Musk’s X picks a side

Hey all, it’s Kurt Wagner in Denver. X is pretty sure that Donald Trump won the debate, but first…Three things you need to know today:• Nvid [View in browser]( [Bloomberg]( Hey all, it’s Kurt Wagner in Denver. X is pretty sure that Donald Trump won the debate, but first… Three things you need to know today: • Nvidia customers are a bit tense waiting for chips, [CEO Jensen Huang says]( • OpenAI is in talks to raise money valuing the [startup at $150 billion]( • Hewlett Packard Enterprise is sounding out investors about a debt deal to help fund its [acquisition of Juniper Networks]( Donald Trump’s meme machine Tuesday night’s debate between Vice President [Kamala Harris](bbg://people/profile/6092699) and former President [Donald Trump](bbg://people/profile/1252249) was, by most accounts, a demonstration of Harris’ preparation and ability to bait Trump. CNN’s Jake Tapper equated Trump’s performance to “a 4Chan post come to life,” a reference to the site known for spreading conspiracies. Even Fox News analysts were [reluctant to declare Trump the winner]( a reality that seemed impossible just hours earlier. If you followed the debate on X, however, this would come as a shock. I opened the social network formerly known as Twitter and was bombarded with posts about how well Trump had performed. A few of these posts were coming from people I followed — namely, X owner [Elon Musk](bbg://people/profile/1954518), who seemed to be having a great time [building up Trump]( and [putting down Harris]( to his 197 million followers. But most of the posts were fed to me by X’s algorithm, including several from Donald Trump Jr. and Libs of TikTok, accounts I don’t follow. Musk is now a vocal and [aggressive Trump supporter and donor]( regularly tweeting in favor of the former president. As the most-followed account on X, Musk sets the tone for the entire service, and an ultra-conservative Musk has shifted the entire platform toward the political right. This week’s debate didn’t just confirm the reality of this shift, it also erased any lingering hope I had that X was still a useful and trustworthy source of information for major political events. Declaring Trump the victor in Tuesday’s debate is a subjective call; people will agree and disagree, and that’s certainly OK and expected. But X’s feed felt so incredibly one-sided — so detached from reality — that it rendered the service unusable for any kind of serious information or discussion about the most important political moment of this US election. There were clips of Trump “owning” Harris about the size of her rallies, and a seemingly endless stream of claims that the debate had been a 3-on-1 cage fight, with ABC News’ moderators clearly in Harris’ corner. I lost count of all the memes and AI-generated images of Trump — who alleged during the debate that undocumented immigrants were eating people’s [household pets]( in an Ohio town — protecting the area’s cats and dogs and ducks. And Trump backers pitched yet another conspiracy theory suggesting Harris was wearing special earrings with speakers in them so former President Barack Obama could feed her lines. The Twitter that Musk acquired in October 2022 had its faults, but the one thing it did best was serve as a global watercooler during major events. It was a place you could go to get commentary about what was going on— usually from all sides — and the platform’s old verification system made it easier to find authoritative voices that were elevated above the crowd. It wasn't perfect, but it wasn't just a repackaged version of Truth Social, either. Musk said when he bought X that he wanted to “[inform & entertain,]( and the X feed on debate night was indeed a spectacle. But he also [said]( he wanted X to be “by far the most accurate source of information about the world.” In that, Musk has failed — and I don’t think it’s even up for debate.—[Kurt Wagner](mailto:kwagner71@bloomberg.net) The big story Intel reaches a pivotal moment this week. The board of the chipmaker is considering whether to alter Chief Executive Officer Pat Gelsinger’s [turnaround effort]( including scaling back the multibillion-dollar factory projects he and the Biden administration are counting on. One to watch [Bloomberg’s Jason Schreier joins Bloomberg Technology to discuss Sony’s new PlayStation 5 Pro game console.]( Get fully charged AST Space Mobile, SpaceX’s tiny rival in the satellite business, faces its first key test with a launch [scheduled from Florida](. Sequoia sees bigger money in AI-linked [software than models](. IBM hit a record as investors seek a stable tech company with potential growth [from artificial intelligence](. 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