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Elon Musk

Elon Musk

Businessman and former Senior Advisor to the President of the United States

Appears in 28 stories

Born: June 28, 1971 (age 54 years), Pretoria, South Africa
Net worth: 718.3 billion USD (2026)
Children: Vivian Jenna Wilson, Nevada Alexander Musk, Saxon Musk, and more
Spouse: Talulah Riley (m. 2013–2016), Talulah Riley (m. 2010–2012), and Justine Musk (m. 2000–2008)
Organizations founded: Tesla, Space Exploration Technologies Corp., OpenAI, and more

Stories

Pentagon threatens to blacklist Anthropic over military AI safeguards

Rule Changes

Owner, xAI - Signed 'all lawful purposes' deal for Grok on classified systems

Anthropic's Claude became the first commercial artificial intelligence model deployed on classified United States military networks in late 2024. Sixteen months later, the Department of Defense is threatening to label the company a "supply chain risk"—a designation normally reserved for foreign adversaries like China and Russia—because Anthropic refuses to let the military use Claude for mass surveillance of Americans or fully autonomous weapons. The standoff has escalated from a contract negotiation into something larger: the first direct confrontation between an AI company's safety commitments and the federal government's demand for unrestricted access.

Updated 4 days ago

X builds integrated finance platform

New Capabilities

Owner of X; CEO of Tesla, SpaceX, and xAI - Driving X's transformation into financial services platform

Elon Musk founded X.com in 1999 with a vision of building an all-in-one financial services platform. That company became PayPal, and he was ousted as chief executive. Twenty-seven years later, he's trying again. X, the social network formerly known as Twitter, announced on February 14, 2026 that users will soon be able to trade stocks and cryptocurrency directly from their timelines through a feature called Smart Cashtags.

Updated Feb 14

The battle over the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau

Rule Changes

Head of Department of Government Efficiency (DOGE) - Leading federal restructuring efforts

The Consumer Financial Protection Bureau returned $21 billion to defrauded Americans over its 14-year existence. Now the agency that Elizabeth Warren built is fighting for survival, its workforce slashed from 1,700 to roughly 200, its budget cut in half, and federal judges the only barrier between it and extinction.

Updated Feb 12

Big tech's half-trillion-dollar AI bet

Money Moves

Chief Executive Officer, Tesla - Positioning Tesla as AI and robotics company

The four largest cloud providers—Microsoft, Meta, Alphabet, and Amazon—guided to over $650 billion in combined AI infrastructure spending for 2026 during their February earnings reports, up sharply from $350 billion in 2025, and have begun tapping debt markets to fund the buildout. Microsoft and Meta reported on January 28-29 with divergent market reactions: Microsoft shares plunged 12% on $37.5 billion quarterly capex, while Meta surged on $115-135 billion 2026 guidance. Alphabet stunned investors February 4 with $175-185 billion capex plans—doubling last year's spend—while Amazon topped all on February 5 with a $200 billion pledge, 50% above 2025 and $50 billion over expectations, prompting a share selloff despite strong revenue beats.

Updated Feb 10

Tesla's ongoing executive exodus

Money Moves

Chief Executive Officer - Active, increasingly focused on political activities

Joe Ward, who started at Tesla as a logistics intern in 2010, now oversees global sales for a company hemorrhaging senior executives. His promotion follows Raj Jegannathan's departure after just months as North American sales chief—the second person to leave that role in under a year. Since April 2024, Tesla has lost more than a dozen senior leaders, including its head of batteries, its supercharging director, and the executive who ran operations across North America and Europe.

Updated Feb 10

SpaceX Starlink becomes a weapon in Ukraine war

Force in Play

Chief Executive Officer, SpaceX and Tesla - Central figure in Starlink policy decisions

Ukraine's military has depended on Starlink satellite internet since the first week of Russia's 2022 invasion. On February 5, 2026, SpaceX flipped a switch that cut off Russian forces from that same network—collapsing command systems along the entire front line and halving the number of daily assault operations within hours.

Updated Feb 6

Musk merges SpaceX and xAI in record-breaking deal

Money Moves

Chief Executive Officer of SpaceX, xAI, and Tesla; Owner of X - Orchestrating largest merger in history ahead of mega-IPO

Elon Musk's SpaceX has acquired his artificial intelligence startup xAI in a $250 billion deal—the largest acquisition in corporate history, surpassing Vodafone's $203 billion purchase of Mannesmann in 2000. The combined entity is valued at $1.25 trillion, with SpaceX contributing $1 trillion and xAI $250 billion. The merger consolidates three of Musk's companies under one roof: SpaceX's rocket and satellite businesses, xAI's Grok chatbot and AI infrastructure, and X (formerly Twitter), which xAI absorbed in March 2025. Within days of the merger announcement, Musk began publicly articulating the orbital data center vision, appearing on the 'Cheeky Pint' podcast in early February 2026 to argue that solar panels produce five times more power in space than on Earth, making orbital AI infrastructure economically superior to terrestrial data centers by 2028.

Updated Feb 6

Tesla Robotaxi safety under scrutiny

New Capabilities

Chief Executive Officer, Tesla - Leading robotaxi expansion

Tesla promised its robotaxis would be safer than human drivers. Seven months into its Austin pilot, the company's own crash reports tell a different story: one collision per 55,000 miles, roughly nine times worse than the human average. Every crash occurred with a trained safety monitor in the vehicle who could intervene—yet the system still failed. On February 3, 2026, Tesla executives defended the program before a Senate committee, insisting autonomous systems are safer than human drivers despite the data.

Updated Feb 5

Europe moves to ban social media for minors

Rule Changes

Owner of X (formerly Twitter) - Opposing Spain's regulations

Spain became the first European country to announce a ban on social media for children under 16, joining Australia, France, and Denmark in a regulatory wave sweeping democracies worldwide. Prime Minister Pedro Sánchez unveiled five measures at the World Governments Summit in Dubai on February 3, 2026, including mandatory age verification systems that go beyond simple checkboxes—and criminal liability for tech executives who fail to remove illegal content.

Updated Feb 5

X platform faces multi-front regulatory assault

Rule Changes

Owner of X, CEO of Tesla and SpaceX, founder of xAI - Summoned for voluntary questioning in Paris on April 20, 2026

French prosecutors raided X's Paris offices on February 3, 2026, and summoned Elon Musk for questioning—a first for a major social media platform owner in Europe. What began as a complaint about biased algorithms in January 2025 has expanded into a criminal probe covering child sexual abuse material, sexually explicit deepfakes, and Holocaust denial, with the investigation now encompassing X's artificial intelligence chatbot Grok.

Updated Feb 3

Neuralink's human brain-computer interface trials

New Capabilities

Neuralink Co-founder and Primary Funder - Active company leadership

Two years ago, Neuralink implanted a coin-sized chip in Noland Arbaugh's brain—the first human to receive the company's Telepathy device. As of January 28, 2026, twenty-one people across four countries are using Neuralink implants to control computers, phones, and robotic arms with their thoughts. Several participants now exceed the cursor-control speed of able-bodied people using a mouse.

Updated Feb 2

Insurance industry begins pricing software-driven risk

New Capabilities

CEO, Tesla - Expanding Tesla robotaxi operations, FSD subscription model

For a century, auto insurers priced risk based on the driver: age, driving record, location. Lemonade's January 2026 partnership with Tesla represents the first major attempt to price risk based on which entity—human or software—is actually controlling the vehicle. Tesla owners using Full Self-Driving get a 50% rate reduction on miles driven with the system engaged, a discount five times larger than Tesla's own insurance offers. The product launched in Arizona on January 26, 2026, as scheduled.

Updated Jan 31

China files for 200,000 satellites in orbital land grab

New Capabilities

CEO, SpaceX - Operating dominant LEO constellation with 9,400+ satellites

There are roughly 10,000 active satellites orbiting Earth. In late December 2025, China filed paperwork to launch 200,000 more. The filings, submitted to the International Telecommunication Union by a newly formed state-backed institute, would secure spectrum and orbital priority for the largest satellite constellation ever proposed—more than five times the size of SpaceX's full Starlink ambitions.

Updated Jan 19

Grok's deepfake crisis tests global platform regulation

Rule Changes

Owner of X, CEO of xAI - Facing multi-jurisdictional enforcement

For decades, Western democracies debated whether to regulate social media platforms. The UK just stopped debating—and now the United States is joining the fight. After Grok, Elon Musk's AI chatbot, generated an estimated one nonconsensual sexualized image per minute—posted directly to X—regulators on both sides of the Atlantic are taking action. On January 15, X announced it will geoblock Grok from creating images of people in revealing clothing in jurisdictions where it's illegal. This came one day after California Attorney General Rob Bonta opened an investigation into xAI, calling the platform 'a breeding ground for predators.' Meanwhile, UK Prime Minister Keir Starmer told Parliament that X is 'acting to ensure full compliance,' having removed over 600 accounts and censored 3,500 content items. The alternative: fines up to 10% of global revenue or a complete platform ban.

Updated Jan 15

Grok's global reckoning: the first AI tool banned for mass deepfake generation

Rule Changes

Owner of X, founder of xAI - Defending Grok, dismissing government concerns as attacks on free speech

AI image generators have been creating non-consensual intimate imagery since 2017. Until now, no government had blocked one. On January 10, 2026, Indonesia became the first country to shut off access to xAI's Grok after users discovered it would readily 'undress' photos of women and children—generating what analysts estimate at roughly one such image per minute. Malaysia followed with both a block and an announcement of legal action against X and xAI.

Updated Jan 14

Trump demands $1.5 trillion military budget

Force in Play

SpaceX CEO / Pentagon Technology Partner - Grok AI platform selected for Pentagon-wide deployment

Trump wants to spend $1.5 trillion on defense in 2027—a jaw-dropping 66% jump from this year's $901 billion. One day he banned defense contractors from stock buybacks until they deliver weapons on time. The next day he promised them a gold rush. Defense stocks whipsawed, then surged: Northrop up 8.3%, Lockheed 7.9%.

Updated Jan 13

The race to restore sight

New Capabilities

CEO, Neuralink - Developing competing cortical vision implant called Blindsight

Stanford researchers implanted a chip smaller than a Tic Tac under the retinas of 38 blind patients. A year later, 27 could read again. Some read entire books. The PRIMA device, published October 20, 2025 in the New England Journal of Medicine, is the first prosthetic to restore functional vision to people with macular degeneration—the leading cause of irreversible blindness.

Updated Jan 9

Trump freezes aid, threatens South Africa over land law

Force in Play

Tesla CEO, Trump Administration Figure - Amplifying white genocide claims, influencing US policy

President Trump cut all US aid to South Africa on February 7, 2025—$440 million annually, most for HIV treatment—over a land law allowing seizure without compensation. He called it discrimination against white farmers. South Africa's President Ramaphosa shot back: "We will not be bullied." Within weeks, 8,000 health workers lost their jobs and 12 HIV clinics shut down.

Updated Jan 7

Meta's trump pivot

Rule Changes

Owner of X (formerly Twitter) - Leading DOGE advisory role in Trump administration

Mark Zuckerberg banned Donald Trump after January 6th, calling the risks of keeping him on Facebook too great. Four years later, on the anniversary of that ban, Zuckerberg killed Meta's entire U.S. fact-checking program. Between those two moments: a Mar-a-Lago dinner, a million-dollar inauguration donation, and the elevation of a Bush-era Republican to Meta's top policy job.

Updated Jan 7

America abandons the world's hungry

Rule Changes

Department of Government Efficiency (DOGE) Leader - Driving USAID shutdown and federal aid cuts

The United States pledged $2 billion for UN humanitarian aid on December 29, down from as much as $17 billion annually—an 88% cut that represents the most dramatic foreign aid contraction in modern American history. Within hours of his January inauguration, Trump froze nearly all foreign assistance, then dismantled USAID entirely by July, warning UN agencies they must 'adapt, shrink or die.' The new funding flows through a single UN office rather than individual agencies, centralizing control as millions lose shelter, food, and medical care. UN experts estimate over 350,000 deaths have resulted from the aid freeze—including more than 200,000 children.

Updated Dec 29, 2025

The end of the H-1B lottery

Rule Changes

CEO of Tesla and SpaceX - Defending H-1B visas amid MAGA backlash, December 2024-January 2025

On December 29, 2025, the Department of Homeland Security formally published its final rule replacing the H-1B lottery with wage-weighted selection in the Federal Register. Starting February 27, 2026, a software engineer offered $150,000 (Level IV wage) gets four entries in the pool; one offered $65,000 (Level I) gets one entry—an 8.5% selection chance versus the prior 25% random odds. The change targets fraud: 758,994 registrations competed for 85,000 slots in FY 2024, with 408,891 duplicate submissions for the same people, up 140% from the year before. Shell companies flooded the system; Disney laid off American IT staff and made them train H-1B replacements paid 40% less. On December 24, a federal judge upheld the separate $100,000 H-1B fee Trump imposed in September, rejecting a U.S. Chamber of Commerce lawsuit.

Updated Dec 29, 2025

The transatlantic speech war

Rule Changes

Owner, X (formerly Twitter) - Platform fined €120M by EU, under ongoing DSA investigations

On December 23, 2024, Secretary of State Marco Rubio banned five Europeans from entering the United States—including the EU's former top tech regulator and leaders of anti-disinformation groups. The charge: pressuring American tech companies to censor lawful speech. One sanctioned figure, Imran Ahmed, holds a U.S. green card and now faces potential arrest and deportation.

Updated Dec 26, 2025

Jared Isaacman takes NASA: a billionaire astronaut walks into a budget war

Money Moves

CEO of SpaceX; influential Trump ally - NASA’s biggest contractor remains central to Artemis and LEO access

One day after his 67–30 confirmation, Jared Isaacman was sworn in on Dec. 18, 2025 as NASA’s 15th administrator—walking directly into a White House-driven acceleration campaign that now has his name on the clock, not just the contracts.

Updated Dec 20, 2025

Airtel bets on Starlink to turn Africa’s dead zones into “text-from-anywhere” coverage

New Capabilities

Founder/CEO, SpaceX (operator of Starlink) - Scaling Starlink into a telecom infrastructure partner, not just an ISP

Airtel Africa just made a classic telecom promise—“coverage everywhere”—with a very un-classic tool: Starlink satellites acting like cell towers in space. If it works, the places where Airtel’s network map turns blank won’t be silent anymore.

Updated Dec 16, 2025

Amazon’s Leo constellation is growing fast—just not fast enough for the FCC clock

Built World

CEO, SpaceX (Starlink operator) - Running the market leader Amazon is trying to dislodge—while also launching some Amazon satellites

At 3:28 a.m. ET on December 16, ULA lit an Atlas V and pushed 27 Amazon Leo broadband satellites into orbit. It’s another clean launch in a campaign that’s starting to look like a metronome: stack satellites, light rocket, repeat.

Updated Dec 16, 2025

SpaceX turns Falcon 9 into a Starlink assembly line — and the world starts depending on it

New Capabilities

CEO, SpaceX - Driving Starlink expansion alongside national-security and direct-to-cell ambitions

SpaceX doesn’t “do launches” anymore. It does output. Another pair of Starlink v2-mini batches is on the manifest, each packing 29 satellites — the orbital equivalent of sliding more servers into a data center rack.

Updated Dec 14, 2025

Europe’s big tech crackdown under the DSA and DMA

Rule Changes

Owner of X and CEO of X Holdings / xAI - Platform fined under the DSA; publicly attacking EU regulators and weighing legal appeals

The European Union is in the middle of an unprecedented crackdown on Big Tech, using a new arsenal of digital laws — the Digital Services Act (DSA), the Digital Markets Act (DMA) and long‑standing competition and privacy rules — to challenge the power and business models of U.S.-based tech giants. Since 2023, Brussels has designated six major platforms as “gatekeepers,” imposed structural obligations on their core services, and begun opening formal proceedings against firms like X, Google, Apple and Meta over monopolistic conduct, opaque algorithms, deceptive interface design and failures to police harmful content.

Updated Dec 11, 2025

EU’s first digital Services Act crackdown on X

Rule Changes

Owner of X; CEO of xAI; Tech Entrepreneur - Challenging EU enforcement and facing ongoing DSA probes

On December 5, 2025, the European Commission issued its first-ever non‑compliance decision under the Digital Services Act (DSA), fining Elon Musk’s social platform X €120 million for misleading users with its paid blue checkmark system, failing to provide a transparent advertising repository, and obstructing researcher access to public data. Regulators concluded that X’s subscription-based ‘verified’ badge constitutes deceptive design because anyone can buy it without meaningful identity checks, while the platform’s ad library and data-access rules prevent independent scrutiny of scams, influence operations, and systemic online risks.

Updated Dec 11, 2025