Cathie Wood says Elon Musk will succeed in his audit of the federal government because he has 'more proprietary data' than anyone
Wood said Musk understands the world is at “the threshold of a convergence among many technologies.” “I think he’s going to bring a lot of efficiency to government,” Wood told CNBC Friday morning.
By Paolo Confino
Earlier this week, President-elect Donald Trump appointed Musk to head what he called the Department of Government Efficiency (DOGE), which is meant to be a cost-cutting initiative across the entire federal government. (The acronym DOGE also refers to the cryptocurrency Dogecoin, whose logo is a shiba inu, which Musk has promoted).
The prospect of creating a commission to evaluate federal spending is a Musk hobby horse. Musk first publicly pitched himself as the man to lead the initiative during a live X Spaces conversation with Trump in August.
“It would be great to just have a government efficiency commission that…ensures the taxpayers’ hard-earned money is spent in a good way,” Musk said at the time. “I’d be happy to help out on such a commission.”
Wood believes Musk has a unique understanding of the current technological landscape. “The way we’re looking at this is, Elon understands we are at the threshold of a convergence among many technologies,” Wood said. “AI being at the center of it, and proprietary data is winning. So he has more proprietary data from all of these companies than I think any other CEO.”
Musk also holds that view, telling the New York Times last year that “data is probably more valuable than gold.”
Wood did not respond to a request for comment regarding what benefits Musks trove of data would have in his role running the Department of Government Efficiency.
But Wood is correct that Musk’s companies, which span a wide gamut of the tech industry, possess vast amounts of data. SpaceX’s subsidiary Starlink operates satellites that provide internet access across the world. His car company Tesla collects data on roadways and driver behavior through its self-driving features. And X contains a repository of consumer data from its hundreds of millions of users. “X might be the single best source of data,” Musk told the Times.
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