Putin Reportedly Asked Elon Musk Not to Activate Starlink Over Taiwan

Elon Musk, CEO of Tesla and SpaceX, has reportedly kept in contact with Russian President Vladimir Putin since late 2022, according to a new report by The Wall Street Journal.

The article, published Thursday night, says that Putin and Musk discussed topics from personal issues to geopolitical tensions. In one such conversation, two people familiar with the matter told the Journal that Putin had asked Musk not to activate his Starlink satellites over Taiwan as a “favor” to Chinese leader Xi Jinping.

The report arrives as Musk has become entangled in the U.S. presidential election. The billionaire, who according to Forbes is the richest person in the world, with a net worth of $26.4 billion, has endorsed former President Donald Trump, who has also been reportedly staying in touch with Putin, even after leaving the White House. Trump has denied such reports.

Musk faced allegations this year that he had sold terminals for Starlink, the world’s largest network of satellites that provide internet access, to Russia amid the war between Moscow and Ukraine. Musk called the reports “categorically false.”

If the reports are accurate, and Musk has been in contact with Putin, it could pose a major national security threat. The billionaire has deep business ties with the U.S. military and other agencies, giving him security clearance over classified information and programs in Washington. According to The New York Times, Musk was promised $3 billion across 100 different contracts last year with over a dozen federal agencies.

Trump has said that he would create a new position focused on government efficiency for Musk in his administration if he wins a second term in office. Critics have also raised concerns that Trump and Musk’s relationship could influence the federal government’s future contracts with companies like Tesla and SpaceX.

Karoline Leavitt, the Trump campaign’s national press secretary, told Newsweek in an email on Thursday that Musk “is a once-in-a-generation industry leader and our broken federal bureaucracy could certainly benefit from his ideas and efficiency.”

“As for Putin, there’s only one candidate in the race that he did not invade another country under, and it’s President Trump,” Leavitt added. “President Trump has long said that he will re-establish his peace through strength foreign policy to deter Russia’s aggression and end the war in Ukraine.”

One person aware of Musk’s communication with Putin told the Journal that federal officials “don’t love” the communication between the two but that there have been no concerns raised over a possible security breach related to Musk and Putin’s conversations.

Musk said in an October 2022 post to X, formerly Twitter, which Musk acquired that year, that he had spoken to Putin “only once and that was about 18 months ago. The subject matter was space.” The comment came after American political scientist Ian Bremmer claimed Musk told him about a conversation he had with Putin in fall 2022 regarding the war in Ukraine.

Newsweek reached out to SpaceX via email on Thursday for comment on the Journal’s report.

Update 10/24/24, 11:59 p.m. ET: This article has been updated with comment from Trump’s campaign.