Elon Musk’s competitors are increasingly worried they may face restrictions or obstacles as the billionaire’s influence grows within Trump’s administration.
As summer came to a close, Sam Altman still believed his relationship with Elon Musk, with whom he co-founded OpenAI, was on solid ground.
Earlier this year, Musk sued Altman, accusing him of betraying OpenAI’s nonprofit mission. However, the lawsuit was withdrawn after the two had a conversation during a tech conference in Big Sky, Montana, in March, ending with a hug, according to attendees. Even when Musk refiled the lawsuit in August, the long but tumultuous relationship between the two seemed salvageable.
But Donald Trump’s victory in the presidential election fundamentally shifted Musk’s position. After investing $200 million to support Trump’s campaign, Musk declared himself Trump’s "first friend" who truly understands the president-elect.
Since then, Musk’s associates say he has begun treating Altman with disdain. Musk escalated their feud, filed another lawsuit, and described OpenAI as a "python demon paralyzing the market." He even shared personal messages with Altman on social media, giving him the nickname "Shady Sam."
Altman, a Democrat who refrained from supporting any candidate in this year’s election, was reportedly caught off guard, according to sources close to him.
Musk’s aggressive tactics have raised alarm among a long list of rivals, including Microsoft co-founder Bill Gates and Amazon founder Jeff Bezos.
As the world’s richest man, Musk is poised to significantly influence not only how the six companies he leads interact with the federal government but also how Trump’s administration deals with Musk’s competitors.
Observers note that Musk’s sway over the president-elect will likely extend beyond the Government Efficiency Board—dubbed "DOGE"—a new advisory body formed by Trump that Musk co-leads. Its mission is to streamline the federal government and reduce regulations. Musk has rarely left Trump’s side since the election, even moving to Mar-a-Lago, the president-elect’s unofficial headquarters in Palm Beach, Florida.
Musk has participated in key calls with Trump, ranging from conversations with Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky to Alphabet CEO Sundar Pichai. He has also openly advocated for Trump’s cabinet picks, such as proposing Brendan Carr to lead the Federal Communications Commission, a decision that could impact Musk’s businesses.
Throughout his campaign, Trump repeatedly vowed to use federal power to "retaliate" against political opponents.
Musk has shown a similar penchant for revenge throughout his career, relentlessly targeting enemies in both courtrooms and on social media.
"Sometimes I think my enemies list is too short," Musk once tweeted. "There’s a big graveyard filled with my enemies. I don’t want to add anyone to it, but I will if I have no other choice."
Bill Gates landed on that list after shorting Tesla stock, betting that the surplus of electric vehicles would decrease Musk’s company’s value. Musk retaliated by sharing a mocking image of Gates on X, accompanied by derisive comments.
Musk has also taken aim at advertisers who pulled out of X after his 2022 acquisition of the platform.
"Go to hell. Got that? Don’t advertise," Musk said at a New York Times event, directly targeting Disney CEO Bob Iger, one of the major advertisers to pause spending on X.
In August, Musk sued a coalition of advertisers, alleging their boycott was illegal. "We tried being peaceful for two years. Now it’s war," Musk declared on X. The coalition denied wrongdoing but canceled a brand safety initiative that Musk had criticized.
Last year, Musk challenged Mark Zuckerberg to a physical fight after Meta, co-founded by Zuckerberg, launched Threads, a rival platform to X.
The two sparred online for months. The idea of a fight seemed to fizzle when Musk said he might need surgery. However, in May, Musk reignited the feud during Trump’s campaign. "I’ve offered to fight him anywhere, anytime, under any rules, but all I hear is crickets," Musk wrote on X.
Musk’s rivalry with Bezos is also longstanding. The two have battled for the top spot on Forbes’ billionaire rankings for years, with Musk now at $447 billion and Bezos at $249 billion, according to Bloomberg’s December 12 report.
The competition extends to space exploration. In 2021, Bezos’ space company Blue Origin protested SpaceX’s $2.9 billion NASA contract for a lunar lander. Musk responded by nicknaming Bezos’ company "Sue Origin" after Blue Origin filed a lawsuit with the Federal Aviation Administration (FAA), claiming SpaceX launches were environmentally harmful.
Many fear Musk’s growing closeness to Trump could give him an unfair advantage in business rivalries.
Democratic Congressman Adam Smith, a senior member of the House Armed Services Committee, expressed concern about Musk’s growing influence and its implications for fair competition.
"When I see Trump making decisions, and Musk as well, I get worried. Musk clearly has a significant influence," Smith said.
SpaceX is currently seeking NASA and U.S. Space Force approval for numerous Starship rocket launches at Cape Canaveral and the Kennedy Space Center. Rivals like Boeing fear that if SpaceX succeeds, it could monopolize launch pad usage.
Meanwhile, U.S. automakers are closely watching how Trump’s upcoming administration interacts with Tesla. Musk has supported eliminating a $7,500 federal tax credit for electric vehicles, which he believes would hurt Tesla less than its competitors.
Other Trump policies, such as proposed tariffs on Mexico, could also disadvantage Tesla’s rivals, many of which manufacture cars in Mexico for export to the U.S.
Executives at Facebook and Google worry Musk could push Trump’s administration to impose stricter regulations, such as enhanced antitrust scrutiny, sources say.
Some of Musk’s rivals have previously clashed with Trump. The president-elect once called Facebook a "public enemy" and Amazon a monopoly.
Facebook suspended Trump’s account after the January 6, 2021, Capitol riots. Zuckerberg, who did not endorse any candidate in this election, recently visited Trump at Mar-a-Lago, according to a source familiar with the matter.
Musk has continued to target Bezos on X post-election.
"Just learned tonight at Mar-a-Lago that Jeff Bezos told everyone Donald Trump would definitely lose, so they should sell all their Tesla and SpaceX shares," Musk posted, adding a laughing emoji.
Bezos responded, saying the claim was untrue.
As Trump prepares to take office, Musk’s competitors are rushing to lobby groups with ties to the president-elect, hoping to repair relationships with both Trump and Musk.
Others have taken a more public approach. Billionaire Mark Cuban, who supported Democratic candidate Kamala Harris, frequently clashed with Musk during the campaign but congratulated both Trump and Musk after the election results.
"You won fair and square," Cuban wrote.
However, Cuban declined to comment on how he plans to work with Musk and Trump’s administration. "I won’t answer that. I don’t talk politics," he said.
The Musk-Altman feud remains one of the most intense. Musk and Altman co-founded OpenAI in 2015 as a nonprofit counterweight to Google, with the mission of developing artificial general intelligence (AGI) for the benefit of humanity.
However, as funding pressures mounted, Altman and other co-founders rejected Musk’s 2017 bid to take control of the company, even though he was its primary donor. Musk left OpenAI’s board in 2018, shortly before the organization created a for-profit arm and secured significant investment from Microsoft. OpenAI now plans to transition into a for-profit company.
"I don’t trust OpenAI. I don’t trust Sam Altman. And I don’t think we should allow the world’s most powerful AI to be controlled by someone untrustworthy," Musk said in an October interview.
Musk’s lawsuit accuses Altman of deceiving him into funding OpenAI as a nonprofit while intending to turn it into a traditional for-profit company, betraying the organization’s mission.
OpenAI called the lawsuit "baseless." After leaving OpenAI, Musk founded a rival company, xAI.
Musk’s political influence could advantage xAI over Altman’s OpenAI, especially as some call on the federal government to regulate AI development.
Altman has long been a vocal advocate for government funding to advance AI. Before the election, OpenAI’s policy team met with both Trump’s and Harris’ campaigns to propose a "Manhattan Project" initiative for AI infrastructure.
"We’ve been clear since before the election that we see this as a bipartisan technology given its importance," said Chris Lehane, OpenAI’s vice president for global policy. "Every American wants to ensure we beat China in this field, which means OpenAI needs to be part of the conversation."
Trump is reportedly considering appointing an AI czar.
Despite Musk’s growing power, Altman has openly pushed back. After Musk filed a new lawsuit on November 15, Altman posted a screenshot from xAI’s chatbot, Grok, seemingly suggesting that Harris would make a better president than Trump.
When another X user shared screenshots showing Grok gave two answers—favoring both Trump and Harris—Musk reposted them, adding: "Shady Sam strikes again."
Still, Altman has been careful not to alienate the president-elect. On the morning of Trump’s victory, Altman posted a congratulatory message on X: "Congratulations, President Trump. I wish you tremendous success in your work."
Musk, meanwhile, appears more confident than ever. In a post on X earlier this month, he described the prospect of "gaining more enemies" in his new role as "great."
(Sources: WSJ, AFP, Reuters)
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