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chafkin.bsky.social
Writer at Bloomberg Businessweek. Host, “Citizen Elon.” Author of “The Contarian: Peter Thiel and Silicon Valley’s Pursuit of Power.” Msg me on signal: @chafkin.83
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but i'd been told that everyone in silicon valley says AGI is coming next year!!! futurism.com/ai-researche...

This week's pod features a great conversation with @amandamull.bsky.social talking about Tesla, the (misguided?) brand, and an update on SpaceX with me and @danahull.bsky.social www.bloomberg.com/news/article...

this is a really smart piece by @amandamull.bsky.social that explains why the galaxy brain take that elon went right wing to sell evs to magas makes no sense www.bloomberg.com/news/article...

The Facebook tell all is devastating, not only because of the allegations of serious abuse, but because it suggests that the abuse IS company’s culture. FB’s insistence that it should control an ex employees speech makes this allegation all the more believable

Really enjoyed this conversation and looking forward to the rest of the series!

wild

…it’s uh not working

Weird on a few levels. First off b/c the order doesn’t apply to Macmillan…so it seems mostly to be an effort to get to get the author to not do press as a contractural matter. Which…interesting view of free speech from a supposedly radically pro free speech company

been thinking about Musk-Trump trade, who is giving up what, and who gets what...and increasingly I think its clear that Trump is coming out ahead. wrote a bit about that, and why it should worry Musk's investors www.bloomberg.com/news/newslet...

New podcast ep about customer anger at Musk. Don’t think investors really get how mad many dems are, and how Tesla has become the main way to express anger at a bunch of really unpopular Trump stuff www.bloomberg.com/news/article...

seems like a problem?

Tesla's stock is now below its close on Nov. 4. The so called Trump Trade is falling apart, at least w/r/t Tesla. Wonder what it means for private fundraising efforts for SpaceX and XAI

free speeching very strongly www.washingtonpost.com/technology/2...

There is a LOT here. Meta disputes it all, but NBC is citing documents and sources that support the authors' account. Among the funniest deets: Zuck's employees let him win Catan www.nbcnews.com/tech/social-...

this was a good piece, particularly the note about whispers from sources. The thing thats frustrating is there are LOTS of people, many of them quite bullish on AI who don't think LLMs are anywhere near turning into computer gods, and laugh the AGI discourse off maxread.substack.com/p/the-ai-bac...

This is interesting. Musks photoshops Trumps Truth Social post, cutting out the graph about only using a scalpel instead of a hatchet

tesla sales are full on collapsing in germany www.bloomberg.com/news/article...

odd reaction to a serious accusation?

suspect the $400mm armored cybertruck (and the like) is gonna be a much bigger deal politically than ppl appreciate. much of DOGE's actual work is hard to understand, a lot of it has been challenged successfully in court. this, otoh, is dead simple www.blumenthal.senate.gov/newsroom/pre...

Wrote about Vivek’s run for governor and the awkwardness around doge, which is already looking pretty unpopular www.bloomberg.com/news/newslet...

This week's episode of Elon Inc is a LIVE TAPING that features me, @chafkin.bsky.social and special guest @makenakelly.bsky.social of WIRED! Talking all things "DOGE." Give us a listen and share with your friends podcasts.apple.com/us/podcast/d...

We went deep on doge this week. Featuring @makenakelly.bsky.social @danahull.bsky.social @kurtwagner.bsky.social www.bloomberg.com/news/article...

what could be causing this? www.bloomberg.com/news/article...

I loved this conversation. Lizzie has been covering the Musk takeover of government so well, and was an honor to talk to her about this stuff

⚡Citizen Elon got award nomination!!! @chafkin.bsky.social!!! www.ambies.com/2025-nominees

guess who is building elon's factories www.bloomberg.com/news/feature...

Musk is like a layoff auteur

🙃

One thing they I don’t think is well appreciated, yet, is how big a deal the DOGE cuts will be outside of DC and how mad people are going to get. So I wrote about Elon’s attempt to defund a bunch of Lutheran charities www.bloomberg.com/news/feature...

New from me in @bw this month

DOGE is a government efficiency program. Is it also a giant bail out for Elon Musk. We go deep with @jwherrman.bsky.social and @danahull.bsky.social www.bloomberg.com/news/article...

Also if you are wondering where Elon Musk's political journey began, and what happened in 2024 to change the electoral world of US, @chafkin.bsky.social hosted a whole podcast about it open.spotify.com/episode/2oEe...

sounds like musk's kind of guy www.reuters.com/world/us/tru...

important public service journalism here from @svaneksmith.bsky.social www.bloomberg.com/news/newslet...

Fascinated to see how this plays in the tech world. Has long been a top priority for vc donors. Imagine sacks, andreessen etc are quietly flipping out

its genuinely amazing how in the span of like two years we went from ceos saying "Zoom will save the American heartland remote work is changing everything" and other obviously insane things to "RTO OR YOUR FIRED!"

lol same! www.bloomberg.com/news/article...

so the atlantic says that Trump basically nixed one of the Doge Kids. But the NYT has him all over the effort at treasury.

new podcast! featuring @danahull.bsky.social @whereisted.bsky.social and @anthonycormier.bsky.social on Bloomberg's DOGE kids scoop. And me, asking the questions www.bloomberg.com/news/article...

white house just sent an email complaining about "fake news" about the IRS free filing program. not mentioned in the note is that the source of this fake news was...Elon Musk who claimed the program was "deleted" (it's not)