Reid Hoffman, co-founder at LinkedIn and Inflection AI, shared his expectations for the incoming Trump administration in an opinion piece for the Financial Times. And while he appears hopeful that President-Elect Donald Trump could clear the way for more competition and faster innovation in the technology industry, Hoffman also expressed concerns around Trump providing certain individuals and companies with favored status in a way that could harm American innovation.
One individual with his hands in several technological pies that Hoffman says could gain from Trump’s ascendance is Elon Musk, the CEO of Tesla, SpaceX, and xAI, and owner of The Boring Company, Neuralink, and X. Musk, alongside Vivek Ramaswamy, will also head up a planned advisory commission called the Department of Government Efficiency (DOGE).
Hoffman called Musk’s ownership in xAI in particular “a serious conflict of interest.”
“Using his position to favor xAI in any way, such as awarding it government contracts, encouraging federal agencies to unfairly target AI companies, or imposing new regulations that limit exports will come at the expense of U.S. technological, economic and cultural security, and competitiveness,” Hoffman wrote.
Tesla, SpaceX, and Neuralink are all also in highly regulated sectors, the agencies governing which could experience layoffs or other influence from Musk in his role at DOGE.
Hoffman, who backed VP Kamala Harris’ nomination and has been an outspoken critic of Trump’s presidency, also highlighted the potential benefits and drawbacks to Trump’s support of crypto. He said that “ending arbitrary enforcement policies against the cryptocurrency industry” as seen under the Biden administration could create a “more stable environment for blockchain innovation.” But he questioned whether Trump will “use his new embrace of crypto, and his regulatory authority over it, as a way to privilege a few favored coins?”
Trump has his own crypto venture, World Liberty Financial, with a native token that launched in October, and is reportedly working on a new stablecoin that can serve as a stand-in for the U.S. dollar. There have also been reports this week that Trump Media, the president-elect’s social media company, is in advanced talks to acquire cryptocurrency trading platform Bakkt.
Hoffman’s concerns that Trump might play favorites are not unfounded. As he noted in his piece, in Trump’s first term, the he “targeted a number of iconic U.S. companies for personal and political reasons, creating constant chaos and uncertainty.”
For example, Trump frequently criticized Amazon and its CEO Jeff Bezos, accusing the company of unfairly benefiting from USPS rates, which led to policies scrutinizing Amazon’s deals. Bezos, who owns The Washington Post, now appears to be amenable to Trump and has defended his decision to withhold the newspaper’s endorsement of Harris.
Musk also has a reputation for publicly challenging and criticizing competitors and people he disagrees with. The path to his acquisition of Twitter, now X, was littered with public critiques of the platform’s leadership and business model.
Hoffman — who helped fund E. Jean Carroll’s rape case against Trump — criticized him as a “convicted felon and pathological liar” and has expressed fears that the president-elect would retaliate against him and others in business. But he ended his piece on an upbeat note despite his skepticism.
“I very much hope that Trump succeeds wildly in enabling US entrepreneurship and innovation, increasing wages for workers and creating a country where every American is free to pursue their ambitions with dignity, purpose and a sense of belonging,” Hoffman wrote. “That’s why I will continue to do everything I can to build the next generation of companies that bring life-changing opportunities for individuals and society.”