Nandini Roy Choudhury, writer
Brief news
- Elon Musk’s ventures include Tesla, SpaceX, Neuralink, and others, benefiting from over $19 billion in federal contracts, with expectations for more under a potential Trump presidency.
- Musk and Vivek Ramaswamy lead the Department of Government Efficiency, advocating for regulatory reforms and auditing federal agencies.
- Their strategy focuses on reducing oversight and resources for agencies monitoring Musk’s companies, aiming for deregulation to enhance profitability.
Elon Musk’s commercial empire is extensive. It encompasses Tesla, a manufacturer of electric vehicles, X, a social media company, xAI, an artificial intelligence startup, Neuralink, a computer interface company, Boring Company, an aerospace firm, and SpaceX, a tunneling venture.
Federal contracts have already proven advantageous to several of his enterprises. FedScout’s investigation indicates that SpaceX has received over $19 billion in contracts from the federal government. It is possible that it will receive more lucrative contracts during a second Trump presidency. According to FedScout CEO Geoff Orazem, SpaceX is expected to generate billions of dollars annually from prime contracts with the federal government for the foreseeable future.
Musk, who has frequently accused the government of stifling innovation, may also advocate for reduced regulation of his enterprises. Earlier this month, Trump appointed Musk and former Republican presidential candidate Vivek Ramaswamy to serve as the leaders of the Department of Government Efficiency (DOGE), a government efficiency organization.
Musk and Ramaswamy recently stated in a Wall Street Journal commentary that DOGE will “seek three significant types of reform: regulatory rescissions, administrative reductions, and cost savings.” They subsequently stated that a significant number of current federal regulations were never enacted by Congress and should, as a result, be nullified. They suggested that President-elect Trump could achieve this through executive action. Musk and Ramaswamy also advocated for the extensive auditing of agencies, criticizing the Pentagon for failing its seventh consecutive audit.
According to Lora Kolodny, a technology reporter at CNBC, the primary method by which Elon Musk and his companies would profit from a Trump administration is through deregulation and defanging. This involves the allocation of fewer resources to federal agencies that are responsible for overseeing Musk and his businesse
