In public and in private, Elon Musk is increasingly treating the prospect of President Biden's re-election as an urgent — even existential — threat to America, Axios' Zachary Basu writes.

• Why it matters: Musk hasn't endorsed former President Trump. But the billionaire X owner has made no secret of his disdain for Biden's policies, leveraging his massive online platform to denigrate Democrats and promote Trump's messaging on the 2024 election's top issues.

Chief among Musk's obsessions is immigration. He has shared the conspiracy theory that Biden is intentionally "importing" millions of undocumented immigrants to boost Democrats' political power, as well as numerous posts portraying immigrants as security threats.

• "There is either a red wave this November or America is doomed," Musk posted this weekend, responding to a video about New York City's migrant crisis.

🖼️ The big picture: Musk's remarkable political evolution had begun at least by 2022, when the Tesla CEO revealed he had voted Republican for the first time.

• Musk, who said he would support Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis for president, called Democrats "the party of division & hate" and cast the debate over "woke" culture as a "battle for the future of civilization."
• At the time, Musk's political musings rarely mentioned the border. Today, a review of Musk's X feed suggests illegal immigration has become an object of near-singular obsession.

Musk, who privately met with Trump in Florida earlier this month, was pressed on his views of the former president and the racist "great replacement theory" in an interview with Don Lemon released yesterday.

• Musk said he may endorse a candidate "in the final stretch" of the campaign. He defended the immigrant conspiracy theory as "a simple incentive to increase Democrat voters."
• After the interview was taped last week, Musk abruptly canceled Lemon's partnership with X.

🔎 Between the lines: SpaceX's role as a major government contractor has historically made Musk reluctant to embrace traditional partisanship, according to The New York Times.

• Trump's skepticism on climate change has also been a source of past friction with Musk — one that could drive him into the arms of a third-party candidate like Robert F. Kennedy Jr.

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AI developers hiring quickly to keep pace with market demand are struggling with a new threat: spies and employees looking to steal company secrets, Axios Codebook author Sam Sabin writes.

• Why it matters: America's AI sector — far more advanced than businesses in other countries — is likely a prime target for nation-state espionage campaigns.

Experts predict AI developers could become even bigger targets than chip manufacturers and biotechnology companies.

• "There definitely are organizations that don't take this seriously," Gregory Allen, a former policy official at the Defense Department's Joint Artificial Intelligence Center, told Axios. "But it is such a difficult problem that even the ones that do take it seriously are still being successfully hacked and exploited."

🔬 Between the lines: Larger AI developers like Google and Microsoft have invested in counter-espionage programs for years. But the new crop of AI startups is in a different position.

• "What I've found in some of those instances where I've given a talk or counseled people [at smaller companies] is that they just haven't thought about it at all," said John Carlin, a partner at law firm Paul Weiss and former Trump and Biden DOJ official.
• This is particularly true for venture-backed companies facing investor pressure to quickly launch their products.

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Nvidia is using its GTC developer conference this week — "AI Woodstock" — to launch an even more powerful family of chips, Axios' Ina Fried writes.

• Why it matters: Nvidia has been the biggest beneficiary of the generative AI boom among chipmakers. But rivals are eager to get in on the action.

Nvidia unveiled its new Blackwell family of processors to succeed the company's current Hopper model, which has been in short supply. The new processors are due out later this year.

• Other tech firms were eager to tout their ties to Nvidia, with companies including Google, Microsoft, Oracle, SAP and HP announcing new or expanded partnerships.

📈 Charted above: Another tech company — Super Micro Computer — that's riding the AI wave even farther than Nvidia.

• Shares of Supermicro — which makes servers that use Nvidia chips — are up 12-fold in the past 12 months, The Wall Street Journal reports.

Supermicro joined the S&P 500 yesterday, replacing Whirlpool.

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President Biden will use a stop at a Mexican restaurant in Phoenix today to announce a national program to reach Latino voters — "Latinos con Biden-Harris" — as his campaign rushes to reverse gains that former President Trump appears to be making, Axios' Hans Nichols writes.

• Why it matters: Four years ago, Biden won Latino voters 2-to-1 over former President Trump, according to exit polls. But recent polls indicate Democrats' longtime advantage with Latinos — the fast-growing segment of the U.S. population — is diminishing.

Biden is traveling to Nevada and Arizona this week, followed by a fundraising trip through Texas, as part of his administration's post-State of the Union push to shore up the base.

• "The Latino vote was critical to the President's victory in 2020, and 2024 will be no different," Biden-Harris 2o24 campaign manager Julie Chávez Rodríguez said.

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Global ocean surface temperatures stayed at record highs every day for the past year, Axios extreme weather expert Andrew Freedman writes.

• Why it matters: The trend is worrying scientists who don't have a complete understanding of what's driving the record ocean heat.

The spike in global temperatures during 2023 — which has continued into 2024 — has blown past expectations.

• "It's not just that the global average sea surface temperature has been record-breaking every single day. ... It's the absurdly large margins by which the records have been broken," Brian McNoldy, a senior researcher at the University of Miami, told Axios.

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D.C. Mayor Muriel Bowser — facing questions about crime and a downtown property slump in the nation's capital at the Axios What's Next Summit — stayed focused on one upbeat message:

• "Don't be so down on D.C."

Why it matters: Bowser is in her third term at a pivotal moment for the city, where crime is top of mind for residents and the downtown economy is on edge.

• She contended in an interview with Axios D.C.'s Cuneyt Dil the numbers were starting to "trend in the right direction."
• Total violent crime is down 17% so far this year, and all crime is down 12%, according to police stats. An emergency crime bill just passed, reversing some progressive reforms.

🔮 Our What's Next Summit continues today at 2 p.m. ET. Hear from Slack CEO Denise Dresser, Sen. Joe Manchin (D-W.Va.), Transportation Secretary Pete Buttigieg, ESPN chairman Jimmy Pitaro, House Republican Conference Vice Chair Blake Moore of Utah & more.

• Livestream here ... Get Axios D.C.

Younger generations of white evangelicals are drifting away from their church and pushing it into a major identity crisis, NPR reporter Sarah McCammon writes in her new memoir, "The Exvangelicals," out today.

• "For the Gen-Xers, millennials, and Zoomers who grew up in the shadow of the Moral Majority only to come of age in a far more pluralistic and interconnected world, these years have been a time of confusion and disillusionment," she tells Axios editor-in-chief Sara Kehaulani Goo.

Why it matters: McCammon, who was raised evangelical, adds an essential, human dimension to political chatter and analysis that often lumps "evangelicals" together.

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MrBeast — the YouTube megastar known for outlandish stunts and challenges that go viral — struck a deal with Amazon to make what's being dubbed the "biggest reality competition series ever."

• The show, called "Beast Games," will feature 1,000 contestants competing for a $5 million cash prize.

Between the lines: The king of the YouTube algorithm wants to try streaming because he can break free of it, Axios' Hope King notes.

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