Tesla CEO Elon Musk recently broke a world record for the largest loss of a personal fortune in history, having shed an estimated $182 billion since November 2021 (another estimate puts it closer to $200 billion). But he could enjoy a major turnaround this year, according to Silicon Valley insiders, and it would be thanks to one of his other companies, SpaceX.
These insiders are two prominent Bay Area venture capitalists, Jason Calacanis and Chamath Palihapitiya, who once garnered the nickname “SPAC King” for his numerous investments in special purpose acquisition companies. Both longtime Musk associates, they were speaking on the All-In podcast about the outlook for 2023. Calacanis’s closeness to Musk was revealed in court, when his private text messages to the Twitter CEO were disclosed as part of the Twitter acquisition lawsuit, including his oath of fealty: “Board member, adviser, whatever…you have my sword. Put me in the game coach! Twitter CEO is my dream job.” So they are likely biased in favor of Musk, but they see one clear way the world’s second-richest man can recover some swagger in 2023.
