'You should never bet against Elon': Peter Thiel says Musk understands risk-taking completely differently from other people
LEON NEAL/POOL/AFP via Getty Images
- Peter Thiel has praised Elon Musk's attitude to risk and said it's a bad idea to bet against him.
- The world's richest person understands risk in a way that most people don't, Thiel said.
- "Peter is right on all counts," Musk tweeted in agreement with some of Thiel's comments.
Elon Musk's entry into politics has caused some trepidation in Washington circles.
But his former business partner and fellow billionaire, Peter Thiel, has a message for the DC establishment: "You should never bet against Elon."
Thiel discussed Musk's unique skill as an entrepreneur during an appearance on the latest episode of the talk show Piers Morgan Uncensored, which was released Thursday.
Thiel said that in the 2000s Silicon Valley just viewed Musk as someone building two "super crazy" companies — his car company, Tesla, and rocket company, SpaceX.
"If only one of them had succeeded, one might still have said that it was just extraordinarily lucky. The fact that, to first approximation, both have wildly succeeded, tells us that Elon knows something about risk that the rest of us don't."
It appears to be a "high-wire, crazy, risk-taking act" from the outside, but his methods somehow work, he added.
Thiel said he has asked Musk before about how he approaches risk.
"I think there is something he understands about it that we don't. It's hard to articulate. I don't know if he can articulate it."
The two billionaires formed PayPal in 2000 after merging their two companies. Thiel has since cofounded Palantir, founded the VC fund Founders Fund, and started the Thiel Fellowship. He is an outspoken libertarian and generous donator to the Republican Party.
AP
Musk's business strategies have come under scrutiny since he was appointed to head the Trump administration's new Department of Government Efficiency, or DOGE.
His goal is to significantly reduce the federal budget, cutting as much as $2 trillion in spending.
"The strong consensus view in the DC establishment is that this is going to go nowhere. That it's just absolutely impossible to fix things, and this is going to be a very frustrating dead end," said Thiel during the interview.
"The alternate view, I would say, is you should never bet against Elon," he said.
"Peter is right on all counts," Musk tweeted in response to the interview clip on DOGE.
Musk's businesses have seemed to thrive since the election as investors and analysts wager he will continue to play a leading role in the new administration in a phenomenon dubbed the "Trump bump."
This week, SpaceX, Musk's space transportation company, was valued at $350 billion, doubling its worth in a year. Tesla has also enjoyed a major rally, with shares surging more than 60% this year.