A dark image of Elon Musk. This is how he wants to take over the world. Dangerous chess
“How can someone in Musk's position have so many ties to China and still be a good person to reform the U.S. government?” – he asked in March this year. Derek Scissors, an analyst from the conservative think tank American Enterprise Institute, in an interview with the Financial Times. The inflow of funds from the Middle Kingdom into Musk's private business field confirms that he is “more interested in his reputation and brand in China than in American interests.”
Chinese money is flowing freely into Musk's ventures, including xAI, Neuralink and SpaceX – the world's most valuable private company. It's no coincidence that Beijing I like to look at Neuralink. Xi Jinping has a clear goal. Elon Musk too. But Trump doesn't have to like it.
And Musk's ambitions are huge. Business is not enough. Although at the turn of May and June this year he said goodbye to the position of head of DOGE [Departamentu Efektywności Państwa] in the USA, today the richest man wants to shake the world chessboard. The Old Continent is already on its blacklist, and the current anti-EU tirade is spreading more and more widely. The multi-billionaire is hungry for revenge.
Musk treats the United States' biggest rival in the fight for world domination extremely gently. The reason is simple – The Middle Kingdom has long been a key market for Tesla – an American manufacturer of, among others, electric cars. The entrepreneur knows that any criticism of Xi Jinping could affect his businesses. So he has been doing quite the opposite – for years he has been praising China's infrastructure and high-speed rail system and the Chinese space program, complimenting its green energy policy and encouraging his supporters to visit the country.
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The Chinese return the favor in kind. In May 2023, Musk was greeted by top officials and showered with praise from the public during his two-day trip to the Middle Kingdom. The multi-billionaire had a busy schedule at the time, meeting with China's ministers of foreign affairs, trade and industry, as well as high-ranking business representatives. He describes the US and Chinese economies as “Siamese twins”. He also opposes actions that could destroy this.
At the time, relations between Washington and Beijing were deteriorating over human rights abuses by Xi Jinping's entourage and the status of Taiwan, and the United States and its allies were increasingly seeking to become economically independent from China.
Since the beginning of Donald Trump's second term, US-China relations have been a roller coaster ride. The mutual imposition of record customs tariffs in recent months is now becoming the leitmotif of the trade war between the two superpowers, which has been ongoing since January 2018.
The first meeting between Trump and Xi on October 30 this year did not bring any breakthrough either. in the South Korean city of Busan. The US-Chinese tug of war gives both sides time to rethink their further strategy and break the disturbing deadlock. Both Beijing and Washington ultimately want to reduce dependence on their rival in key areas. China cares about advanced technologies, while the USA cares about key components and raw materials [w tym metalach ziem rzadkich].
Elon Musk is also looking at the emotional sine wave accompanying the geoeconomic battle from the sidelines, as he is developing relations with China, which not everyone in the US likes.
Tesla Gigafactory in Shanghai
The company begins production in 2019 and is quickly becoming the centerpiece of Tesla's global production. Interestingly, as Forbes emphasizes, Tesla becomes the first foreign car manufacturer to retain 100 percent. shares in its Chinese subsidiary, without a local partner. This is a huge departure from China's joint-venture practice.
Musk has excellent conditions in China. Tax discounts (the rate is as much as 10% lower than the standard rate), preferential state loans and quick administrative responses after the COVID-19 pandemic – lists the leading English-language website “The Diplomat”, which deals with Far Eastern affairs. Plus, cheaper labor and lower production costs in China are boosting Tesla's operating margins, boosting its stock. Musk's own fortune has also skyrocketed. Tesla's sales alone in China have increased more than sevenfold since 2019.
Since then the Shanghai plant is ahead of Tesla's factory in Fremont, California in both size and efficiencynow accounting for more than half of the company's global shipments and most of its profits. Moreover, almost 40 percent Tesla's battery supply chain relies on Chinese companies, and these partnerships continue to expand.
Today, Tesla dominates in many areas, but Chinese EV producers (e.g. BYD) are intensifying competition on the local market, which means that Musk's automotive pride is losing some shares and he has to fight to maintain his position.
However, the multibillionaire's actions so far show that he is able to negotiate exceptional conditions. On the one hand, it accelerates Tesla's expansion in China [11 lutego 2025 r. firma otworzyła swoją drugą fabrykę w Szanghaju]and on the other hand, it strongly ties its business to the Chinese state apparatus.
Neuralink, Elon Musk's prodigy
The American company creates implantable brain implants that allow monitoring brain activity using electric currents. Neuralink's goal is to help people with paralysis communicate by enabling them to remotely control devices using brain activity.
For the last nine years, American companies [w tym Neuralink] are an industry leader with cutting-edge procedures for implanting chips into patients' brains. Everything changes this year. Chinese start-ups are starting to play the first violinwhich conduct a series of clinical trials. May this year turned out to be a breakthrough, when “Bloomberg” wrote that Shanghai StairMed Technology Co. publishes a video in which a patient with lower limb paralysis plays a computer game using only his thoughts, thanks to a coin-shaped implant similar to the one used in Neuralink surgeries.
And although research is currently focused mainly on helping disabled people regain basic functions, it is not medical support that seems to be the main driving force behind the actions of both Americans and Chinese. Brain-computer interface technology has emerged as a new front in the high-stakes competition between the United States and China.
A deeper understanding of the human brain will open the gates to the world of artificial intelligence on an even larger scale than before. Second, it could have a revolutionary impact on technologized human everyday life, even greater than that provided by touch screens.
Chinese dance over America
Musk says goodbye to the position of head of DOGE at the turn of May and June this year. And although today the entrepreneur apparently does not have access to confidential data from many American state agencies, a strong faction of anti-China hawks in Trump's world, this is not reassuring. America fears that the multi-billionaire's financial interests in China and his cordial relations with the Xi Jinping regime may not work to the benefit of Washington but Beijing.
The first warning signal is the multi-million-dollar investments of Chinese wealthy people in Musk's projects through opaque structures – companies that, as the Financial Times emphasizes, make it possible to hide the identity of investors. Thanks to this, it is possible to avoid the anger of the US authorities and companies that are afraid of Chinese capital and, as a result, further dependence on Beijing.
Moreover, China could use Musk's dependence on the Chinese market as a bargaining chip to force Trump to make concessions on issues of key strategic importance to Beijing, the British daily notes.
As the prestigious newspaper emphasizes, there is no shortage of them. For example, Apple is removing virtual private network apps from its app store in China at the government's request. Tesla could also face similar pressure in the future if Beijing wants to use Musk as a cudgel to influence the Trump administration's policies.
The entrepreneur is concerned about his businesses around the world. However, his approach towards China and Europe is very different. On the one hand, he constantly flatters Beijing, and on the other, he attacks the European Union, which is putting pressure on the American.
Musk is furious with Europe. Three goals of a multi-billionaire
December 5, 2025, the European Commission fines Musk's Platform X in the amount of EUR 120 million [ponad 507 mln zł, po obecnym kursie]. The reason is non-compliance with the EU Digital Services Act [DSA] in terms of transparency.
During a two-year investigation, the EC found that the platform violates three DSA provisions: it misleadingly uses the “blue check mark” to verify users, it does not have a transparent advertising repository and it does not provide data for research in a manner consistent with the regulations.
Since then, the American billionaire has been on an intensified anti-EU crusade. “The European Union should be abolished and the sovereignty restored to individual countries so that governments can better represent their citizens,” writes on X. The American's rhetoric is praised by Dmitry Medvedev, former president of Russia, currently vice-chairman of the Security Council of the Russian Federation
Musk and Medvedev's anti-EU tirade does not go unnoticed by Radosław Sikorski. “As if anyone still had any doubts who benefits from all this anti-EU talk about sovereignty. Those who want to make money by spreading hatred and those who want to conquer Europe,” writes the Minister of Foreign Affairs on X. The politician also reacts directly to another entry by Musk. “Go to Mars,” he replies in the comment. “The oligarchs Dmitriev and Musk want to divide Europe in order to dominate and exploit us,” writes the head of the Ministry of Foreign Affairs on X the next day.
In subsequent posts, the multi-billionaire also repeatedly calls for the overthrow of the European Union. “EU commissioners who have woken up as Stasi commissioners will soon understand the full meaning of the 'Streisand effect,'” Musk fumes. The “Streisand effect” refers to a situation in which an attempt to censor a piece of information brings it popularity and notoriety.
On December 7, in the morning Polish time, Musk retweets a shocking entry that has already gained over 23 million views. The graphic he shared shows the flag of the Third Reich emerging from under the European Union flag. The author of the entry signed it “Fourth Reich” and commented: almost like that.
December 8 this year Musk blocks the European Commission's account on X. Previously, it prevents the purchase and tracking of ads. Nikita Bier, head of the X product department, accuses the EC of violating the platform's rules.
One of the reasons for Musk's interference in European affairs may be the desire to take revenge for something that the billionaire probably perceives as putting obstacles in his way and harming his interests. And his pragmatism cannot give this.
Secondly, Elon Musk is an online showman. He likes to be the center of attention, he is everywhere where his presence may arouse public outrage.
Third, politics intersects with the business world. In Musk's case, he himself saw that thanks to his money, the X platform and close ties to the Donald Trump administration, he could have a huge influence on politics in a way that would benefit his own interests.
