu, who cited a new study on gaming and cognitive performance. Musk wrote: “Play video games or be dumb! Those are your only 2 choices”
Luu had quoted findings that frequent video game players performed on cognitive tests like people roughly 13.7 years younger than non-gamers. The study, published in PLOS ONE by researchers Sydni Paleczny, Conor Wild, Alex Xue, Roger Highfield, and Adrian Owen, surveyed over 1,000 participants. It found that more time spent gaming was linked to better cognitive scores but showed no connection to mental health. Physical activity produced the opposite pattern: it improved mental health scores but did not affect cognitive performance.
Musk’s post drew over 7.6 million views within a day. While some agreed, others were skeptical, with one X user, Craig Brockie, noting that the type of game likely matters as much as the hours played.
While Musk joked about gaming, his own fortune kept moving. Bloomberg’s Billionaires Index placed his net worth at $895 billion as of mid-September 2026, up $237 billion since the start of the year. Douglas McIntyre, writing for 24/7 Wall St., noted that Musk briefly crossed $1 trillion earlier this year when SpaceX went public, but the stock then dropped from $185 in June to $110 in August, erasing much of that gain.
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Musk holds 48% of SpaceX and more than 80% of its voting shares. Tesla stock, meanwhile, has fallen 20% this year even as the S&P 500 rose 10%. His stake in The Boring Company, which recently raised $3 billion at a $23 billion valuation, adds another large but illiquid piece to his wealth. McIntyre wrote that the swings in Musk’s net worth mean little beyond public curiosity, since he can not spend the money in several lifetimes.
