Elon Musk condemned a segment of the MAGA movement as "contemptible fools" who should be purged from the Republican Party in a social media post Friday.
Why it matters: A virtual right-wing civil war has broken out over race, class, immigration and the future of President-elect Trump's movement, and Musk is increasingly at odds with Trump's historic base.
Sriram Krishnan has become a MAGA lightning rod since President-elect Trump named him as a senior adviser on artificial intelligence, due to both anti-Indian racism and Krishnan's pro-immigration views.
The big picture: Krishnan is an unlikely candidate for controversy, known throughout Silicon Valley for his affability and to the broader world as co-host of a podcast with his wife, tech entrepreneur Aarthi Ramamurthy.
An erupting civil war in MAGA world over foreign workers has shone a fresh spotlight on a visa scheme that has become the backbone of the country's highly skilled tech industry.
Why it matters: The brewing conflict has underscored the schism between one of President-elect Trump's cornerstone pledges — cracking down on immigration — and his Silicon Valley supporters, many of whose businesses depend on attracting foreign workers.
A handful of conservative critics of Elon Musk are alleging censorship and claiming they were stripped of their verification badges on X after challenging his views on H-1B visas for highly skilled foreign workers.
Why it matters: The H-1B issue and an X post by Musk ally Vivek Ramaswamy about America's culture of "mediocrity" have sparked an online MAGA civil war over immigration and race. Some supporters of President-elect Trump are now turning on Musk and the tech bros Trump has tapped for key administration roles.
OpenAI confirmed Friday its plan to restructure its operations in a move that will separate its large and growing business from the nonprofit board that currently oversees it.
Why it matters: The plan, which faces opposition from Elon Musk and others, builds on comments chair Bret Taylor made at Axios' recent AI+ Summit in San Francisco.
A MAGA-world civil war erupted over Christmas when a social media post on American culture turned into a pitched battle over race, immigration and billionaires versus the working class.
Why it matters: The fight exposes one of the MAGA movement's deepest contradictions: It came to prominence chiefly via the white, less-educated, working class but is now under the full control of billionaire technologists and industrialists, many of them immigrants.
Elon Musk showed off a trimmer figure in a holiday social media post on Wednesday while revealing that he has been taking an anti-obesity drug to shed pounds.
Why it matters: Musk's post highlighted just how mainstream weight-loss drugs like Ozempic and Wegovy have become in recent years as public figures openly admit to using them, helping transform perceptions and conversations around weight loss.
Apple is closing in on a $4 trillion stock market valuation, powered by investors cheering progress in the company's long-awaited AI enhancements to rejuvenate sluggish iPhone sales.
Why it matters: The company has pulled ahead of Nvidia and Microsoft in the race to the monumental milestone, thanks to an about 16% jump in shares since early November that has added about $500 billion to its market capitalization.
