Steve Davis, a long-time collaborator of Elon Musk for over 20 years, is now implementing Musk’s “build it back better” philosophy at the Department of Government Efficiency (DOGE) to reduce U.S. government spending.
When Elon Musk acquired Twitter in 2022, Davis, one of his top aides, focused on drastically cutting costs at the company, even questioning the amount spent on cleaning services at the Atlanta data center.
As the head of Musk’s tunneling company, Boring, Davis was tasked with slashing expenses at Twitter. He gained a reputation for aggressively negotiating with suppliers, swiftly terminating senior executives, and creating an atmosphere of uncertainty among lower-level employees, according to former Twitter staff, now part of the platform X.
Steve Davis at SpaceX headquarters in Los Angeles, July 2019. Photo: AFP
Observers noted that Davis’s approach to improving efficiency and cutting back at Twitter mirrors a “playbook” being applied to streamline the U.S. government, as he serves as Musk’s right-hand man at DOGE.
Concern has spread across government agencies in Washington as the world’s richest billionaire aggressively pursues budget cuts and a leaner government structure, a promise made by former President Donald Trump during his campaign.
The DOGE’s “no-nonsense” approach is exemplified by the Trump administration’s move to eliminate the U.S. Agency for International Development (USAID), a foreign aid organization with 10,000 employees and a $40 billion budget.
A USAID official indicated that Davis and Musk are tirelessly pushing this effort. Davis frequently communicates with Peter Marocco, a State Department official overseeing the USAID streamlining process.
Davis’s prominent role at DOGE does not surprise those who have worked with him and Musk. For over 20 years, he has been instrumental in cost-cutting at companies like SpaceX, Boring, and Twitter, making him Musk’s top choice for this new role at DOGE.
In 2003, while a student in aerospace engineering at Stanford University, Davis was personally selected by Musk to join SpaceX at a time when the concept of reusable rockets was still uncertain.
According to the 2015 biography of Elon Musk by Ashlee Vance, Musk called Davis’s teaching assistant to ask for names of hard-working, unmarried graduates. Davis fit the bill and began working on the Falcon 1 rocket project in the Marshall Islands, sometimes sleeping in a tent beside the rocket.
He later contributed to the development of the Falcon 9 rocket and the Dragon Capsule spacecraft. When Musk entrusted Davis with a $5,000 budget to purchase a component priced at $120,000, he achieved the remarkable feat of designing a similar part in nine months for just $3,900.
Davis has led Boring for over eight years since Musk conceived the idea of rapid underground transit during a traffic jam in Los Angeles in late 2016. Former employees described him as notoriously frugal, with all expenses—no matter how small—having to pass through his desk. This made approvals challenging but enabled him to maintain a low budget.
Davis even personally approved expenses of a few hundred dollars, which is considered unusual for a company that has successfully raised about $800 million in funding.
Two former Boring employees noted that Davis managed the company with extremely high expectations and an unwavering focus on efficiency.
“He hates waste,” one former employee said. “He wants to be involved in every decision-making process.”
Davis also sets tough conditions for suppliers of materials like steel, sensors, and even small items like pipe fittings. His preferred directive to employees during negotiations is: “Turn the issue around and ask again.”
“Davis has proven through all his efforts that he can achieve a lot with very few resources,” remarked a former Boring employee.
However, three individuals who worked with Davis described him as sometimes quite “ruthless” or cold. One former employee recounted that Davis once scheduled a meeting on the same day as this employee’s 13th wedding anniversary. When asked to reschedule, Davis declined but ultimately did not attend the meeting.
When Musk acquired Twitter, Davis was the clear choice to be involved in the takeover of the social media platform.
Davis is so dedicated to his work that there was a time when he stayed overnight at Twitter’s office with his partner and their newborn child. A former X employee noted that Davis would call them at any hour of the day, including late at night or on weekends, to discuss work matters.
Davis places a strong emphasis on data collection to cut costs. In documents from a lawsuit filed by former Twitter employees in 2023, Davis participated in numerous email discussions related to cost-cutting. One email sent to him even had the subject line “Daily Savings Email.”
The lawsuit describes Davis’s determination to aggressively reduce costs and personnel at Twitter to satisfy Musk. In a 2022 meeting, Davis stated that the company would cease working with brokers to negotiate lease contracts in order to save money. When asked why, Davis and other Musk allies at the meeting said, “Elon wants this,” according to the lawsuit.
Elon Musk (left) and Steve Davis at a Boring Company event in Los Angeles in 2018. Photo: Boring Company
Davis instructed Twitter’s then-vice president of real estate, Tracy Hawkins, to find a way to save $500 million a year. After Hawkins and her team warned Davis about the financial risks of breaking lease agreements, such as penalties for unilateral termination, Davis replied, “We won’t pay those. We won’t pay the landlords.”
When a Twitter employee informed Davis that the company needed a building permit to install a private bathroom next to Musk’s office, Davis dismissed the notion.
“We’re not doing that. We don’t need to follow those rules,” he responded.
A former Twitter employee noted that Davis often employed the tactic of stopping payments to suppliers to force them to renegotiate more favorable terms for Twitter.
Some speculated that Davis might become Twitter’s CEO, but ultimately, he returned to Boring, which has headquarters in Las Vegas and Bastrop, Texas, near Austin.
There, he continued to reinforce his reputation as a super frugal and strict leader.
Former employees still share stories about being flown back and forth between Austin and Las Vegas to pick up necessary components, like sensors for tunnel boring machines. Davis preferred to receive components on the same day rather than use commercial shipping and wait for the next day.
On one occasion, employees faced a near-crisis when a crucial component went missing on its way to Las Vegas. A truck carrying the part, which Boring was tracking, stopped for hours in Arizona for unknown reasons. Under pressure to meet Davis’s tight deadline, they paid a relative of a staff member living nearby to locate the truck and urge the driver to continue.
Some noted that Davis often scheduled meetings at 7 PM or later for engineers. He would frequently join remotely, and one person who often spoke with him over the phone recounted that he always tried to multitask during meetings, eating and making calls simultaneously.
Multitasking seems to have