Roughly 10 months and several other a whole bunch of hundreds of thousands of {dollars} in marketing campaign contributions after it began, the alliance between Donald Trump and Elon Musk is formally over.
As the 2 strongest males on Earth ripped off their shirts and savagely tore into one another Thursday, the residents of the world regarded on, transfixed by the spectacle. However at the same time as the 2 antagonists flung fireballs at one another on their respective social networks, and as oddsmakers gamed out the potential outcomes, an necessary query was ignored: Who will change Musk as President Trump’s new tech BFF?
The query may appear untimely, even perhaps tangential, with all of the drama nonetheless unfolding. However given the president’s strategy to industrial and commerce coverage, and the stakes that hinge on being in his good graces, or in his canine home, it appears logical that one other savvy tech business billionaire will search to fill the seat that Musk simply vacated.
Right here’s a fast overview of the highest contenders and their respective strengths and weaknesses.
Sam Altman
The 40-year outdated cofounder and CEO of OpenAI has loads to achieve by claiming the “First Buddy” title. His firm’s giant language fashions are pushing the boundaries of synthetic intelligence, difficult longstanding assumptions and insurance policies round safety, ethics, privateness, and labor—all areas the place authorities regulation might come into play. Altman can also be searching for to construct an enormous community of AI information facilities, and he stood alongside Trump earlier this yr to announce the so-called Stargate challenge. The truth is, in line with some media stories, Trump’s assist of the Stargate challenge irked Musk, who has a rival AI service.
Mark Zuckerberg
It wasn’t way back that Trump mused in an interview about jailing Meta CEO Mark Zuckerberg. Zuck, whose varied social networking apps banned Trump after the January 6, 2020 storming of the Capitol, acquired the message and has been diligently at work since then trying to befriend Trump. Meta donated $1 million to the Trump inauguration in January and Zuckerberg was front-and-center throughout the inauguration festivities. On a Meta earnings name in January, Zuck even praised Trump for main an administration that “prioritizes American technology winning and that will defend our values and interests abroad.” Whereas Trump hasn’t repeated his threats of jailing the Meta CEO, the social networking firm is presently awaiting a verdict within the authorities’s antitrust lawsuit searching for to interrupt the corporate up.
Jeff Bezos
Jeff Bezos, the billionaire founding father of Amazon, is eager to fix fences with Trump, who he as soon as supplied to blast into house on certainly one of his rockets. There’s no love misplaced between the 2. In his first time period, Trump frequently railed concerning the Bezos-owned Washington Put up. This time period Bezos needs a reset, having visited Trump’s Mar-a-Lago resort and contributing to the inauguration. At stake for Bezos is Amazon’s sprawling enterprise, which encompasses the whole lot from retail to cloud computing and grocery shops. One other potential motivation for Bezos to take Musk’s place: the house race. Bezos’ Blue Origin competes immediately with Musk’s SpaceX, and Amazon’s Undertaking Kuiper web satellite tv for pc effort is a rival to Musk’s Starlink.
Tim Prepare dinner
As soon as often known as the Trump Whisperer for his ability at shielding Apple from Trump’s commerce insurance policies, Tim Prepare dinner’s star has not appeared to shine as brightly within the White Home throughout Trump’s second time period. The president’s tariffs haven’t exempted Apple as they did within the first time period, and in Might Trump even took a direct shot at Apple, threatening to impose 25% tariffs on its merchandise if the corporate didn’t transfer its iPhone manufacturing out of China and India, and into the U.S. “I had a little problem with Tim Cook,” Trump stated in Might, referring to abroad iPhone manufacturing. If Prepare dinner (or “Tim Apple” as Trump as soon as referred to him) can efficiently step into the breach left by Musk, it might be a grasp transfer.
This story was initially featured on Fortune.com
