“Elon Musk has been pretty cavalier about his ability to turn on or turn off Starlink to influence policy decisions,” Garner, from the Benton Institute, told me, referring to a series of recent posts on X from Musk about cutting off Starlink access in Ukraine.

The time and focus Musk has dedicated to slashing federal jobs has sent investors and customers bolting from Tesla stock and cars, adding to other business for the divisive CEO.

Elon Musk has spent decades building a universe of companies that has served as an incubator for up-and-coming engineers and a proving ground for his inner circle. That universe — an ecosystem of Silicon Valley tech titans,