It appears Elon Musk’s private jet was in Cleveland Monday, for some reason

CLEVELAND — The Gulfstream G650ER private jet owned by Elon Musk, the billionaire owner of X, formerly Twitter, SpaceX and Tesla, landed at Cleveland Hopkins International Airport Monday, according to public flight tracking data, and the internet is losing its mind trying to figure out why.

It began with a post on Threads, Facebook and Meta’s newly-launched competitor to Musk’s X, from the “elonmusksjet” Thread account, showing the jet landed in Cleveland Monday morning after a flight from San Jose, California. The account also noted that the 2,144-mile trip took 12,392 pounds of jet fuel, costing $10,354 and releasing 20 tons of CO2 emissions.

Post by @elonmusksjet View on Threads

The account, run by Jack Sweeney, made national headlines late last year when he was suspended from the social network then known as Twitter shortly after Musk purchased it.

News 5 reporter Clay LePard went to Hopkins and managed to snap a picture of a private jet that is the same $66.5 million model as Musk’s, but the registration number on the tail was just barely obscured inside the hanger in a far corner of the Cleveland airport.

Clay LePard | News 5

While it seems that his jet was indeed in Cleveland and still there as of Monday evening, was the second-richest man in the world on said jet when it landed? That’s less clear, but it hasn’t stopped Northeast Ohioans, and Musk’s legions of fans and detractors, from speculating.

For his part, Musk himself has been posting to X about a planned test of the Tesla’s full self-driving capabilities in California, stating that he “will ask the car to drive to @finkd’s house,” using the Twitter handle for Facebook and Meta CEO Mark Zuckerberg.

For context, Musk and Zuckerberg may or may not be fighting in a cage match at the Coliseum in Italy to raise money for veterans that may or may not be a shameless and desperate attempt for one or both of them to keep themselves, their social media platforms, and their vast, vast fortunes relevant. At this point, it’s difficult to tell if either of them actually plan on going through with the idea originally proposed by Musk.

Putting that aside and assuming Musk was in his private jet when it flew to Cleveland Monday morning, there’s plenty of speculation on both billionaires’ platforms and beyond about why.

Could it be related to Musk’s SpaceX venture – perhaps a partnership with NASA or one of its many subcontractors at the NASA Glenn Research Center, a stone’s throw from the airport?

NASA officials at the center confirmed to News 5 that Musk was not there today.

The other speculated reason for his visit, ripped from the headlines, is related to rumors online that Musk made an unsolicited bid to buy US Steel for $5 billion, which some online further speculated was made due to the company’s stock ticker – “X” – which has become a highly-desirable letter for Musk.

Another entity that recently placed a bid on US Steel? Cleveland’s own Cleveland Cliffs, offering $7.3 billion, which was rejected by the company and sent its share price soaring. Privately-held firm Esmark sent X shares even higher when it topped the rejected bidwith a $7.8 billion offer.

Could Musk be meeting with Cleveland Cliffs for reasons related to a U.S. Steel takeover? It’s the prevailing theory among Clevelanders on Reddit.

Other less-plausible theories from the Reddit thread include: “He's here for the Little Italy feast of the assumption,” “Training with Stipe,” and “Probably just wanted to meet Misny.”

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