"Elon Musk Returns to Around-the-Clock Work Following Brief Shutdown"
Washington, DC: Social media platform X suffered a two-hour outage over the weekend, leading owner Elon Musk to express concerns about the need to devote more time to his businesses.
Musk's statement followed earlier declarations suggesting a potential reduction in his role within the administration of President Donald Trump. The multi-billionaire is the head of X, AI-developer xAI (which powers the chatbot Grok), electric vehicle manufacturer Tesla, and rocket company SpaceX—all companies that demand significant attention.
Recent backlash against Musk's efforts to aid Trump in administration cuts and subsequent drops in Tesla's stock prices may have contributed to his growing distance from the White House. Last week, Musk confirmed that he was limiting his involvement with the so-called "Department of Government Efficiency" to one or two days a week.
Despite his decreased role, Musk remains an advisor to the president, attending an Oval Office meeting with the South African head of state on Wednesday.
Saturday's X outage seemingly prompted Musk to reassess his engagements, with a suggestion that he may have been absent from his companies for too long. In a statement, Musk acknowledged the need for operational improvements on X, attributing the downtime to ineffective failover redundancy.
The SITE Intelligence Group reported that hacker-activist group DieNet took responsibility for the outage, claiming it was a test of their Distributed Denial of Service (DDoS) capabilities. However, AFP could not independently verify DieNet's claim, and X did not respond to requests for comment on the matter.
Returning to his "24/7" work regimen, Musk expressed his focus on X and Tesla, as well as the upcoming Starship launch next week. SpaceX plans to attempt another launch of its mega-rocket Starship, which has experienced explosive failures during previous attempts. Despite these setbacks, SpaceX continues to develop and test multiple Starship prototypes in an effort to resolve the issues efficiently.
Although Musk pledged to reduce his political spending and shift his attention to his businesses, he remains committed to future causes if he deems them necessary. He has stated that his recent political donations were fulfilling their intended purposes.
Source: AFP
Relevant Enrichment Data:- Elon Musk has donated close to $300 million to President Donald Trump and other Republicans, which has sparked protests against Tesla and impacted sales.- Musk's political initiatives have led to concerns among investors regarding his dedication to his businesses.- Starship, a key component of Musk's Mars colonization plans, has exploded during two previous launches. SpaceX is testing multiple prototypes to address the issues expeditiously.
- Elon Musk, while expressing concerns about the need for operational improvements on his businesses, including social media platform X and electric vehicle manufacturer Tesla, returned to his "24/7" work regimen to focus on these companies, as well as the upcoming Starship launch.
- Despite Musk's pledge to reduce his political spending and shift his attention to his businesses, such as X, Tesla, and rocket company SpaceX, he remains committed to future causes if he deems them necessary, having stated that his recent political donations were fulfilling their intended purposes.
