The tycoon Elon Musk was received this Monday in Israel by Benjamin Netanyahu with treatment comparable to that of a head of state or government. The businessman returned the visit to the Israeli prime minister, with whom he was in California in September. Musk has traveled to launder his image: Major advertisers fled his social network X after the tycoon supported an anti-Semitic message. But in return for the clearance, it will hand over control of its Starlink communications network in Gaza to the Israeli government. The way Musk engages with world leaders is the best example of the position of power that big tech companies have gained in global geopolitics, especially since the war in Ukraine. The intersection between strategic and business interests is a cause for concern.
“The geopolitical role of tech companies is evident in the war in Ukraine, debunking the myth that platforms like Facebook, Google and YouTube are neutral actors,” says Audrey Kurth Cronin, a security professor at Carnegie Mellon University from Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania. in an article published by the Kissinger Center for Global Affairs. Microsoft has protected Ukraine from cyberattacks and Google has removed some images of Ukraine from its maps, but it has undoubtedly been the satellite network of Starlink, Musk’s company integrated into SpaceX, that has played a more crucial and sometimes controversial role in maintaining internet connectivity in Ukraine .
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Commercial interests and geopolitics have historically gone hand in hand, and wars for economic reasons have their roots in ancient times. The struggle for resources and territory precedes religious, cultural or ideological conflicts. The influence of companies on the foreign policy of powers or economic and economic diplomacy is also not new. In the current situation, however, there are formal and substantive innovations.
Instead of behind-the-scenes moves, Musk often tweets his ideas and events unfiltered. But there is also a substantive difference: in the past, giants like the Dutch East India Company, which monopolized trade routes in the 17th and 18th centuries and whose real market value was even higher than that of Big Tech, were supervised by their governments, which a exercise a certain degree of supervision, explains Kurth Cronin. “Today that is no longer the case. The autonomy of today’s big tech companies makes them unusual, and many companies are innovating faster than government bureaucracy can handle,” he says.
Innovation in space
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Space is just one example of this innovation. SpaceX (owned by Musk) and Blue Origin (controlled by Amazon founder Jeff Bezos) are at the forefront and the US government is tasking them with returning to the moon. Bezos is planning a satellite network to rival that of Starlink, but when the war in Ukraine began, Musk was the only one who could guarantee connectivity in the territory: “The Starlink service is already active in Ukraine. More terminals are on the way,” the tycoon tweeted on February 26, 2022, in response to a senior Kyiv government official.
This aid to Ukraine was accompanied by a surge in disinformation and Russian propaganda through its social network. The notoriety gained with Starlink gave the tycoon wings to launch his own proposals. In October 2022, he published his peace plan for the conflict on Twitter, which included, among other things, consultations in the Russian-occupied territories and the handover of Crimea to Moscow.
Musk last year rejected a request to deploy his Starlink satellites to facilitate a Ukrainian attack on Russia’s Black Sea military fleet. “If I had accepted their request, SpaceX would explicitly be involved in a major act of war and an escalation of the conflict,” the tycoon explained when the story broke. His biographer Walter Isaacson assured EL PAÍS in September that this incident made Musk “realize that he shouldn’t have so much power.”
Days after meeting Netanyahu, Musk met with Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan in New York to discuss the possible opening of a Tesla factory. This month he attended a meeting with Chinese President Xi Jinping in San Francisco, which was also attended by Apple CEO Tim Cook. Some of these meetings are part of traditional economic diplomacy, which focuses on investments, legal certainty and new markets. China is crucial for Apple and Tesla. The question is what happens when tech companies’ business interests intersect with Washington’s diplomatic priorities. Would Musk confront Beijing by giving Taiwan Internet access via Starlink in the event of a conflict?
Currently in Israel, Musk has an agreement with the government not to allow access to his system without permission from the Ministry of Communications. His owner, Shlomo Karhi, congratulated him: “This understanding is vital for everyone who wants a better world, free from evil and free from anti-Semitism, for the benefit of our children,” he wrote in the magnate’s own social network. As owner of, he was leading its global affairs and communications office when the Cambridge Analytica scandal exploded.
The United States has limited Chinese access to powerful American microprocessors, but the new diplomatic-technological front is artificial intelligence, where companies are ahead of governments. The head of OpenAI (fired and replaced in just five days) has been traveling the world as an ambassador for the new technology. He was in England this month with British Prime Minister Rishi Sunak, whom he had already seen on a previous trip in May, during which he stopped at the Moncloa Palace, where he met the President of the Spanish government, Pedro Sánchez.
Altman had recently attended with Alphabet CEO Sundar Pichai; Microsoft, Satya Nadella and Anthropic, Dario Amodei, at the White House for a meeting with Vice President of the United States Kamala Harris, also attended by President Joe Biden. A month ago, Biden dusted off an old Korean War-era law (1950-1953) to pass a decree forcing tech companies to inform the U.S. government of any advances that pose a “serious risk to national security.” represents. .
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