Elon Musk: A billionaire's uncontrollable global influence

Elon Musk is an uncontrollable geopolitical rocket. He speaks and acts as if he is more powerful than governments, and sometimes he actually is. However, he still cannot make laws, writes Gideon Rachman, chief foreign affairs commentator for the "Financial Times," on Monday.

Big corporations and billionaires usually try to avoid political controversies and prefer to exert influence on power discreetly. Elon Musk is different—he officially endorsed Donald Trump's candidacy in the American presidential elections and got into a public dispute with the Brazilian Supreme Court. He also announced that a civil war in the United Kingdom is unavoidable and criticized France for detaining Telegram founder Pavel Durov, writes the "FT" commentator.

Musk's influence is visible from Kyiv to Beijing. The fact that he controls SpaceX, the Starlink satellite internet system, and the Tesla company allows him to play a role in the war in Ukraine, the economic rivalry between the US and China, and even—to some extent—in the conflict in Gaza. Furthermore, owning the X platform gives him a "powerful megaphone to broadcast his views," explains Rachman.

Unpredictable behaviour and statements by the billionaire, combined with the scale of power and influence afforded by his wealth and control over extremely important technological infrastructure, make him "an uncontrollable geopolitical rocket that can influence the course of globally significant events", evaluates the columnist.

Musk's role in wars or international conflicts and rivalries is ambiguous. Although after Russia's aggression on Ukraine, he provided the Starlink system —at the request of Ukrainian Minister of Digital Transformation Mykhailo Fedorov—he later disabled it to disrupt an attack by Ukrainian underwater drones on the Russian warship fleet off the coast of Crimea, as he was reportedly afraid of a Moscow nuclear retaliation. He also pushed his "peace plan" for Ukraine, which aligned with the Kremlin's demands.

The interests of the US administration and Musk's empire in transferring advanced technologies to China are diverging. Washington wants America to continue leading in developing future technological solutions, but Musk opened giant Tesla facilities in Shanghai and announced closer cooperation with Beijing this year.

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

The US administration is concerned about many of the billionaire's moves, but his companies have capabilities even the US government does not possess. SpaceX provides Ukraine with Starlinks, which the US administration must pay for to prevent Kyiv from potential system shutdowns by Musk. When NASA needs to send astronauts to the International Space Station (ISS), SpaceX takes care of it, the columnist reminds.

However, Musk still doesn’t have the ability to make and enforce laws, so his complete impunity could be curtailed with the introduction of new regulations concerning internet media, which will mean that at least the X platform and the often chaotic and conspiracy theory-promoting tweets of its owner will be subject to some control, forecasts Rachman.

Trump recently reiterated that he "definitely" would like to appoint Musk to a role in his future administration if he wins the November elections. The billionaire responded on the X platform that he is "ready to serve."

In early May, the Axios portal wrote that Musk has some control over key global infrastructure, and the billionaire's globally operating companies are not subject to any oversight. The portal assesses that all his enterprises perform important social functions yet are de facto not subject to any regulations.