Elon Musk's really been leaning into his strange Richard Nixon/13-year-old boy/Spruce-Moose-model-building Mr Burns persona lately, though according to an email he sent to Tesla employees it turns out he was right to be a bit paranoid.

The email, which was obtained by CNN, alleges that an employee who had been passed over for promotion had been caught making changes to the coding for Tesla's manufacturing systems as well as sending "large amounts of highly sensitive" information to third parties. Musk called it a "damaging sabotage to our operations".

Musk went on to wonder whether it was a conspiracy orchestrated by "Wall Street short-sellers," "oil & gas companies," or "the multitude of big gas/diesel car company competitors". "If they’re willing to cheat so much about emissions, maybe they’re willing to cheat in other ways?," he wrote, possibly while standing in front of an enormous pinboard covered with red string connecting the various actors conspiring against him.

He then went on to talk about what he called "another strange incident" at a Tesla factory: a "small fire". That's not too unusual – CNN have reported before now that the Tesla paint shop has seen at least four fires in the last four years – but Musk sees the game of 4D chess that's going on around him.

"Could just be a random event, but as [former Intel CEO] Andy Grove said, 'Only the paranoid survive,'" Musk wrote in the email, before asking that employees look out for "anything that’s not in the best interests of our company".