New York
CNN
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Elon Musk, the world’s richest person, will take on an official role in an effort to help newly-elected President Donald Trump make the government more efficient. It will add yet another layer of responsibility to the ever-growing to-do list for the increasingly distracted CEO and business leader.

Musk, CEO of Tesla and SpaceX, owner of X and CEO of other companies including Neuralink, xAI and the Boring Company, is already busy. Even if the Trump job is just a side hustle (according to the announcement, it’s a type of consulting job), it’s one more thing Musk can do that isn’t running the most valuable car company in the world.

But the point is: Musk’s recent distractions may not ultimately matter to his (many) companies. And there’s actually a strong argument that they pay off for investors.

Tesla, Musk’s most valuable company, has struggled to maintain its dominance in the electric vehicle market in recent years. Sales slowed as Tesla faced increasing competition at both the high and low end of the market, and Tesla was recently overtaken by Chinese rival BYD in electric vehicle sales. Meanwhile, Tesla has faced numerous federal investigations over its self-driving technology, and the company’s long-promised autonomous “Cybercab” announcement last month included a number of air promises that sounded like a lot of fluff — even more to come. from the notoriously over-promising Musk.

But for Tesla investors, that was all in the rearview mirror last week. Shares of Tesla (TSLA) are up 31% since Election Day as investors believe Musk’s influence in Trump’s administration will usher in an era of deregulation — especially in key industries and technologies that could benefit the company .

“The pros of Musk’s involvement in Trump’s administration outweigh the cons,” said Dan Ives, an analyst at Wedbush Securities. “Tesla investors want Musk to become more involved in the Trump White House – not less – because of his influence on advancing AI, Chinese tariffs and accelerated regulations for autonomous driving.”

Musk, Tesla’s largest individual shareholder, has personally reaped the benefits of the stock’s surge. According to Bloomberg’s Billionaires Index, he is $55 billion richer today than he was on Election Day.

Trump has expressed disdain for electric vehicles, but that may not ultimately matter to Tesla. In fact, eliminating tax breaks could help Tesla by reducing the competition that relies more heavily on it to drive sales demand. Multiple federal investigations into Tesla’s self-driving technology could also disappear, Ives said.

Meanwhile, SpaceX continues to maintain an edge (and entire astronauts) over the competition, and an era of deregulation under Trump could help the company in the same way. According to Bloomberg, SpaceX’s valuation was reportedly an astonishing $200 billion earlier this year, and after a snag from Boeing with its Starliner, SpaceX had to come to the rescue of astronauts stranded by its crippled rival. And the company now catches rocket boosters from the air with “chopsticks.”

X, on the other hand, has clearly struggled under Musk – it has lost 80% of its value, according to Fidelity, as advertisers flee the social network that has become open to hate speech and conspiracy theories. But that’s not because Musk is distracted; participation in X has become Musk’s main focus, with constant messages espousing his increasingly right-wing positions.

But ironically, Musk’s controversial — and expensive — $44 billion purchase of then-Twitter (now has the following role. the president’s ear. And that has given Tesla a valuation of over $1 trillion. It is one of only nine companies on the stock market with a thirteen-figure valuation.

Ives called Musk’s path a “Twilight Zone jigsaw puzzle.”

“It’s a ride that feels like it’s just beginning,” Ives noted.

Of course, if Trump and Musk remain on good terms. Trump has a long list of former allies who have fallen out of favor for one reason or another. And no matter how much power and influence Musk could generate, Trump will hold the ultimate trump card: he will become president.