Alan Cole, senior economist at the Tax Foundation, took that bet, telling WSJ reporter Richard Rubin how and why he dropped $342,195.63 into a prediction-market wager on the Kalshi platform. Cole said that he looked at the terms of the Kalshi wager and saw an opportunity, because he did not believe anything Musk would do would significantly curtail spending on interest on the national debt or entitlements like Social Security and Medicare, especially as America's population continued to age.
After buying Twitter, Elon Musk rebuilt it to his own specifications and preferences. This resulted in an environment we may gently call friendlier to the discussion and promotion of right-wing politics. The goal motivated his purchase and subsequent management and product decisions, and people who still use the platform will agree, in a narrow sense, that its character has changed. From the left: Elon Musk turned Twitter into 4chan for government officials and tech workers.
Driving the news: Musk took to X on Friday to celebrate the release of Medicaid data on claims, medical procedures and payments from January 2018 through December 2024. "Medicaid data has been open sourced, so the level of fraud is easy to identify," Musk wrote. "DOGE is not a department, it's a state of mind." The Department of Health and Human Services collects Medicaid claims data from states that administer the program. Until now, much of the information has been fragmented and difficult to access.
"For those unaware, SpaceX has already shifted focus to building a self-growing city on the Moon, as we can potentially achieve that in less than 10 years, whereas Mars would take 20+ years," Musk wrote on X. "The mission of SpaceX remains the same: extend consciousness and life as we know it to the stars." "The overriding priority is securing the future of civilization and the Moon is faster," Musk added.
The SpaceX and Tesla CEO is by far the richest person in the world. Per the Bloomberg Billionaires Index, he is worth $668 billion. The second-richest person in the world, Larry Page, is worth $285 billion. Musk's wealth has soared by $49 billion since the start of the year, buoyed by SpaceX's high valuation and news of its merger with his AI startup, XAI.
The government is preparing a series of measures including a social media ban for under-16s, the prime minister, Pedro Sanchez, said, promising to protect children from the digital wild west and hold tech companies responsible for hateful and harmful content. Sanchez said on Tuesday that urgent action was needed because social media was a failed state where laws are ignored and crimes are tolerated.
PayPal ( NASDAQ:PYPL ) shares are falling 18% in morning trading today after the company reported fourth-quarter earnings that missed expectations . Adjusted earnings came in at $1.23 per share, below the $1.29 consensus estimate, while revenue reached $8.68 billion against forecasts of $8.79 billion. The shortfall stemmed from softer consumer spending and slower growth in its branded checkout business, which rose just 1% year-over-year. For 2026, PayPal guided for adjusted profit to decline in the low single digits or be slightly positive, well under the 8% growth analysts expected.
The French offices of Elon Musk's X are being raided by local police, according to the Paris prosecutor's office. The search is being carried out by a cybercrime unit in relation to an investigation opened in January 2025, the Paris Prosecutor's office said in an X post on Tuesday. X has faced investigations and backlash in Europe over sexual images generated by its AI chatbot Grok.
Elon Musk is spending big to help the GOP win the midterms. The world's richest man gave $5 million apiece in December to two super PACs tied to House and Senate GOP leadership, according to new disclosures filed with the Federal Election Commission on Saturday. That includes the Congressional Leadership Fund, which backs GOP House candidates, along with the Senate Leadership Fund. While Musk's contributions have been previously reported, the disclosures put a precise dollar amount on Musk's new investments.
"Elon is an American treasure but also a desperately incentivized futurist even earlier than me," the investor of "The Big Short" fame posted on X late Thursday. Burry, known for making premature but ultimately correct predictions, likely meant the Tesla and SpaceX CEO stands to profit enormously from his vision becoming reality, so he's highly motivated to hype it as much as he can. "I am glad he is here in America," Burry wrote on his Substack. "He will go down in history like PT Barnum and Thomas Edison," he added, referring to the legendary showman and founder of the Barnum & Bailey Circus, and the iconic inventor who helped refine the electric light bulb.
As I'm here in Africa, I'm deeply disappointed to hear that SpaceX's launch failure destroyed our satellite that would have provided connectivity to so many entrepreneurs and everyone else across the continent. Further replying to a user's query on the insurance of the satellite, the very irked Zuckerberg quipped, The problem isn't the money; it's that now it may take longer to connect people.
Tesla CEO and billionaire Elon Musk has long garnered a reputation for being massively wrong in his promises and predictions about the future. In 2024, for instance, he said that AI would become "smarter than the smartest human" by 2025. He said his company's SpaceX Starship rocket, which is still exploding during test flights, will land on Mars this year. Like clockwork, he's predicted that self-driving cars will become a reality "next year" every year for well over a decade now.
