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Unknown A
Like sometimes, like to end this war, say like, yeah, you know, I'm a, I'm a bought asset of Putin. Yeah, I'm like, he can't afford me. Yeah, I think, I think you're worth more than Russia. Think about it like that. That's the summary of today's video and we're going to think about it with chat GPT here. And this is a question, what leverage does Putin have over Elon Musk? This is actually a fun topic and I want to go through this and I want to hear your thoughts and we'll go through it together. If Vladimir Putin had leverage over Elon Musk, it would likely come from a combination of financial, geopolitical, cybersecurity and personal factors. Here's where Putin could potentially exert influence over Musk. And if you've been seeing Musk's recent tweets, they're pro Russia. They're basically encouraging Ukraine to give up. Why defend your home?
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Unknown A
That kind of stuff just let Putin win. And so this is the reasons why Putin could have leverage over Musk. One, financial leverage. Tesla's dependence on China and global markets. Says while Musk does not do business in Russia, he is highly dependent on China which maintains close ties with Russia. If Putin influences Beijing, Musk empire could suffer major blows. Tesla's supply chain and China's influence. Right. Tesla relies on China for battery supplies, manufacturing capacity and revenue from China's Chinese consumers. Right. So referring to the Tesla Shanghai factory and the consumers, etc. How could Putin leverage this? If Putin convinces China to restrict battery exports to Tesla, it could cripple production. So it'd be one. China could ban Tesla sales citing national security concerns tanking Tesla stock. And actually China's done these kind of things before, saying hey, no, Tesla's on our military bases or you know, government property, that kind of stuff.
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Unknown A
China could increase tariffs on regulatory scrutiny. Right. And actually that's a scenario right now that's happening with the Trump situation, right? Tariffs and they'll probably be trade wars. Russia oligarchs influence in global markets. Russia linked investors have historically held stakes in Tesla. If Putin uses state backed investors to short Tesla stock, it could trigger a crash. And if you guys have been following the story, you'll know that Tesla stock is growing grossly overvalued and they're in deep trouble. That's why Musk is rotating to other things. Also says Musk has significant debt backed by Tesla stock. A crash could force margin calls demanding billions in immediate repayment. Musk's Debt might be around 20 billion, something of that nature. He might have about a billion in cash. And then the other issue which you guys may not know, there's only so much money that he can borrow against his shares.
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Unknown A
That's what he does. He borrows money against his Tesla stock shares and they have an agreement in place. He can only borrow so much. So this is showing you different scenarios where you know, Russia could hurt him. This is because people, because must have tried to make the case that you know, he's too rich, but not necessarily why this matters. Even if Musk isn't directly involved with Russia, his financial dependence on China and global markets make him vulnerable if Putin and Xi Xi jinping Act together. SpaceX and Starlink national security pressure, right? SpaceX is a critical to US national security. But Musk controls Starlink, a private satellite network used in Ukraine. A Starlink's role in Ukraine. Starlink has been vital to Ukrainian military operations, allowing them to communicate and target Russian forces. Musk briefly restricted Starlink in Crimea citing concerns over escalation. This led to speculation that Musk was influenced by Russian interests.
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Unknown A
Could Putin have leverage over Musk on Starlink was a say. If Musk feared Russian retaliation, it's got to be cyber attacks, right? Lawsuits, sanctions. He might hesitate to act against Russia. Russia has a world class cyber warfare capabilities and could threaten to hack or disable Starlink. And again guys, you know when Musk says oh, Putin couldn't do anything to me necessarily, I mean this is what we're getting right here. Musk might be concerned that Putin has a compromat right compromising material on him influencing his decisions. And you guys know this. Musk has all sorts of substance issues. He's been known to go to various parties and there's been articles out that usually when you go to said parties you're supposed to sign NDAs, right? Not disclose that Musk is up to. But who knows, right? It doesn't mean that Putin people necessarily abide by those, you know, pieces of paper.
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Unknown A
They can do whatever they want. And that, that's, I've always wondered about this. We won't, you know, we'll, I'll say I won't, I won't say we won't never know. But I'll just say we don't know for sure what Putin has on Musk regarding compromising situations. So you can ask Musk and Putin on that says here why this matters. If Putin made Musk believe that supporting Ukraine too strongly would provoke a Russian cyber or military response it could influence his decisions. And again if you look at Twitter, it's filled with lots of pro Russian content. So there's always been speculation on what is, what does Putin have on Musk, etc. Number three, cybersecurity threats. Russian cyber attacks on Musk companies a Tesla and SpaceX are prime targets for Russian hackers. Russia's has some of the best cyber warfare teams. Fancy Bear, Sandworm. So I guess with these nicknames for these things and well, I mean in must defense he's got big balls on his side so you have to have silly names for these kind of things I guess is part of the culture.
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Unknown A
They could attack Tesla's autopilot software causing deadly accidents and lawsuits. I've always wondered about that stuff. The Tesla fanboys and fangirls, you know, always say oh yeah, robot driving is the best. But I, you know, when we get into remote, you know, remotely controlled vehicles, this kind of stuff, if it's software, my opinion is I think anything can be hacked. I would like to hear you guys opinion on, you know, for those of you who are heavily into computers, would that be an issue as well? And I've, you know, I've seen these movies before, Skynet, etc. I don't necessarily want everything networked and you know, all put together into AI as must wants. Also they could sabotage SpaceX launches by hacking internal systems. They could leak damaging private communications, discrediting Musk and yeah, there's any number of things, I mean that's why we're going through this stuff guys, because Musk claims that Putin can't afford him, but Putin can get him in other ways, all sorts of ways.
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Unknown A
Has must been compromised. Must frequently uses unencrypted communication via Twitter, DMs, emails. And you guys know this, Musk tweets out all kinds of stuff all day, every day and just can't control himself. So this is, I think this could be all sorts of stuff out there. If Russian intelligence has hacked Musk's private messages, they could leak damaging information. Why this matters. If Musk believes Russia has dirt on him, he might self censor to avoid conflict with Putin. But and again it's actually not just even self censoring. Musk is pushing pro Russian content. That's what he does on his channel or on his, I could say on his platform. Number four, personal and legal risk, potential scandals and investigations, personal behavior and compromise risks. Musk has a high, has had high profile relationships, drug use allegations and personal controversies. Russia's FSB specializes in Compromat, right, blackmail material.
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Unknown A
If Russia had access to private messages, financial records or personal scandals, they could use them as leverage. And one of the big things with the financial thing is they've been trying to keep Musk's financial disclosures private. And this has been a big issue because when you know a federal employee, which I think is what Musk is, I think they call him a special, like a special employer specialist, like something like that. However you classify Musk, then there should be, you know, financial disclosures, conflicts of interest, these kind of things. But they've been trying to keep it private. And so this is an example of like, hey, if Russia's got access to his financial stuff, what could they say? Who knows? Example scenarios. It's always so creative. If Russia had embarrassing footage or messages, they could threaten to leak them. Okay, that would be one. If Musk had business dealings with Russian oligarchs in the past, Russia could expose them.
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Unknown A
So it's a couple ways that they could go with. And this kind of stuff, you never know. You never know what could be flown out there with Musk. And especially when you're on substance abuse kind of stuff with Musk, you never know what they got on you. Legal and regulatory pressure. If Putin encourages US Regulators to investigate Musk, be it the sec, DOJ probes, et cetera, it could create legal headaches. And Musk always complains about being investigated because his companies do all sorts of shady stuff, Right? And so Putin could, you know, simply amplify that kind of stuff on social media of, you know, talking about what's going on with Musk. Russia could fund lawsuits against Musk. That's interesting. Tesla safety claims, labor disputes, this kind of stuff. And yeah, Musk is doing all kinds of stuff where people always have a problem with Musk.
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Unknown A
He cheats workers quite a bit. People get hurt in his cars. It's actually quite often we talk about this several times and there's fatalities involved. And there's going to be, according to Musk robot driving cars in June. I think that's going to create more legal issues. Why this matters. Even if the allegations were false, the sheer weight of legal attacks could drain Musk's resources and distract him. So again, this is what Putin could do to Musk. Number five, energy and space industry disruptions. Russia controls global energy supplies. Tesla relies on lithium, nickel and other rare metals. Russia is a major supplier. And the rare earth metal thing, that's actually been in discussion with Ukraine. And Trump has been, you know, saying that, hey, Ukraine, give us Half maybe, I guess then Russia gets the other half, who knows? And I've told you guys before, you know, Musk may be involved in these kind of talks because he probably wants the materials in Ukraine also.
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Unknown A
And this is why I was bringing it up as well. If Russia restricted exports or encouraged Alice to do so, Tesla's production could be disrupted. Russia's role in global space operations. Russia still plays a role in space technology. So they got Roscosmos, ISS operations and actually the was interesting and I don't know if that's pissing off Russia or not. Musk the other day was, was tweeting out that he would like to get rid of the space station kind of thing. And I'm sure he's coming up with ways to benefit his own companies, but he, yeah, he was tweeting out that stuff. If Russia interfered with SpaceX partnerships, it could delay projects and hurt business. Why this matters. Even indirect pressure on resources, space programs or supply chains could disrupt Musk's businesses. In conclusion, how much leverage does Putin really have? Okay. Financial pressure moderate to high.
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Unknown A
Tesla's China dependent stock manipulation risk. Geopolitical influence moderate. According to this is ChatGPT SpaceX and Starlink's role in the Ukraine war. Cyber and personal threats unknown but possible. Who knows. So cyber attacks complement legal pressure, supply chain and energy risks moderate. Russia's role in lithium nickel markets. Fonna Verg Putin likely doesn't. So this is according to Jet GPT doesn't control Musk but has multiple ways to make his life difficult. If Musk goes too hard against Russia, he risks financial, legal and cybersecurity retaliation. If Putin has kompromat private messages, financial dealings and personal scandals, it could force must to threat tread carefully. Would you like to announce on how Musk can neutralize these risks before escalating? And you know, you guys can go through more of this stuff but you know, a lot of people, a lot of people, you know, just put too much faith into Musk and stuff.
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Unknown A
And I'm just putting this out there because I want you guys to think about. Yes, I mean the guy is human. The guy is clearly not a genius. And I'm saying he's not as rich as you think he is. And this is sort of why we, we go through this stuff every day because there's this illusion out there and he promotes that narrative with the Republican Party and the Fox News stuff that he's the richest guy, the smartest guy in these kind of things and that no one could influence him. But I think this is a pretty good example of how Putin could certainly have leverage on Musk. And that's the question. So want to hear your thoughts on this one? Which one stands out to you? Did we leave anything out? And I'll catch you on the next video.