Greg Ip

Elon Musk’s international influence poses an interesting problem for the US In a world where geopolitical leadership depends increasingly on technology, Musk ought to be one of the US’s most important assets. And yet he is a de facto independent actor. Musk owes his influence not to the control of oil, capital or private armies, but of technologies vital to economic competitiveness, national security and public opinion. NASA and the Pentagon depend heavily on Musk-owned SpaceX to get into space.

This was the year when Big Tech companies were humbled, their reputations tarnished, and their share prices clobbered by a tidal wave of political outrage over misinformation, censorship, and data abuse. This public flogging may go too far.

President Donald Trump’s trustbusters don’t take no for an answer. After a federal judge rejected their lawsuit to stop AT&T from acquiring Time Warner, the Justice Department decided to appeal. Their efforts to stop the deal are a contrast to the administration’s generally friendly approach to big business; it is now preparing to approve tie-ups between CVS Health and Aetna, and between Cigna and Express Scripts Holding Co. Critics think the Justice Department is doing the bidding of President Trump by punishing Time Warner for the reporting of its news channel, CNN.

Standard Oil and American Telephone and Telegraph were the technological titans of their day, commanding more than 80% of their markets. Today’s tech giants are just as dominant: In the US, Alphabet’sGoogle drives 89% of internet search; 95% of young adults on the internet use a Facebook product; and Amazon now accounts for 75% of electronic book sales.

[Commentary] Silicon Valley wasn’t a happy place when Donald Trump was elected president. Tech companies have thrived on international trade and immigration and see President Trump as hostile to both. While the digital economy is concentrated in liberal, coastal enclaves, President Trump draws his most intense support from the old-economy states of the upper Midwest. Yet as the Nasdaq Composite Index’s first-ever close above 6000 demonstrates, technology has flourished more under President Trump than any other industry, save banking. President Trump has been much less negative for tech than his rhetoric implied. US tech companies are disproportionately exposed to foreign markets and would have been among the first casualties of a trade war. But President Trump has so far restricted his protectionist actions to narrowly focused industries rather than entire countries, and a trade war looks increasingly unlikely. Companies such as Apple Inc. with large stashes of foreign profits would gain big if President Trump cuts the tax rate on such profits. And his antiregulatory appointees are less likely to impose onerous privacy protections on the likes of Google.