Musk Faces Sales, Political and Tech Headwinds

Elon Musk's technology and business ventures are facing fresh strains: Tesla is coping with falling sales, volatile stock and nationwide protests even as devoted owners continue to gather at local meetups and large conventions like X Takeover. Musk's social platform X, built on his absolutist free‑speech stance, is in disputes with at least nine foreign governments over content moderation, highlighting tensions between U.S. free‑speech norms and other countries' regulatory expectations. SpaceX's Starlink continues pushing to provide global and emergency internet connectivity, while Neuralink pursues brain‑computer interfaces that offer possible medical benefits but raise ethical and technical questions. Musk is also turning the jokey Macrohard brand into a real AI software company, filing a trademark and hiring staff to build multi‑agent systems to automate software development and operations. Politically, former vice president Kamala Harris said the Biden administration erred by excluding Musk from a 2021 White House EV event—a decision she says he "never forgave" after moving toward support for Donald Trump—illustrating how his business and political positions complicate ties with U.S. officials.