The hyperloop is odd actually. Musk didn’t actually want to do it, he just tweeted out some random thing as a reaction to the price of California’s high speed rail proposal, but at that point his fanbase was used to him just doing crazy things so they piled on him. That’s why he set up that competition, to see if it was viable.

Source: his biography

Besides, that it doesn’t matter if musk just claims something, anyone can claim something. Anything he’s gotten behind has succeeded.