Why Elon Musk Is Getting Back Into U.S. Politics

Ryan Knutson (0:00)

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Alex Ossola (0:22)

Elon Musk is back in US politics.

Emily Glazer (0:25)

Musk is focused on converting Trump voters, some of whom only show up to vote for Trump in the presidential election, into voters for the midterms and down ballot races.

Alex Ossola (0:35)

Plus, Intel stock sells off after the chipmaker posted a loss and predicted another one this quarter. And would you watch along as a world famous rock climber scales a skyscraper with no ropes? Netflix is betting on it. It's Friday, January 23rd. I'm Alex Ossola for The Wall Street Journal. This is the PM edition of What's News. The top headlines and business stories that move the world today.

Intel shares slid after its fourth quarter report, which showed that the chip maker's turnaround is still a work in progress. It projected a loss for the current quarter as it spends heavily to produce more of its latest chips. It's also contending with an inventory shortage that makes it challenging for Intel to capitalize on demand for the latest data center servers that use its chips. Intel stock has more than doubled in the last six months with investors expecting higher sales of those chips. Today, the stock fell 17%. Elsewhere in Markets, the major stock indexes went in different directions with the Dow dropping 0.6% while the S&P was nearly unchanged and the NASDAQ gained. Gold and silver futures hit their latest highs with gold closing in on $5,000 a troy ounce and silver closing above $100 an ounce for the first time. And forecasts for cold, snowy winter weather continued sending natural gas prices higher. We're exclusively reporting that the Justice Department is investigating an alleged spy operation by Silicon Valley startup Deal into a rival company, Rippling. That's according to documents viewed by the Wall Street Journal and people familiar with the matter. Rippling filed a complaint last year saying one of its employees stole trade secrets for Deal, an HR company valued at around $17 billion. A Rippling employee in Ireland has said in an affidavit that Deal recruited him to spy on Rippling. A Deal spokeswoman said today the company isn't aware of a criminal investigation but is willing to cooperate with authorities.

It's a midterm year and Elon Musk is signalling a return to US politics. He's already donated $10 million toward a Republican Senate candidate in Kentucky this year. For more on what's driving Musk, I'm joined now by WSJ Enterprise reporter Emily Glazer. Emily Musk spent nearly $300 million to help get Trump and Republicans elected in 2024 He was the biggest political donor that we know about in the country. Then he stepped back. There was a big backlash to the Doge government cost-cutting effort that he championed. He had that falling out with Trump in the summer. Then he told investors he was going to focus on Tesla. So what's brought him back into politics?

Emily Glazer (3:14)

What we've learned is that his political apparatus has been activated.

There are some early meetings with different types of vendors. And as you mentioned, Musk has given 10 million toward a Kentucky Senate candidate. Nate Morris has ties to Vice President JD. Vance. We know that VP Vance has kept in touch with Elon Musk about supporting Republicans, especially in the hopes that they could keep that majority in the House and the Senate, which is often really hard to maintain for a president's party. Our understanding from our sources is that Musk is focused on converting Trump voters, some of whom only show up to vote for Trump in the presidential election, into voters for the midterms and down ballot races. And this is a mutually beneficial relationship. Musk continues to have a way to influence the administration, so it is back on, even though many really thought he was totally done.

Alex Ossola (4:13)

You mentioned that Musk has kept in touch with Vance. Where does Musk's relationship stand with Trump?

Emily Glazer (4:19)

So the two of them were really going at it quite publicly and called each other names frequently last year. But toward the end of last year, things began to thaw a little bit. There was a big turning point around September at the conservative activist Charlie Kirk's funeral. Musk and Trump sat in the same box. Our sources say that they spoke at length there. And from there, the two began to meet more, talk more, including as recently as a dinner this month that Musk had with President Trump and First Lady Melania Trump, which he did post a photo about on X.