Biden Discussing New Action Against Elon Musk
Biden Admin Discussing Taking New Action Over Elon Musk’s Business Dealings: Report
U.S. officials, after requests for Pentagon funding of Starlink services to Ukraine, are weighing a national review of Elon Musk.
“SpaceX is not asking to recoup past expenses, but also cannot fund the existing system indefinitely *and* send several thousand more terminals that have data usage up to 100X greater than typical households,” Musk said in an October 14 Twitter post. “This is unreasonable.”
The next day, Musk backtracked after receiving tremendous criticism.
“The hell with it … even though Starlink is still losing money & other companies are getting billions of taxpayer $, we’ll just keep funding Ukraine govt for free,” he remarked in a Twitter post.
SpaceX’s founder noted, in an October 7 tweet, his company had provided more than $80 million of free Starlink terminals and monthly service. Musk estimated the company will donate greater than $100 million to the war-torn country this year.
Reuters further reported:
Biden Administration officials are discussing whether the United States should subject some of Elon Musk’s ventures to national review including the deal for Twitter Inc (TWTR.N) and SpaceX’s Starlink satellite network, Bloomberg News reported on Thursday, citing people familiar with the matter.
The SpaceX chief in recent times has taken to Twitter to announce proposals to end Russia’s war in Ukraine, and also said SpaceX cannot indefinitely fund its Starlink internet service in Ukraine. He later backed down and said he would continue to bear the costs of the service.
The discussions to review Musk’s ventures are at an early stage, sources told Bloomberg, adding that officials in the U.S. government are weighing what tools, if any, are available that would allow the federal government to review Musk’s ventures.
One possibility is through the law governing the Committee on Foreign Investment in the United States (CFIUS), which is under the U.S. Department of Treasury, to review Musk’s ventures, the report added.
An element of Musk’s $44 billion Twitter deal which could trigger a CFIUS review is the presence of foreign investors in Musk’s consortium, Bloomberg said.
The group includes Saudi Arabian investor Prince Alwaleed bin Talal and Binance, which was founded in Shanghai.
A spokesperson for the U.S. Treasury Department said CFIUS does not publicly comment on transactions that it may or may not be reviewing.