Washington [US], July 21: Elon Musk's gamble on Donald Trump pays off," is the headline that prominent British daily the Financial Times featured on Nov. 6, just after U.S. elections in which Trump secured his return to the White House as the nation's 47th president.
"Trump's win ushers in new era for Musk," the report said adding: "whose gamble on a knife-edge U.S. election paid off as he is set to become one of the incoming president's most influential political and business advisers." It further delved into a close relationship between Musk and Trump, as did many articles since then.
Much of the debate was concentrated around the role of Musk-owned social media platform X in elections and concerns over disinformation even coming from the billionaire himself.
Yet, Elon Musk triumphed strongly, further solidifying the top spot as the richest person alive having his fortune soaring above $300 billion.According to the current Forbes billionaire list, Musk leads ahead the second on the list, Larry Ellison, co-founder of Oracle, with close to $80 billion more in net worth.
"Game, set and match," Musk said on Nov. 6, in just one of countless posts he shared on X following the elections. And a week after, President-elect Trump has given him a role to co-lead a newly formed "Department of Government Efficiency," or popularly "DOGE." Shifting from Silicon Valley tech leader, Musk earlier this year announced plans to move his companies X and SpaceX to Texas and now he appears to follow Trump in his meetings with other leaders such as President of Argentina Javier Milei.His political ascendancy left doors to questions varying from "What happens to Elon Musk's companies after he takes in role in DOGE?" to "Is there a conflict of interest,"? and just in recent days, Reuters reported that two Democratic senators were calling for a probe into Musk's alleged Russia calls.Several Democratic lawmakers have publicly called for a probe into Musk's communications with Moscow since a Wall Street Journal (WSJ) report last month on the alleged contact.
The concerns originate from the fact that Musk is the CEO of SpaceX company, one of the main contractors to NASA.Another significant domain is Musk's role as the owner of X, which he famously acquired in 2022.And although many reports in the recent period following the elections suggested that the popularity of X is waning as many users shift to platforms such as Bluesky, Reuters reported on Saturday, citing sources that some Wall Street banks were reportedly hoping they may soon be able to offload $13 billion of debt that backed the billionaire's purchase of X.
Some of the lenders in the consortium, which included Morgan Stanley and Bank of America, think Musk's emergence as a close aide to Trump could boost the prospects of X, previously known as Twitter, the sources said.If that were to happen, it would allow them to sell the debt without having to take a massive loss on the deal, the sources said.
Musk, X, Morgan Stanley and Bank of America did not immediately respond to a request for comment.
Banks typically sell such loans to investors soon after the deal is done, but in the case of X, which Musk bought for $44 billion in 2022, they have been stuck holding the debt.
In recent months, one of the sources said, some banks expected X had seen increased traffic as users flocked to the platform around big events like the U.S. elections.Trump, whose account on the platform was restored by Musk after the previous management banned him in January 2021, has been regularly posting on it.
The banking sources said they wanted to see whether that and a robust U.S. economy would translate to increased revenues for the platform.Analysts have said Musk's ties with Trump - who put him in charge of a new department on efficiency - could benefit the entrepreneur's various business ventures, which range from Tesla electric vehicles to SpaceX rockets.
In fact, Tesla's market value surpassed $1 trillion for the first time in two years in the days after the election results. Some have also voiced optimism on potential of easing regulations on self-driving technology, which could boost prospects of Tesla's newly unveiled vehicles such robotaxi.
Yet, it is still unclear to what extent Musk's close connection with the new administration could help revive X's business. One of Reuters' sources said it could also further divide its user base.
Newer platforms like Bluesky and Meta's Threads have been benefiting from a user exodus from X since the election.U.S. web traffic on X reached its highest point this year on Election Day with 42.3 million visits, which climbed another 10% to 46.5 million visits the day after the election, according to data from web analytics company Similarweb.
Source: Qatar Tribune
