Editor BizNews Elon Musk is leveraging his wealth, corporate influence, and technological reach to support Donald Trump’s 2024 presidential bid, raising questions about potential conflicts of interest. Musk’s business empire, from Tesla and SpaceX to social media platform X, is intertwined with government policies, grants, and regulations. His proximity to the White House could influence federal agencies, reshape public policy, and boost his personal ventures, blurring lines between politics, technology, and power in unprecedented ways. Sign up for your early morning brew of the BizNews Insider to keep you up to speed with the content that matters. The newsletter will land in your inbox at 5:30am weekdays. Register here. The seventh BizNews Conference, BNC#7, is to be held in Hermanus from March 11 to 13, 2025. The 2025 BizNews Conference is designed to provide an excellent opportunity for members of the BizNews community to interact directly with the keynote speakers, old (and new) friends from previous BNC events – and to interact with members of the BizNews team. Register for BNC#7 here. By Liam Denning, Thomas Black and Dave Lee___STEADY_PAYWALL___ Terraforming Mars may be a pipe dream, but Elon Musk is all in on colonizing somewhere closer to home: the White House. The world’s richest man is lavishing money and vast corporate resources on ensuring Donald Trump is reelected as the US president. The web of contracts and subsidies that bind his empire to government largess have not prevented him from inserting himself into America’s fraught politics — and, depending on the outcome, ever more deeply into the fabric of society and national security. Billionaires, corporate titans and anyone else with financial interests on the line rarely offer their wealth and time gratis. So what is Musk after, and what potential conflicts of interest arise when someone with such broad influence throws himself into one of the most consequential elections in US history? After all, the man behind Tesla Inc., X Corp., Space Exploration Technologies Corp. and a host of other companies isn’t simply campaigning for the man who might be president again. Musk may also join a potential second Trump administration. While the boundaries between business and politics in the US have always been malleable, for better and worse, Musk’s roles and reach raise unprecedented questions about self-dealing and the evaporation of ethical, legal and financial guidelines meant to protect the public interest and good government. Consider Musk’s sway, built over an undeniably remarkable career. Tesla brought electric vehicles into the mainstream, forcing the legacy automobile industry to play catch-up. SpaceX made the US competitive again in the commercial rocket business. Starlink, a SpaceX subsidiary, offers a satellite-based communication network that spans the globe. X, the social media platform formerly known as Twitter, still shapes public opinion with a keystroke, despite its pell-mell management and transformation into a font of disinformation and muck under Musk. Musk’s foothold in Trump’s orbit could add direct policymaking power to his business portfolio — giving him a say on public finances and an opportunity to bring his special brand of “moving fast and breaking things” to the foundations of popular programs such as Social Security and Medicare. Musk treads a well-worn path; his mix of innovation, industrial heft, penchant for racist conspiracy theories and overt eccentricities recall the likes of Henry Ford and Howard Hughes.