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Silicon Valley aghast at the Musk-Trump divorce

Tech industry fears fallout from breakdown in relationship between Tesla boss and US president

At stake was an alliance between the tech world and the populist right that not only helped return Trump to office but also one that founders and investors had hoped would herald an era of tax cuts and deregulation, as well as an open door to crypto and artificial intelligence. Jared Isaacman alongside the recovered first stage of a SpaceX Falcon 9 rocket © Patrick T. Fallon/AFP/Getty ImagesSome of those considered to be at risk were crypto and AI tsar David Sacks, policy adviser Sriram Krishnan, and Michael Grimes, Musk’s former banker at Morgan Stanley, now an official at the Department of Commerce. Behind the scenes, prominent Silicon Valley figures were desperately trying to prevent Musk from appearing on an emergency episode of the podcast, according to two people familiar with the matter, out of concern that the billionaire would make the dispute even worse and poison the relationship with tech’s most powerful ally in Washington, vice-president JD Vance.

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