• Javier Milei, the Argentine leader who has inspired Elon Musk, says he plans to cut how many taxes there are.
• He said he was planning to "eliminate 90% of taxes — not revenue, but the number of taxes."
• Musk and Vivek Ramaswamy, co-heads of DOGE, are looking to radically trim the US federal government.

Argentina's President Javier Milei says he will reform the Argentine tax system to have no more than 6 taxes.

In a clip from an interview with Forbes Argentina, published on Sunday, Milei said: "We'll advance privatization, deepen labor reforms, and eliminate 90% of taxes — not revenue, but the number of taxes — moving to a simplified system with no more than six taxes at most."

It would be the latest sweeping move by a firebrand president who has inspired members of the incoming Trump administration.

Since taking power on December 10, 2023, Milei has presided over sweeping cuts. He fired tens of thousands of public employees, shut down half the country's 18 ministries, and reduced state spending by an estimated 31% in his first 10 months alone — making good on his pledge to take a "chainsaw" to the state.

Milei's actions caught the attention of Elon Musk and Vivek Ramaswamy, the men now charged with a similar task under President-elect Donald Trump.

Last month, Musk said Argentina had made "impressive progress,'" while Ramaswamy said that the US needed "Milei-style cuts on steroids."

In the interview, Milei said his administration had only accomplished the "first step" of its plan, and that what was coming next was the "deep chainsaw."

"It is not only a question of deregulating and removing these obstacles, but it also implies a new reform of the state to make it even smaller," he said.

Milei added that his administration has so far only implemented a quarter of the reforms it wants to pursue.

Argentina's latest economic figures suggest the country may be turning a corner after struggling economically.

Argentina's inflation dropped from 25.5% in December 2023 to 2.4% in November 2024. However, unemployment rose to 6.9% in Q3, from 5.7% in the same period last year.

Economic activity, meanwhile, grew 3.9% in Q3, compared to Q2.

According to BBVA projections, Argentina will achieve a fiscal balance in 2024 for the first time in 15 years. It also said that it expects Argentina's GDP to rebound strongly next year, from a 3.8% deficit in 2024 to 5.5% in 2025, driven by investments and private consumption.

However, Facundo Nejamkis, director of Opina Argentina, a political consultancy firm, told Reuters this month that Milei's cuts had ignited a "major" recession, and according to Argentina's statistics agency, the country's poverty rate rose to 52.9% in the first half of 2024, the highest rate in 30 years.

Speaking at an event at Argentina's Chamber of Commerce and Services last month, Milei said the recession was "over," after the country had gone through "a difficult period of effort and pain."

And in an episode of the Lex Fridman podcast last month, Milei advised Musk and Ramaswamy to go "all the way" in cutting US federal spending.

Reacting to Milei's latest interview on X, where he talked about eliminating the taxes, Musk wrote one word: "Impressive."

How did Elon Musk go from being an Obama supporter to a self-described "dark MAGA" Trump ally? Here's a look at the relationship between two billionaires ahead of the second Trump presidency.

• Elon Musk endorsed shutting down the government until Trump takes office on January 20.
• He and Vivek Ramaswamy are leading a MAGA online pressure campaign against a must-pass funding bill.
• Some GOP lawmakers are listening, and Trump eventually came out against the bill.

In a post on X on Wednesday afternoon, Elon Musk endorsed the idea of shutting the government down until January 20, the date that President-elect Donald Trump is set to be sworn into office.

It was the latest missive in a pressure campaign that Musk, along with fellow DOGE co-lead Vivek Ramaswamy and a host of hardline Republicans on Capitol Hill, have been leading against a so-called "continuing resolution" that would fund the government through March 14.

Just over an hour later, Trump and Vice-President-elect JD Vance called on Republicans to renegotiate the bill in a joint statement, saying that the current one contained too many "giveaways" to Democrats.

Trump and Vance also called on Congress to raise the debt ceiling, a task that lawmakers had not contemplated as part of the funding bill and that they had planned to tackle in the first months of the new year.

"I expected Elon to go off on this a little bit," Republican Sen. Markwayne Mullin of Oklahoma, a staunch Trump ally, told reporters on Wednesday. Mullin said that he remains undecided on the bill, but said that Musk's and others' campaign would "greatly" affect its fate in the House, where lawmakers could take a vote as soon as Wednesday evening.

Opponents of the bill have pointed to a range of provisions that they view as wasteful, including an extension of pandemic preparedness legislation, provisions to allow the Washington Commanders to use the old RFK stadium in Washington, DC, funding for the Global Engagement Center at the Department of State, and a provision that will allow lawmakers to see a modest pay increase for the first time since 2009.

Wednesday's pressure campaign, which ramped up over the course of the day after Musk and Ramaswamy expressed initial opposition to the bill, provided an early glimpse of how the two men may approach government spending fights under Trump. Both of them are leading an initiative tasked with recommending up to $2 trillion in cuts to government spending by 2026.

Musk and Ramaswamy's voices appeared to only be amplified by the fact that Trump himself didn't weigh in on the bill until late in the day.

"What we've heard from both Elon Musk and Vivek Ramaswamy is they want us to shut down government," said Republican Sen. Mitt Romney of Utah, according to HuffPost. "Is that the posture of the President?"

Several House Republicans directly cited Musk and Ramaswamy as they expressed their opposition to the bill on Wednesday, while others invoked DOGE to pressure their colleagues to join them in voting against the bill.

"So many members of Congress want the clout of working with @DOGE and @ElonMusk," Republican Rep. Lauren Boebert of Colorado wrote on X. "Only a handful are actually interested in cutting spending."

Musk also wrote that "any member of the House or Senate who votes for this outrageous spending bill deserves to be voted out in 2 years!"

Just as Musk's prior pressure campaign to install Sen. Rick Scott of Florida as Senate GOP leader failed, Wednesday's campaign against the continuing resolution appeared to show the limits of Musk's grasp on Capitol Hill and legislation.

Both Musk himself and the DOGE X account claimed that the bill would increase lawmakers' salaries by 40%, a vastly inflated figure. According to the Congressional Research Service, the maximum possible increase would be 3.8%.

• Javier Milei became Argentina's president a year ago, partly on a pledge to slash the state.
• Elon Musk and Vivek Ramaswamy, co-heads of DOGE, have expressed admiration for Milei's policies.
• While his government brought inflation down, his approaches have also triggered a recession.

When Javier Milei took office on December 10, 2023, the firebrand Argentine president inherited an economy in meltdown. Milei promised to take a "chainsaw" to the state.

Since then, he has presided over sweeping spending cuts, fired tens of thousands of public employees, shut down half the country's 18 ministries, and devalued the peso against the dollar by over 50%. He cut state spending by an estimated 31% in his first 10 months alone.

The measures caught the attention of Elon Musk and Vivek Ramaswamy, the men now charged with a similar task under President-elect Donald Trump.

Last month, Musk said Argentina had made "impressive progress,'" while Ramaswamy said that the US needed "Milei-style cuts on steroids."

Falling inflation

A year into Milei's term in office, BI took a look at the figures.

When Milei took over in December 2023, Argentina's inflation stood at 25.5%, while economic activity had fallen 4.5% year over year.

Argentina's inflation rate dropped to 2.7% this October — the lowest level in three years, according to the predicting market website Kalshi.

Ignacio Labaqui, a senior analyst at Medley Global Advisors, a leading macro policy research service, called this a "success" for Milei.

He said that Milei "managed to bring inflation down faster than expected despite starting his term with a 100% increase in the exchange rate and hiking longtime frozen utilities' tariffs — two measures that have an inflationary impact."

However, Facundo Nejamkis, director of Opina Argentina, a political consultancy firm, told Reuters that Milei's cuts have ignited a "major" recession.

Unemployment up

According to BBVA projections, Argentina's GDP contracted by 3.4% in the first half of 2024, and it is expected to decline by 4% for the full year.

The country's unemployment rate also rose to 7.6% in Q2, up from 6.2% in the same period last year, according to Argentina's statistics agency.

Maria Victoria Murillo, director of the Institute of Latin American Studies at Columbia University, told BI last month that the "deep" recession, while "very painful," has been accepted by Argentinians because inflation was "terrible" and people "do not want to go back."

Meanwhile, according to Argentina's statistics agency, the country's poverty rate rose to 52.9% in the first half of 2024, up from 41.7% in the second half of 2023.

This was the highest rate in 30 years, per a research team at the Observatory of the Argentine Social Debt, which keeps track of key economic indicators.

While acknowledging declining inflation, it said growing poverty was a result of Milei's "shock" economic plan and structural issues, including the devaluation of the peso.

Falling inflation "does not yet translate into a greater capacity for household consumption," it said.

Fiscal balance

There are, however, some signs of recovery.

In the first five months of 2024, Argentina's government achieved a primary fiscal surplus of 1.1% of GDP — its first in 12 years.

This is Milei's "most remarkable achievement," said Labaqui of Medley Global Advisors, who said the fiscal surplus, together with the exchange rate anchor, brought inflation down faster than expected.

BBVA Research, for its part, said that it expects Argentina's GDP to rebound strongly next year, from a 4% deficit in 2024 to 6% in 2025, driven by investments, exports, and private consumption.

Juan Cruz Díaz, managing director at Cefeidas Group, an international advisory firm, told BI that "one year later, it can be argued that the economic landscape has certainly improved, although there is still a long way to go."

He said that Argentina is still expected to end 2024 with an accumulated inflation of 120%, one of the highest in the world, but a sharp decline from 2023's 211%.

"In addition, Milei has promoted a regime to attract large foreign investments in certain sectors of the economy, with some initiatives already underway," he said.

Cruz Díaz added that one of the surprising aspects of the last year has been Milei's ability to "keep his public image relatively stable throughout the year, despite having implemented deep cuts in public spending, along with other measures generally considered unpopular and politically costly, such as the elimination of subsidies for energy and other essential services."

This is something that could be of particular interest to Musk and Ramaswamy, as they look at sweeping federal budget cuts in the US.

Labaqui, for his part, said keeping Argentina's current trajectory will depend on whether Milei's party performs "strongly" in next year's legislative elections.

"Inflation certainly is falling at a faster-than-anticipated pace," he said, "and there is an incipient economic rebound, but there is still a lot to do to bring the economy back on track."

• Elon Musk and Vivek Ramaswamy, the co-leads of DOGE, visited Capitol Hill on Thursday.
• GOP lawmakers were generally upbeat about the duo's plan to cut spending.
• But the details of how they'll do it remain vague.

Elon Musk and Vivek Ramaswamy paid a visit to Capitol Hill on Thursday, meeting with GOP lawmakers in both the House and Senate to discuss their much-anticipated "Department of Government Efficiency," otherwise known as DOGE.

But while their visit generated all of the buzz that one might expect from an opportunity to catch a glimpse of the world's richest man, it left little clarity about what, exactly, President-elect Donald Trump's new government-efficiency effort would actually do.

"There won't be a lot of detail for the press today, and that's by design," House Speaker Mike Johnson told reporters. "This is a brainstorming session."

Musk and Ramaswamy had spent their mornings meeting separately with an array of GOP senators to discuss government efficiency. With Johnson in tow, they were now meeting with members of the House and Senate's newly formed DOGE caucus in the Capitol basement. After that, they would speak with a larger group of Republicans in a nearby auditorium. Democrats were apparently not invited to any of those meetings, despite a handful of them expressing interest in the new project. "I would have liked to attend the meeting," Democratic Rep. Tom Suozzi of New York wrote on X, calling the one-party nature of the affair "unfortunate."

With all of the attention that DOGE is generating (at least 100 reporters and staff members had assembled outside the basement meeting room to catch a glimpse of Musk, who was carrying his son X-Æ-12 on his shoulders) it still remains unclear how the initiative will achieve Musk's goal of $2 trillion in spending cuts — and which programs might end up on the chopping block.

That's despite the best efforts of the Capitol Hill press corps, who peppered Republican Sen. Thom Tillis of North Carolina with several such questions as he left a meeting with Ramaswamy on Thursday morning.

How would DOGE succeed when so many previous government reform initiatives have failed? "You're way too ahead, that question is way too early for this process," Tillis replied.

Does Musk have too many conflicts of interest to run DOGE, given some of his companies' reliance on government largesse? "You're way too early, you're already anticipating what the priorities are going to be," Tillis replied.

Were there any specific departments discussed in the meeting? "Way too early," Tillis replied.

Despite the lack of broad clarity, Musk and Ramaswamy have laid out some initial plans for DOGE, including using recent Supreme Court rulings to challenge and roll back existing regulations, reevaluate federal government's contracts, shrink the federal workforce, and going after taxpayer funding for organizations like Planned Parenthood. Musk has also indicated an interest in addressing wasteful spending in the military, drawing the interest of progressives.

Republicans also have their own long-standing pet projects that they're eager to see DOGE take up. Sen. Joni Ernst of Iowa, the chair of the Senate DOGE caucus, has already identified $2 trillion in cuts that she'd like to see. More broadly, Republicans are generally eager to shrink government expenditures at any chance they might get.

Rep. David Schweikert, a debt-obsessed Republican from Arizona, told BI that his initial skepticism about Musk and Ramaswamy was assuaged after attending the DOGE caucus meeting with the duo, which he said focused more on the mechanics of how cuts might be pursued than specific line items to be targeted.

"There seemed to be a much deeper understanding of the structural issues and structural barriers than I expected," said Schweikert. "I left genuinely impressed."

Johnson told reporters that Thursday's meeting were the "beginning of a journey" for lawmakers, and he's probably right.

It's hard to see DOGE coming anywhere close to $2 trillion in cuts without touching entitlement programs like Social Security, Medicaid, and Medicare, which would likely become a major political headache for Republicans if pursued.

And the organization that Musk and Ramaswamy are set to run will only be able to make recommendations. While Trump may seek to veer into legally treacherous terrain by asserting his authority to simply refuse to spend congressionally approved funds, any major reform proposals will likely need the approval of majorities in both chambers — itself a treacherous task, given their slim majorities.

But as long as DOGE remains a collection of platitudes, everyone involved will be on the same page — and is eager to snap a selfie with Musk.

"This is sort of the opening bell, I think, of something that's going to be really great," said Republican Sen. Eric Schmitt of Missouri.

• DOGE is set to examine multibillion-dollar federal loans to two Tesla rivals.
• Vivek Ramaswamy said the cost-cutting body would "carefully scrutinize" loans to Stellantis and Rivian.
• There are concerns Musk may use his role to interfere with his companies' rivals, and regulators.

Vivek Ramaswamy said DOGE would investigate a federal loan worth about $7.5 billion to a Tesla rival.

The Biden administration said Monday it would help finance two battery factories in Indiana being built in a joint venture involving the Jeep owner Stellantis and Samsung.

The announcement provoked a furious reaction from one of the incoming Trump administration's chief cost-cutting advisors.

Vivek Ramaswamy, who was tapped to lead the Department of Government Efficiency alongside Tesla CEO Elon Musk, called the Stellantis loan "illegitimate" and said it should be rescinded.

The former Republican presidential candidate, who has been one of Donald Trump's most vocal supporters, also criticized a $6.6 billion loan to help finance a Rivian electric-vehicle plant in Georgia, which was announced last week.

"DOGE will carefully scrutinize every one of these questionable 11th-hour transactions, starting on Jan 20," he wrote on X.

Announcing the loan, the Department of Energy said the Stellantis-Samsung factories would support up to 2,800 jobs once operational and hire 3,200 workers during construction.

Ramaswamy's comments will likely add to fears that Musk, who runs companies including Tesla and SpaceX, could use DOGE to interfere with rivals and regulators.

Rivian and Stellantis, which owns brands such as Dodge and Citroën, both compete with Tesla in the US market.

Musk has already signaled his support for cutting the $7,500 tax incentive for new EVs, a move The New York Times said the incoming Trump administration was considering.

The Tesla CEO and analysts have both said that scrapping the tax credit would disproportionally affect Tesla's rivals, including legacy automakers such as Ford and General Motors as well as EV startups like Rivian and Lucid.

Musk and Ramaswamy aim to cut about $2 trillion in government spending and slash the federal workforce through DOGE, which is planned to be an advisory group, not a government department.

DOGE and the Department of Energy did not immediately respond to requests for comment.

• Elon Musk's xAI reportedly closed a $5 billion funding round last month at a $50 billion valuation.
• A Fidelity fund has boosted the value of its shares in xAI by 70%, according to filings.
• The fund also boosted the value of its shares in Musk-owned social media platform X by 32.4%.

Fidelity increased the value of its shares in two Elon Musk-owned companies in October, social media platform X and startup xAI, according to filings.

The financial giant, which invests in startups and large corporations through multiple mutual funds, has stakes in both companies via its Blue Chip Growth Fund.

That fund valued its xAI shares at $75,062,706 at the end of October, according to filings released publicly at the end of November. The fund had 3,688,585 shares at the end of July, according to an annual filing from August, which means the shares are currently valued at $20.35 each.

Last month, the fund valued its xAI shares at $44,152,362, or $11.96 each. That's a 70% jump from September to October.

Representatives for Fidelity did not immediately respond to a request for comment.

Fidelity's October markup for OpenAI rival, xAI, foreshadowed what turned out to be a huge month for Musk, who was tapped as President-elect Donald Trump's government efficiency boss in early November.

Later in the month, xAI closed a hotly anticipated $5 billion funding round reportedly from Qatar's sovereign-wealth fund, Qatar Investment Authority, as well as VC firms Sequoia Capital and Andreessen Horowitz, the Wall Street Journal reported.

xAI is now valued at $50 billion, which is more than double the $24 billion valuation it received earlier this year after its $6 billion Series B funding round.

The AI startup has made up significant ground on its rivals by using X as a source of third-party data, one of the main sources for training large language models.

Fidelity also bumped up the value of its X shares to $5,530,358 in October, according to the November filing. The bump followed months of Fidelity lowering the value of its shares of X.

The fund had 196,600 Class A shares of X at the end of July, according to an annual filing from August. That means the fund is currently valuing its shares of X at $28.13 a piece, which is a 32.4% jump from the previous month when the fund valued its X shares at $4,185,614, or $21.29 a pop.

Previously, Fidelity's value of X shares had dropped more than 80% compared to two years ago, when Musk, in October 2022, purchased X for $44 billion. While critics initially said he 'overpaid' for the social media platform, it is starting to bear fruit — including supporting his AI ambitions and winning favor with Trump.

At the time of the purchase, the Blue Chip Growth Fund invested $19.66 million, according to filings. Assuming the investment was made at X's $44 billion valuation, the fund last month estimated X's total value to be around $9.4 billion. For October, X's value is now estimated to be around $12.5 billion.

Fidelity's value in OpenAI, meanwhile, remained mostly unchanged from September to October. At least five Fidelity funds have a stake in the AI juggernaut, and Fidelity participated in OpenAI's $6.6 billion funding round to the tune of at least $100 million.

Four of the five funds held the same value for its OpenAI shares, and the firm's Stock Selector All Cap Fund increased the value of its investment slightly to $584,180, up from $580,570.

Representatives for OpenAI did not immediately respond to a request for comment.

• Elon Musk's $44 billion Twitter buyout was seen by many as overpriced.
• However, the social media platform has helped give Musk close access to the Trump administration.
• Twitter, now X, has also been a valuable data source for Musk's $50 billion startup xAI.

When Elon Musk bought Twitter for $44 billion, it was panned as one of the worst tech acquisitions in history. Two years, an election, and a generative AI boom later, it's starting to look like more of a bargain.

Shortly after the deal closed in October 2022, Wedbush Securities tech analyst Dan Ives said it would "go down as one of the most overpaid tech acquisitions in the history of M&A deals on the Street."

On paper, the $13 billion that Musk borrowed to buy Twitter, now X, has turned into the worst merger-finance deal for banks since the 2008 financial crisis.

Yet the deal has provided significant benefits for Musk. He now wields considerable influence in the incoming Trump administration after using X to throw his support behind the former president's reelection.

Not only has X served as Musk's political megaphone, but it's also been a lucrative source of training data for one of the billionaire's other ventures: xAI, the startup that's rocketed to a $50 billion valuation just 16 months after launch.

That fresh valuation means xAI has surpassed Musk's purchase price for X. It came with a $5 billion funding round, which The Wall Street Journal reported was backed by the Qatar Investment Authority and Sequoia Capital.

Musk launched xAI in July 2023 as a springboard to get in the AI race after cofounding and then leaving ChatGPT maker OpenAI due to differences with its CEO, Sam Altman.

The startup has made up significant ground on its rivals by using X as a source of third-party data, one of the key avenues for training large language models.

In late 2023, Musk blocked other organizations from scraping X data for free — but gave xAI continued access. That gave xAI a crucial boost.

Ellen Keenan O'Malley, a senior associate at intellectual property law firm EIP, told Business Insider that xAI's access to "third-party information through X is the potential kryptonite to ChatGPT's edge" and a potential driver behind the rising valuation of Musk's startup.

Although the number of X users has been falling, it had 600 million monthly active users as of May, according to Musk.

"This is a level that neither OpenAI nor any other third party can access, or at least not as easily, which provides a huge competitive edge and therefore makes xAI a valuable company," added O'Malley.

Access to 0.3% of X's data costs around $500,000 annually, which prices many out, Wired previously reported.

"Clearly, X's or indeed any social media platform's data is valuable," Advika Jalan, head of research at MMC Ventures, told BI.

X marks the spot in the Musk-Trump alliance

Musk spent at least $119 million on a political action committee to support Trump's campaign.

X played a large role, too. Musk has long been an avid poster on X, but he ramped up the volume during the election cycle. Analysis by The Economist found that the share of Musk's political posts on X has risen from less than 4% in 2016 to over 13% this year. Since endorsing Trump, has has posted more than 100 times on some days to his more than 200 million followers.

A study published by the Queensland University of Technology this month suggested that Musk may have tweaked X's algorithm to boost the reach of his and other Republican-leaning accounts.

Shmuel Chafets, cofounder of venture capital firm Target Global, told Business Insider that "X has become a powerful tool" in Musk's ecosystem, adding that it serves "as a platform for promotion and influence, similar to how Warren Buffett leverages the Berkshire Hathaway annual shareholders meeting and his shareholder letters."

X didn't always seem destined to attain such influence in Musk's hands.

In the months and years following Musk's takeover, an advertiser revolt ensued over content moderation concerns, the company laid off about 80% of staff, and service outages disrupted users.

Musk's co-investors have been writing down the value of their X stakes in the two years since. In September, Fidelity, one of its investors, slashed the value of its holding, giving X an implied valuation of $9.4 billion.

Yet Musk's support for Trump, which came after an assassination attempt against the president-elect at a rally in Pennsylvania in July, gives the tech billionaire political sway that is hard to put a price on.

Musk, who Trump said was a "super genius" in his victory speech at the Mar-a-Lago resort in Palm Beach, was selected by the president-elect to run a new Department of Government Efficiency alongside Vivek Ramaswamy, who ran in the 2024 Republican primary.

DOGE will be a "threat to bureaucracy," according to Musk, whose remit at the newly formed department will include driving $2 trillion in federal spending cuts and slashing regulations he deems superfluous and in the way of his corporate empire. As one SpaceX official told Reuters, Musk "sees the Trump administration as the vehicle for getting rid of as many regulations as he can, so he can do whatever he wants, as fast as he wants."

Since Trump's election win, the billionaire has been seen side-by-side with the president-elect at a UFC fight night while reportedly joining his calls to leaders like Volodymyr Zelensky and Google CEO Sundar Pichai.

X-odus

How long X maintains a Musk-Trump bromance and supports xAI's growth remains to be seen.

Musk, for instance, isn't always getting his preference for cabinet appointments chosen by Trump; his choice of Wall Street veteran Howard Lutnick as Treasury secretary was shunned for Trump's pick Scott Bessent, dismissed by Musk as a "business-as-usual choice."

X also faces legal challenges in which judges have expressed concerns over gatekeeping user data. In May, a federal judge in California dismissed a lawsuit filed by X against Israeli firm Bright Data. X claimed Bright Data was "using elaborate technical measures to evade X Corp.'s anti-scraping technology."

Earlier this month, X partially revived its suit against Bright Data. Should X be unsuccessful, it would raise questions about the value of the X to xAI data pipeline.

Elsewhere, the renewed interest in X rivals like Bluesky and Threads risks seeing Musk's social media site lose users who are both key for advertising revenue and providing vital sources of data for training future models at xAI. X is now in a position where "lots of people hate it because they see it as being a weaponized instrument of MAGA," Calum Chace, cofounder of AI startup Conscium, told BI.

For now, though, Musk has a powerful tool in his hands with X.

"Critics may enjoy pointing out his missteps, but Musk's ability to leverage X for both personal and business purposes reinforces his reputation as a visionary entrepreneur who consistently thinks several steps ahead of his contemporaries," said Target Global's Chafets.

"Ultimately, this deal could prove highly lucrative if he decides to sell or take the company public in the future."

• Donald Trump has tapped Elon Musk and Vivek Ramaswamy to lead the Department of Government Efficiency.
• The advisory group is aimed at reducing federal spending and cutting waste.
• Several notable tech figures have already been linked to DOGE.

Donald Trump has picked Elon Musk and businessman Vivek Ramaswamy to lead the Department of Government Efficiency, also known as DOGE — and they appear to be tapping into their network of Silicon Valley contacts to make it happen.

The department is set to be an advisory group outside the Trump administration that will seek out ways to cut costs and curb federal spending.

Although Musk has said he wants to cut $2 trillion from the federal budget to make it more efficient, under current law, Congress must approve most budget changes, which limits DOGE's power.

Musk has already reportedly been consulting Silicon Valley leaders about the advisory group. These are the tech figures that have already been linked to DOGE.

Vivek Ramaswamy

Ramaswamy is set to spearhead the DOGE alongside Musk.

The biotech billionaire previously ran for president, launching his bid in February 2023. He later dropped out to support Trump and campaigned for the former president.

Ramaswamy has said DOGE will be "crowdsourcing examples of government waste, fraud, and abuse.

"Americans voted for drastic government reform & they deserve to be part of fixing it," he wrote in a post on X.

Marc Andreessen

The Washington Post reported that the Andreessen Horowitz cofounder has been involved in helping Musk plan the department. Andreessen also discussed Musk and DOGE on a recent episode of Joe Rogan's podcast.

On the podcast, he criticized the "raw administrative power" of independent federal agencies like the SEC, FTC, and CFPB, highlighting Musk's direct business approach as a model for government accountability.

Sriram Krishnan

Sriram Krishnan, a general partner at A16z, has had discussions with Elon Musk about joining DOGE, The Information reported.

Krishnan has a history with Musk, assisting him in the early stage of his Twitter takeover. He's also previously held roles within Big Tech companies, including Twitter, Snap, and Meta.

Krishnan confirmed in an X post on Wednesday that he will be leaving A16z at the end of the year.

"What's next? I'll have more on that in a bit but it's obvious we are living through a unique moment in history," Krishnan wrote. "I'm going to be jumping all into something I've wanted to spend my energy on. More on that in the coming months."

Antonio Gracias

Private equity executive Antonio Gracias has also been linked to the new advisory group.

The Washington Post reported that Gracias, alongside Boring Company President Steve Davis, was among Musk's business associates helping to plan the coming department.

Gracias also assisted Musk with his Twitter deal, helping him line up financing for the $44 billion deal. Gracias was also a director of Tesla from 2007 to 2021.

Travis Kalanick

Musk is also reportedly consulting Uber cofounder and former CEO Travis Kalanick about his plans for DOGE.

Kalanick is one of several tech titans being approached by Musk and Ramaswamy, according to a report from The Washington Post, which cited people familiar with the matter.

Kalanick was CEO of Uber from 2010 to 2017. He stepped down from the board in 2019.

• Elon Musk and Donald Trump have been inseparable since the election and spent Thanksgiving together.
• The Tesla CEO joined the Trump family at a star-studded dinner at Mar-a-Lago in Florida.
• Sylvester Stallone also attended, and Mark Zuckerberg visited Trump's resort on Wednesday.

Elon Musk and Donald Trump have been inseparable since the latter's election victory — and the Tesla CEO was one of several celebrity guests for Thanksgiving at Mar-a-Lago.

Videos circulating on social media showed Musk, who has been regularly spotted at Trump's resort base and is reported to be playing a role in selecting the incoming president's cabinet picks, attending the event alongside his mother, Maye, and the actor Sylvester Stallone.

Musk posted on X that he discussed Stallone's 1993 film "Demolition Man" with the actor, as well as taking part in a rendition of "YMCA," a staple at Trump's campaign rallies.

Musk has been tapped by Trump to help run a "Department of Government Efficiency" in his incoming administration after donating at least $119 million toward Trump's election campaign.

Along with his fellow DOGE head, Vivek Ramaswamy, Musk has floated mass layoffs of federal workers and suggested the new administration should "delete" a federal agency set up to help prevent another financial crisis.

The billionaire and his mother dined with Trump's family members, including his wife, Melania, and youngest son, Barron.

Musk isn't the only tech boss to be spending time at Mar-a-Lago this Thanksgiving.

Meta CEO Mark Zuckerberg dined with Trump on Thanksgiving eve, the company told Business Insider in a statement.

The Facebook cofounder doesn't appear to have made any mention of the visit on his own social-media platform Threads.

Zuckerberg has had a rocky relationship with Trump, who threatened to jail Zuckerberg earlier this year if he was reelected.

The Meta chief previously described Trump's reaction to an assassination attempt in July as "badass" and congratulated the former president on his "decisive victory" after the election.

• The Biden administration is set to loan Rivian $6.6 billion to finish an EV factory in Georgia.
• Vivek Ramaswamy criticized the move as a "political shot across the bow" at fellow DOGE boss Elon Musk.
• President-elect Donald Trump has tapped Musk and Ramaswamy to help cut government spending.

Rivian secured a vital loan from the outgoing Biden administration — and one of the leaders of DOGE isn't happy about it.

The Tesla rival was granted a $6.6 billion loan from the Department of Energy to restart construction of a stalled electric vehicle factory in Georgia, which the government said would create 7,500 jobs by 2030.

Vivek Ramaswamy, who is set to lead the "Department of Government Efficiency" along with Elon Musk in the second Trump administration, criticized the loan in a post on X.

"One 'justification' is the 7,500 jobs it creates, but that implies a cost of $880k/job which is insane," wrote Ramaswamy. "This smells more like a political shot across the bow at Elon Musk and Tesla."

A Department of Energy spokesperson said the Advanced Technology Vehicles Manufacturing Loan Program, which the Rivian deal is part of, reinforced America's position as a global automotive powerhouse.

They said the program also loaned $465 million to Tesla in 2010, which the company repaid early, as evidence of its success.

Musk and Ramaswamy have said they aim to cut about $2 trillion in government spending and slash the federal workforce through DOGE, which will not be an official government department.

The pair's mandate to "slash excess regulations" has raised fears that Musk may be tasked with shaking up regulatory agencies that oversee and have frequently clashed with his companies.

The Biden administration has attempted to boost electric vehicle adoption with a series of policies in recent years. They include tax incentives of up to $7,500 for new EVs made in the US, and $7.5 billion in federal grants to build hundreds of thousands of EV chargers by 2030.

Much of that spending is expected to be rolled back under Trump.

The new administration is reportedly set to scrap the $7,500 tax credit, a move that economist Felix Tintelnott told Business Insider could lower EV sales in the US by up to 27% in the short to medium term.

The Biden administration is also attempting to finalize funding for infrastructure and the US microchip industry before its term ends. , The Commerce Department said on Tuesday that Intel will receive about $7.9 billion in federal grants under the CHIPS Act.

Ramaswamy warned that DOGE will attempt to scrutinize these grants too, criticizing them as "11th-hour gambits" in another X post.

The Department of Energy did not respond to a request for comment from Business Insider.

• Sriram Krishnan, a general partner at Andreessen Horowitz, is leaving the firm at the end of the year.
• Krishnan has discussed joining Elon Musk at the Department of Government Efficiency, reports say.
• Krishnan has supported Musk in the past and worked at various Big Tech companies.

Sriram Krishnan, a general partner at Andreessen Horowitz, is leaving the firm and has had discussions with Elon Musk about joining the Department of Government Efficiency, reports say.

Krishnan joined Andreessen Horowitz, also known as A16z, in 2021 and has worked as a crypto investor at the firm. He's also previously held roles within Big Tech companies, including Twitter, Snap, and Meta.

Krishnan confirmed in an X post on Wednesday that he'd be leaving A16z at the end of the year.

"What's next? I'll have more on that in a bit but it's obvious we are living through a unique moment in history," Krishnan wrote. "I'm going to be jumping all into something I've wanted to spend my energy on. More on that in the coming months."

The Information, which first reported Krishnan's departure, said he'd had discussions with Musk about joining DOGE, President-elect Donald Trump's initiative to cut government waste.

Andreessen Horowitz didn't immediately respond to a request for comment from Business Insider made outside normal working hours.

Krishnan is the latest Silicon Valley leader to be linked with DOGE, which is set to be an advisory group outside the Trump administration and spearheaded by Musk and Vivek Ramaswamy.

Several notable tech figures — including the Palantir cofounder Joe Lonsdale, the A16z cofounder Marc Andreessen, the hedge-fund manager Bill Ackman, and former Uber CEO Travis Kalanick — are involved in planning the department, The Washington Post reported.

Musk loyalists, including Steve Davis, the president of The Boring Company, and Antonio Gracias, a private-equity executive, are also said to be involved in planning out DOGE's early stages.

Krishnan and Musk have a history. The investor temporarily helped Musk in the early days of his Twitter takeover. He's also publicly supported the billionaire in the past, calling him an "inspirational person and an iconic founder."

Cutting 'insanely dumb' government spending

Under current law, Congress must approve most budget changes, limiting DOGE's power.

Musk has said he wants to cut $2 trillion from the federal budget to make it more efficient. He's floated several plans to cut waste, including creating a leaderboard displaying the "most insanely dumb" examples of government spending in an attempt to promote "maximum transparency" and allow the public to share feedback.

The name DOGE is a nod to the Dogecoin cryptocurrency, which was based on a Shiba Inu dog meme.

Trump's administration has signaled that it plans to be particularly attentive to emerging technologies. Reports say the transition team is considering appointing a czar for crypto and AI.

• Maye Musk commented on her son's friendship with Donald Trump in a Fox Business interview.
• Elon Musk and the president-elect are having "a lot of fun," she said.
• Maye Musk called her son "the genius of the world" and backed him to slash government waste.

Elon Musk and Donald Trump are two of the world's wealthiest and most powerful men. Musk helped Trump regain the White House and now wants to shake up the federal government.

Musk's mother, Maye, commented on their budding bromance in an interview on Fox Business this week: "They just seem to be having fun, a lot of fun, and that's nice for both of them to have fun."

Elon Musk, 53, is the CEO of Tesla and SpaceX and the richest man on the planet with a net worth close to $350 billion, per the Bloomberg Billionaires Index.

Trump, 78, is the president-elect of the world's biggest economy, a real-estate tycoon, reality TV star — and a convicted felon.

Elon "really respects him a lot and is really happy that there's a future for America now," Maye said.

The model and dietitian said she's only briefly seen the two men together as she lives in New York. The pair have been hanging out at Trump's Mar-a-Lago resort in Florida where Musk has joined calls with other world leaders and weighed in on cabinet picks. They also attended a SpaceX launch in Texas this month.

Many mothers champion their children and sing their praises, and Maye is no exception. She echoed her son's scathing criticism of the "dishonest Democrat media," and said they would be "trying to break up the relationship" between him and the incoming president.

Maye said that calling Elon "wealthy" or a "billionaire" was "degrading," and she thinks of him as "the genius of the world."

She also predicted that, as the co-chief of a new Department of Government Efficiency, he would easily eliminate government waste. Just as he did at Twitter, now X, he would mandate workers return to the office and fire employees who fail to point out anything worthwhile they've done in the past week, May added.

Elon is clearly close to his mother. He's posted pictures of them, sent her heart emojis on X, taken her to several high-profile events, and brought her on during his opening monologue when hosting "Saturday Night Live" in 2021.

Similarly, Maye has shared childhood photos of Musk and repeatedly said how proud she is of him.

• Donald Trump's new DOGE commission, tasked with cutting spending, has floated laying off federal workers.
• Government employees said they were preparing by networking and freshening their résumés.
• Amid the concerns with DOGE, some employees said there could be benefits to its aims.

Federal employees are reporting mixed feelings about President-elect Donald Trump's new Department of Government Efficiency and its ideas to cut costs by laying off workers and enforcing return-to-office mandates.

Some are worried, some are optimistic, and most are considering their other career options, 10 people who spoke with Business Insider said. Most asked for anonymity for fear of professional repercussions.

"We're just workers. We work in a nonpartisan way," one Department of Health and Human Services employee said, adding that they were nervous, especially because they recently bought a home. "It kind of feels like we're being villainized."

On the other hand, Jesus Soriano, who's been a program director at the National Science Foundation for 13 years and is president of the agency's American Federation of Government Employees union, said that while employees were scared, there were "reasons for optimism with DOGE."

Trump said his picks to lead the unofficial commission, Tesla CEO Elon Musk and the former GOP presidential candidate Vivek Ramaswamy, "are technologists."

"They have — both of them in their own fields — translated science into products that have tremendous impact on the public and that contribute to America being a preeminent powerhouse," he said.

Musk is the CEO of Tesla, SpaceX, and other various companies, and Ramaswamy started a tech-focused pharmaceutical company called Roivant Sciences.

In the wake of the DOGE Commission, many government workers said they were updating their résumés, networking more, or assessing new career options — regardless of their political beliefs.

"Everyone is putting their ducks in a row," a Department of Housing and Urban Development administrative worker of 10 years who worked under Trump's first term told BI. "You can't be lackadaisical, regardless that the government may take forever to do something. You better be one step ahead at all times."

While it's still unclear how exactly DOGE would cut government spending, Musk and Ramaswamy have pledged to eliminate some government agencies, which could mean laying off thousands of federal workers, and compel others who have been working from home to return to the office.

The federal government is the largest employer in the US, paying more than 2 million civilian workers. The Departments of Veterans Affairs, Homeland Security, and Defense are among the top employers, with workers earning average salaries near $100,000. Just under half of all workers across 24 agencies were telework-eligible as of May 2024, according to an Office of Management and Budget report.

"Requiring federal employees to come to the office five days a week would result in a wave of voluntary terminations that we welcome: If federal employees don't want to show up, American taxpayers shouldn't pay them for the Covid-era privilege of staying home," Musk and Ramaswamy wrote about their cost-cutting plans in a recent op-ed in The Wall Street Journal.

Brian Hughes, a Trump-Vance transition spokesperson, told BI the administration "will have a place for people serving in government who are committed to defending the rights of the American people, putting America first, and ensuring the best use of working men and women's tax dollars." He didn't offer any details on cuts.

Soriano, the National Science Foundation program director, said government workers were "still scared." He said five colleagues he'd talked to were actively seeking new jobs or opting to retire.

Increased efficiency is a welcomed idea. In-office mandates, not so much.

Trimming government spending and improving efficiency is an idea often discussed on both sides of the political spectrum.

President Ronald Reagan pursued a similar goal with the Grace Commission, a team of 160 private-sector executives who proposed more than 2,000 cost-cutting measures. President Bill Clinton also attempted to reduce federal spending and improve government efficiency with the National Performance Review, led by federal employees.

The efforts had mixed results. Many proposals from the Grace Commission that relied on congressional acts didn't end up happening, while executive orders were successful in reducing the head count of federal workers. Clinton's panel similarly succeeded in cutting 300,000 federal workers but managed to get only a quarter of proposals that required legislative action through Congress.

An operations manager at the US Postal Service who has worked in the department for 27 years told BI every company had inefficiencies, and "that's what we all strive to decrease."

He has concerns, however, about people stepping in to make suggestions for the Postal Service without having "tribal knowledge" of the department.

"If you're just going to be appointed to this type of commission or committee with no knowledge of what exactly the Postal Service does, then that could potentially be a problem," he said.

DOGE's intent to eliminate remote work is also a concern for some workers. The HUD employee, who'd been working remotely, said return-to-office enforcement would "absolutely" be enough to cause them to resign. They're preparing for layoffs under DOGE by looking at other employment opportunities, and they said their colleagues at HUD were taking similar steps.

Joyce Howell, an attorney at the Environmental Protection Agency — who's been at the agency for more than 31 years and serves as executive vice president of its AFGE union — said the incoming administration had stoked concern about layoffs at the EPA and fears that its mission could be compromised.

"We have town halls once a month, and we've actually broken our Zoom account in terms of the number of people attending," she said of union meetings.

Musk and Ramaswamy wrote in the Journal op-ed that the commission would target more than $500 billion in what they called unauthorized government spending. They said federal employees who were laid off would be offered early retirement. At a town hall in October, Musk said he would consider giving laid-off workers up to two years' severance.

An employee at the Food and Drug Administration said it wasn't that easy: "We're here to support a mission. We have families to feed, and it's not as easy as just quitting our jobs," the FDA employee said.

"We're just normal, everyday people — we're being portrayed as inefficient, lazy people," they added. "It feels like they're coming for us just for their own agenda, not realizing that we're the backbone of the federal government."

Another federal-government lifer said many workers like them — people who'd been there for years — were nervous they might be the first to go. The career tenure of a median federal government worker was 6.5 years in 2024, according to Bureau of Labor Statistics data, well above the median 3.5 years private workers have spent in their roles.

One senior official at the Commerce Department said they anticipated a civil-servant brain drain. "The scientists are the most concerned," the official said, with those in climate, meteorology, and environmental science particularly worried.

The Department of Education has meanwhile been singled out as an entire agency that could be on the chopping block.

Sheria Smith, the president of the AFGE union at the Department of Education and a civil rights attorney at the agency, said department elimination was "on the lower end of concerns" because it would take time and need to go through Congress.

Rather, being turned into a "Schedule F" workforce, which allows government agencies to reclassify workers and remove certain protections that make them easier to fire, could mean employees who aren't "aligned with the executive wholly" could be laid off based on performance.

And given the widespread denigration of the Education Department and return-to-office threats, people are most likely looking for other work. "I'd be surprised if they weren't," Smith said.

Are you a federal worker willing to share your story? Contact these reporters at [email protected], [email protected], [email protected], and [email protected].

• Elon Musk and Vivek Ramaswamy have plans for DOGE, and Workday sees an opportunity.
• Workday aims to capitalize on federal agencies' shift from on-premises to cloud systems, its CEO said.
• The federal government, the largest US employer, could face layoffs under DOGE's agenda.

As Elon Musk and Vivek Ramaswamy gear up to try to reshape large swaths of the federal government, one big software player sees an opportunity.

Workday, the human-resources-software company that workers love to hate, is embedded in more than half of Fortune 500 companies. The $72 billion company has been building up its government customer base, from Oklahoma's Tulsa County to the US Department of Energy. In 2022, Workday was approved to work with the federal government.

Now that Musk and Ramaswamy's Department of Government Efficiency is set to advise President-elect Donald Trump on rescinding regulations and cutting administrative costs, Workday and other government vendors could stand to benefit.

On Workday's Tuesday earnings call, CEO Carl Eschenbach addressed an analyst's question about how DOGE could impact Workday's business.

Eschenbach said more than 80% of the federal government's HR systems were physically housed on local servers, what's called "on-premises." Companies and organizations have been steadily migrating from on-premises servers to the cloud for cost savings, better security, and efficiency, among other benefits.

"Postelection and with DOGE coming out, people are absolutely looking to drive more economies of scale and more efficiency. And I can tell you supporting these on-premises, antiquated systems is not a way to do that," Eschenbach said.

Eschenbach added that federal agencies were at an "inflection point" and ready to move to the cloud — and Workday has a government-focused product to sell them.

"We think this will only be a tailwind for us as we think about the federal government business going forward," he said.

Workday said in May that it would work with the Department of Energy and the Defense Intelligence Agency.

"These are critical wins for us and it's actually driving demand for us in the federal government as people recognize Workday is really pushing hard into that market," Eschenbach said on Tuesday's call.

In the last quarter, Workday brought in $2.2 billion in revenue — a 16% increase from last year. The company doesn't break out revenue by customer type. Workday's stock is up 14% in the past year.

The company didn't respond to a request for comment sent outside business hours.

Last week, Musk and Ramaswamy named several of DOGE's targets in a Wall Street Journal opinion column: work-from-home arrangements, Planned Parenthood, the Corporation for Public Broadcasting, and general head count, among others.

"DOGE intends to work with embedded appointees in agencies to identify the minimum number of employees required at an agency for it to perform its constitutionally permissible and statutorily mandated functions," the pair wrote.

The federal government is the largest employer in the US, with a workforce of more than 2 million Americans, so the group's suggestions could have wide-ranging implications.

The Washington Post reported on Sunday that notable Silicon Valley figures — including the Palantir cofounder Joe Lonsdale, the investor Marc Andreessen, the hedge-fund manager Bill Ackman, and the former Uber CEO turned food-tech entrepreneur Travis Kalanick — had been involved in DOGE's early planning.