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Billionaires Mark Cuban and Elon Musk have taken center stage in the 2024 presidential campaign, actively seeking votes for Vice President Kamala Harris and former President Donald Trump, respectively.

Mark Cuban, part owner of the Dallas Mavericks and a former Shark Tank investor, has thrown his support behind Harris. He argues that Harris is the pro-business candidate who can best serve the interests of small businesses and the economy at large.

“It’s the Harris campaign versus Elon, not even versus Trump,” Cuban said during a recent appearance on CNBC’s Squawk Box. “This is a battle for entrepreneurs.”

He talked about Harris’ pledge to not raise taxes on Americans earning $400,000 or less and her plans to lower healthcare and pharmaceutical costs by tackling pharmacy middlemen. Cuban believes these policies will benefit small businesses and offset inflation for households.

On the other side of the aisle, Elon Musk, CEO of Tesla and SpaceX, has emerged as one of Trump’s most prominent supporters and financial backers. Musk has contributed nearly $75 million to a pro-Trump super PAC he co-founded, America PAC, between July and early September.

He has also pushed unconventional voter engagement strategies, including promising to give away $1 million daily to registered voters in swing states who sign a petition supporting the First and Second Amendments.

Newsweek reached out to Musk and Cuban via email for comment.

Elon Musk and Mark Cuban’s Strained Relationship

Elon Musk and Mark Cuban have had a sometimes amicable, sometimes turbulent relationship over the years, largely shaped by their mutual involvement in tech and business, as well as their public commentary on social and political issues. While both have talked positively about crypto, they’ve often clashed, as the timeline below plots.

Early 2000s: Parallel Paths in Tech

Both Musk and Cuban made their initial fortunes during the ‘dot-com’ era, though through different ventures. Cuban sold internet radio company Broadcast.com to Yahoo for $5.7 billion in 1999, while Musk’s X.com (separate to X, formerly Twitter) merged with Confinity to become PayPal, which was later acquired by eBay for $1.5 billion in 2002.

2017: Diverging Views on AI

Cuban and Musk have expressed different views on artificial intelligence, particularly regarding its potential risks and benefits.

Musk has been consistently vocal about the dangers of AI. He has called it “a fundamental existential risk for human civilization,” and believes that without proper regulation, AI could lead to disastrous consequences.

Musk has said that AI, if not controlled, could result in unintended consequences, including the possibility of it surpassing human intelligence and becoming uncontrollable. He’s described it as “the scariest problem” and pushed for regulatory oversight to prevent worst-case scenarios.

Cuban, on the other hand, was bullish on AI, saying at the 2017 SXSW conference, “I am telling you, the world’s first trillionaires are going to come from somebody who masters AI and all its derivatives and applies it in ways we never thought of.“

2020: Government’s Covid-19 Response

In early 2020, Musk criticized U.S. stay-at-home restrictions related to the coronavirus pandemic, referring to the public health measures as “fascist.”

Cuban openly criticized Musk’s response, saying “anything that negatively impacts Tesla, Elon hates, period, end of story,” adding “My attitude is you’ve got to be smart … we don’t have to rush back into things. We get to learn.”

Social Media and Free Speech (2023-2024)

The two billionaires diverge on issues of free speech online. Since Musk bought Twitter and rebranded it to X, he has removed several features originally designed to moderate and encourage civil discourse on the platform.

Cuban has expressed concerns about these changes in several X posts, particularly regarding the platform’s handling of misinformation and lack of moderation around hate speech: “We disagree. It’s not about censorship. I’ve never asked for censorship. It’s about hate speech crowding out people who don’t want to be where hate is.”

“It’s disingenuous to say Twitter is the home of free speech when he chooses to often put his thumb on the scale of reach,” Cuban has said of what he perceives as the speech he sees on the social media platform.

Cuban and Musk: A War of Words and Strategies

The rivalry between Cuban and Musk has escalated in recent weeks, with both billionaires taking jabs at each other on social media and in interviews. Musk has mocked Cuban’s looks on multiple occasions, while Cuban has criticized Musk’s voter sweepstakes as “innovative” yet “desperate.”

“You can’t stop thinking about me @elonmusk Can you?” Cuban posted on X (formerly known as Twitter). “If I supported a candidate that was so incompetent I had to take over and fund their ground game, I would be looking for a distraction too.”

Cuban questioned the legality of Musk paying individuals in swing states to sign a petition to incentivize them to register to vote. Cuban shared a post by journalist and scholar Norman Ornstein who said of Musk’s petition: “Merrick Garland justice department needs to step in immediately.”

Cuban followed up, saying, “I’m pretty sure, that while it may or may not violate voting laws, it may violate gaming laws in Pennsylvania,” sharing a screenshot from the Pennsylvania Department of Revenue website, which states: “In Pennsylvania, all forms of gambling are illegal unless specifically authorized by law.”

In the newest chapter of their ongoing public feud, Cuban took to X again to fire back at Musk. In a response to Musk’s latest insult, he posted: “I know you can’t get me out of your head @elonmusk. Time to stop thinking about me, find a friend and take the blue pill,” linking to a Viagra listing on his online pharmacy, CostPlus.

The exchange began after Musk mocked Cuban’s appearance, posting, “Why did he steal @maddow’s glasses?” in a reference to MSNBC anchor Rachel Maddow.

Musk’s tweet linked to footage of Cuban’s recent interview on CNN discussing his support for Democratic nominee Harris, where Cuban wore glasses similar to Maddow’s signature look.

Mark Cuban and Elon Musk’s Regulations Clash

While Musk sees a Trump presidency as a boon for deregulation that might benefit his business interests across space travel, Cuban favors Harris’ more restrained approach to regulatory issues.

Tech Policy and Regulation

Musk’s support for Trump aligns with his views on deregulation, government restraint in business, and promoting innovation without excessive oversight. The SpaceX CEO frequently talks about his support for Trump in relation to these issues, particularly deregulation.

“Unless Trump wins and we get rid of the mountain of smothering regulations (that have nothing to do with safety!), humanity will never reach Mars,” he posted recently on X. Musk has long harbored dreams of humanity colonizing the Red Planet.

Cuban, on the other hand, has criticized lack of government regulation, particularly around AI, telling Business Insider in June that Silicon Valley billionaires “want as little regulation as possible because there is no way for regulation to work unless they are the ones that write it.”

On October 17, Harris attended a rally in La Crosse, Wisconsin, with Mark Cuban opening for her. Cuban’s introductory speech touched upon Harris’ policies, talking about the presidential nominee’s plans to grow small businesses from 33 million to more than 50 million.

Harris started her speech by thanking the entrepreneur, “Mark Cuban, thank you for being all that you are and for being a part of it”.

Trump has also expressed positive views of Musk, especially regarding the billionaire’s contributions to innovation and his support for his campaign.

On September 5, Trump announced plans to appoint Elon Musk as head of a proposed “government efficiency commission” should he win the presidency. During an address to the Economic Club of New York, Trump said that Musk had accepted the role to oversee an audit of federal government operations and make “recommendations for drastic reforms.”

Following Trump’s announcement, Musk posted on X, “I look forward to serving America if the opportunity arises. No pay, no title, no recognition is needed.”

“To act as a credible surrogate for Donald Trump to the small slice of undecided voters who may decide the election, Elon Musk would need to have a broad-based favorability to an electorate beyond Trump’s base,” Joshua Scacco, director of the Center for Sustainable Democracy and associate professor of political communication at the University of South Florida, told Newsweek.

“This favorability does not seem present at the moment for such an appeal. Musk’s advantage here would seem to be more as a mobilizing force for the Trump base as Election Day approaches,” he said.

“His association and familiarity with X, a space increasingly viewed as friendly to conservative voices, also would indicate that his presence at campaign events is to mobilize the base and counterbalance the celebrity presence at Democratic events,” said Scacco.

While Musk may be a valuable high-profile figure to Trump, Cuban is one of many who have endorsed Harris. “For instance, Mark Cuban is simultaneously campaigning for Kamala Harris as a counterweight to Elon Musk. Cuban is just one individual in a long list of high-profile celebrity endorsements of Harris. Trump’s campaign is attempting to blunt some of this visibility for his opponent.”

Harris counts among her supporters LinkedIn co-founder Reid Hoffman, former 21st Century Fox James Murdoch, Facebook and Asana co-founder Dustin Moskovitz, and Netflix co-founder Reed Hastings.

While Musk arguably enjoys more celebrity status than the rest of his donor class, Trump’s campaign is not short of billionaires either. Among Trump’s backers are Stephen Schwarzman, chairman of Blackstone, the world’s largest private equity fund; Israeli-American businesswoman Miriam Adelson, the wife of late casino billionaire Sheldon Adelson; and Marc Andreessen, a leading venture capitalist.

Update 10/24/24, 11:32 a.m. ET: This article has been updated with more history of Musk and Cuban’s clashes on major issues.

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