Financial Times on Elon Musk: Unsteerable Geopolitical Missile

Large corporations and billionaires usually try to avoid political controversy and prefer to exert influence on the authorities discreetly. Elon Musk is different – he officially supported the candidacy Donald Trump in the American presidential election, he entered into a public dispute with the Supreme Court Brazilrecently declared that civil war in Britain was inevitable and criticized France for the detention of Telegram founder Pavel Durov – writes Gideon Rachman, chief foreign affairs commentator of the Financial Times.

“Musk's influence is visible from Kiev to Beijing; the fact that he controls SpaceX, the satellite internet system Starlink and Tesla, allows him to play a role in war in Ukrainein economic competition USA and Chinand even – to some extent – in the war in Gaza. Moreover, owning X gives him “a powerful megaphone through which to convey his views,” Rachman explains.

The billionaire's unpredictable behavior and statements, combined with the scale of power and influence that his wealth and control over an extremely important technological infrastructure give him, make him “an unsteerable geopolitical missile that can influence the development of events of global significance,” the publicist says.

The role that Musk plays in wars or international conflicts and rivalries is ambiguous. Although after aggression Russia on Ukraine provided it with the Starlink system at the request of Ukrainian Minister of Transformation Mykhailo Fedorov, but later turned it off to disrupt an attack by Ukrainian underwater drones on a fleet of Russian warships off the coast of Crimea, allegedly fearing Moscow's nuclear retaliation. In addition, at that time he was pushing his “peace plan” for Ukraine, which largely coincided with the Kremlin's demands.

In early May, Axios wrote that Musk has some control over the world's key infrastructure, and the billionaire's global companies are not subject to any oversight. All of his companies fulfill an important social function, and at the same time, they are not subject to any de facto regulations, the portal assessed.

The interests of the US administration and Musk's empire diverge when it comes to transferring advanced technologies to China. Washington wants America to continue to outpace it in developing future technological solutions, but Musk has opened giant Tesla plants in Shanghai, and this year announced closer cooperation between the company and Beijing.

The announcement of the delivery of the Starlink system to the Gaza Strip sparked protests from the Israeli government, which feared that it would fall into the hands of Hamas terrorists, and only after visiting Israel did Musk decide to consult such plans with it.

The US administration is concerned about many of the billionaire's moves, but his companies have capabilities that even the US government does not have. SpaceX supplies Ukraine with Starlinks, which the US administration must pay for in order to protect Kiev from Musk's potential shutdown of this system. When NASA needs to send astronauts to the International Space Station (ISS), SpaceX takes care of it – the publicist reminds.

Musk still does not have the ability to establish and enforce laws, so his complete impunity may be limited with the introduction of new regulations regarding online media, which will mean that at least the X service and its owner's tweets, which often spread confusion and promote conspiracy theories, will be subject to some control, Rachman predicts.

Trump recently said again that he would “definitely” like to appoint Musk to serve in his future administration if he wins the November election. The billionaire responded to X by saying he was “ready to serve.”