Memes With Kanye And Trump, Joking With A Former Russian President And A Possible Federal Probe

Topline

The world’s wealthiest man Elon Musk had yet another eventful week, chumming up to Kanye West even as the rapper comes under fire for a series of antisemitic comments, trading barbs with Russia’s former President Dmitry Medvedev and potentially becoming the subject of a national security probe.

Elon Musk had yet another eventful week.

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Key Facts

Monday: Musk announced SpaceX had agreed to keep paying for StarLink in Ukraine, withdrawing its request to the Pentagon in which it had asked for $380 million in funding, after CNN reported Friday on the company saying it can no longer afford to provide the service.

Tuesday: Musk celebrates West’s purchase agreement of right-wing social media platform Parler, tweeting and later deleting a meme of Musk joining forces with West and former President Donald Trump, who founded Truth Social, as the “Three Musketeers” overlaid with their respective social media sites.

Wednesday: Musk returns to his day job as Tesla CEO, delivering third-quarter earnings numbers that fell short of expectations and making a number of brash proclamations in a call with investors, saying he thinks Tesla could one day surpass the combined market capitalization of the world’s largest companies Apple and Saudi Aramco (Tesla is now worth 15% of those two companies combined).

Tangent

Amid increased scrutiny over his ties to Russia, Musk began tweeting Thursday at Medvedev, congratulating the Putin ally on a “pretty good troll” for a joke about the outgoing U.K. Prime Minister and asking how the war was going in Bakhmut, with Medvedev telling Musk, “see you in Moscow on the Victory Day!”

Surprising Fact

Musk is arguably equally well-known as the most-followed Twitter troll and as the billionaire visionary behind the world’s sixth largest public company in Tesla and a $125 billion private company in SpaceX. The South Africa-born mogul caused a stir earlier this month when he outlined peace terms for Russia significantly different from what Ukraine or its allies, including the U.S., tout, proposing for Ukraine to give up part of its internationally recognized territory to its invading neighbor. Musk adopted the terms from a recent conversation he had with Putin, Eurasia Group founder Ian Bremmer reported last week, though Musk denied the report.

Key Background

Though Musk still holds the largest fortune in the world by a large margin, according to our calculations, he has lost more than $100 billion since last November, largely tied to a precipitous drop in Tesla’s stock price. Shares of the electric vehicle giant have largely fallen as investors react to Musk selling off billions of dollars of shares to finance his Twitter acquisition. Wedbush analyst Dan Ives called the Twitter deal a “brutal situation for Tesla investors” in a Friday note to clients.

Big Number

29%. That’s how much Tesla shares are down over the last month, compared to a 1.4% decline for the S&P 500.