ELON Musk's ties to Ukrainian internet access gave him control over the United States government, a new report has suggested.
Musk's pull with the US government came from his executive role at SpaceX.
The space-exploration company, which Musk owns, has provided internet access to Ukraine during its war with Russia.
Without an internet connection, Ukrainian forces would not be able to plan attacks or create a defensive force against Russia's invasion, which began in February 2022.
For months, SpaceX provided internet access to Ukraine, but in recent days as the Ukraine military entered territory contested by Russia, they lost internet connection.
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Musk's company also recently threatened the Pentagon that they would stop giving Ukraine internet access if the government did not pay them for providing the service, the New Yorker reports.
SpaceX estimated that the bill that the Pentagon would have to foot would total roughly $400million each year.
“We started to get a little panicked,” a senior defense official told the outlet.
Musk “could turn it off at any given moment. And that would have real operational impact for the Ukrainians.”
After the New Yorker dropped the story on Musk, people were quick to call out the tech billionaire, comparing him to a villain from the James Bond movie franchise.
"This is some Bond-villain stuff," one Twitter user wrote.
"Elon Musk simply has too much power," they said in part.
SpaceX implemented its line of mobile internet terminals known as Starlink in Ukraine after Russian cyberattacks wreaked havoc on Ukraine's digital infrastructure.
Starlink is made up of tripod-mounted dishes that connect with a network of satellites.
While the thousands of Starlink units are hard for Russia to completely wipe out, Musk does have the power to do so.
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A few people who were involved in the implementation of Starlink in Ukraine said that they underestimated the significance of Musk's control.
“Nobody thought about it back then,” a Ukrainian tech executive told the New Yorker.
“It was all about ‘Let’s f**king go, people are dying.’"
While SpaceX helped get the Starlink units into Ukraine through pro-bono contributions, among other donors, the company warned that they could not keep funding the project.
“We are not in a position to further donate terminals to Ukraine, or fund the existing terminals for an indefinite period of time,” SpaceX’s director of government sales reportedly told the Pentagon in a letter last fall.
In July, SpaceX was valued at nearly $150billion, CNBC reported at the time.
Musk is worth even more as the world's second richest person with a total net worth of $180billion, according to Forbes.
In June, the US Department of Defense worked up a contract to buy the satellites from SpaceX.
"We continue to work with a range of global partners to ensure Ukraine has the resilient satellite and communication capabilities they need," the Pentagon said in a statement obtained by Reuters.
"Satellite communications constitute a vital layer in Ukraine's overall communications network and the department contracts with Starlink for services of this type."
