By Alexandra Ulmer
LAS VEGAS (Portal) – U.S. Republican presidential candidate Vivek Ramaswamy confirmed to Portal on Saturday that Tesla Inc Chief Executive Elon Musk had attended a fundraiser for him in Northern California.
“He showed up late at night and we talked,” Ramaswamy said in an interview at the Republican Jewish Coalition (RJC) weekend donor meeting in Las Vegas.
Puck, a digital media company, reported this month that Musk recently attended a fundraising event in Silicon Valley hosted by prolific SPAC investor Chamath Palihapitiya.
Asked whether Musk might donate to him, Ramaswamy said: “My only conversations with Elon were about… the cultural direction of the country.”
“He and I are increasingly alone in this world as free speech absolutists, and I think that differs from many people in both parties. I think that’s something he and I agree on,” Ramaswamy said.
Portal was not immediately able to reach Musk for comment. An email sent to an address associated with Palihapitiya was not immediately returned.
Florida governor and presidential candidate Ron DeSantis has also been seen courting Musk, who is the world’s richest man with an estimated fortune of $222 billion, according to Forbes.
Musk said in June 2022 that he might support DeSantis in the 2024 presidential election, and DeSantis subsequently posted a flawed launch of his presidential candidacy on Musk’s social media page X, formerly known as Twitter.
Since then, Ramaswamy has held his own X Spaces talks events with Musk. “Hopefully we’ll do some more of these X Spaces,” he said Saturday.
(Reporting by Alexandra Ulmer; Editing by David Gregorio)