Cathie Wood says Elon Musk will succeed in his audit of the federal government because he has ‘more proprietary data’ than anyone
ARK Invest CEO Cathie Wood backs Tesla CEO Elon Musk in his new role spearheading an audit committee for the federal government.
“I think he’s going to bring a lot of efficiency to government,” Wood told CNBC Friday morning.
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.
Wood has been a longtime backer of Musk and his companies. Various ETFs at her $6 billion ARK Invest fund hold significant numbers of shares in Musk’s companies SpaceX and Tesla. Like many Musk supporters she pointed to his track record of overcoming incredible odds in his business career, which includes founding and being pushed out of PayPal in 2000 and then revolutionizing space travel and electric vehicles with SpaceX and Tesla.
“We’ve faced this question about Elon for many years, as he started one company after another,” Wood said.
Former Republican primary candidate Vivek Ramaswamy will be co-director of the group alongside Musk. Wood said Ramasawamy’s background as biotech investor would help him effectively cut costs “from a health care point of view”
“They will use technology and other sensible measures to really rein in government spending,” Wood said of Musk and Ramaswamy. “So I think it’s a good thing.”
The specifics of how the commission would work are still unclear. For starters, it would not be a genuine government agency operating within the federal government. It would be an external group similar to a consulting or accounting firm. Musk has said he aims to cut $2 trillion from the roughly $6.8 trillion federal budget.
Some cost cuts would likely require legislation. However, others could be offered as recommendations to government agencies that would adopt the cost-cutting measures. Both cases would likely result in a political fight.
“Here’s the truth: The only governing force that can stop or temper that [is] going to be the bravest Republicans in the House or in the Senate,” Sen. John Fetterman (D-Pa) told NBC News. “It’s not going to be us, because we won’t have the votes. We don’t have the votes. We’re in the minority.”
