Reversal News Desk,
Elon Musk is known for his competitive nature. And his list of rivals is also quite long.
Elon Musk challenged Mark Zuckerberg, CEO of Facebook’s Meta, to a cage fight. He has mocked Jeff Bezos, owner of Amazon and Blue Origins, as “copycats.” And most recently, he sued Sam Altman of OpenAI.
Until now, these have been business and personal battles between a few rich and successful individuals; but now that Musk is in Donald Trump’s administration, his influence will grow even more. Many fear that the power he will have in government could be used to benefit his own companies and harm his rivals.
The Trump administration’s power could be used to launch or close government investigations, create new or weaken existing regulatory systems, and distribute government work in a way that benefits Musk’s own companies.
A representative for Musk did not respond to a request for comment.
Jeff Bezos
There has been a competition between Elon Musk and Jeff Bezos to be at the top of the rich list. But the competition between them has been more in the space industry. Musk’s SpaceX and Bezos’ Blue Origins have competed for government work. However, now that Musk will be in the Trump administration, many are concerned about whether he will use his influence to get government work.
Not only in space, Amazon’s Project Kuiper is also competing with SpaceX’s Starlink to lead the artificial satellite industry in Earth orbit. This work will require regulatory approval. Amazon is currently working to send 3,200 artificial satellites into Earth orbit.
However, another headache may have occurred for Blue Origins. Donald Trump has announced the name of Jared Isaacman as NASA administrator. He has a close relationship with Elon Musk.
Sam Altman
Musk’s dispute with OpenAI is a long-standing one.
Musk helped found the company in 2015. He sued the company in February. The company, which makes ChatGPT, allegedly broke its old promise not to make a profit and built modern AI technology for some private customers. He wants AI technology to be open to everyone. He has made the code for his XAI-developed ‘Grok’ chatbot open.
Elon Musk has asked for a jury trial. Elon Musk also wants OpenAI, Sam Altman and another co-founder and company president Greg Brockman to return the profits they made from the business.
Although Musk dropped the case, he filed a new lawsuit against OpenAI and Altman in August. The allegations are largely the same. It is said that OpenAI has deviated from its policy of not making a profit by partnering with Microsoft and commercializing some of its products.
Mark Zuckerberg
Facebook wanted to launch an Amos-6 satellite into space. The company approached SpaceX for this. The satellite was planned to be launched to ensure that people can use the internet in places where there is no internet service. But SpaceX failed to launch the satellite. It is not clear to what extent this incident played a role in creating a long-standing dispute between them. But the two of them have made various insulting comments against each other on social media whenever they get the chance. At this stage, Musk and Zuckerberg even discussed a real hand-to-hand fight.
However, the talk of that fight stopped around August.
A lawsuit is ongoing against Meta for alleged monopolistic business. It is believed that the company may face more pressure from the Federal Communications Commission in the future.
Other Tesla competitors
Tesla’s share price jumped after Trump won the election. The growth is still ongoing. Tesla is in a dominant position in the world of electric cars. Now that Musk is part of the government, the company could get more benefits. For example, the ongoing investigation into the safety of Tesla’s self-driving car technology could be dropped.
Then there’s the issue of supporting Tesla’s rivals.
Last week, Musk’s co-chairman of the Department of Government Efficiency, Vivek Ramaswamy, criticized the $6.6 billion conditional loan to electric car startup Rivian. The loan is to be provided by the Department of Energy. Tesla itself received a similar loan of $465 million in 2010, which has contributed greatly to the company’s success.
