America’s largest companies are cutting deals with Elon Musk’s businesses or touting links with the world’s richest man as he solidifies his power within Donald Trump’s administration and begins to radically restructure the US government.
A rush of announcements in recent days included Visa finalising a payments processing deal with Musk’s social media site X and United Airlines accelerating a plan to use Musk’s Starlink satellites for in-flight WiFi.
Amazon has also boosted marketing spending on X, which it had previously cut at a time when many advertisers pulled back due to the proliferation of hate speech on the platform. It was one of the top-10 advertisers on the platform in the US in January after spending more than 10 times as much that month compared with December, according to data from market intelligence group SensorTower.