Understated Excellence
The “billionaire space race” emerged as a cultural moment this summer in large part because of the profiles of the competitors: In Elon Musk, Richard Branson and Jeff Bezos, you have three of the most famous entrepreneurs in the world, two of the absolute richest … and two of the absolute loudest. In so many ways—the ambition and innovation, the outlays and narcissism—they embody what many love about visionaries and resent about the ultrarich. That makes this issue’s cover so refreshing. With out many having noticed, Michael Dell (see page 86) has pulled off one of the great deals of all time, taking private his seemingly washed-up eponymous computer maker and transforming it, again, into one of the world’s most important tech companies. In the process, he’s built himself a $50…