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Greetings! Today’s episode of America’s greatest reality series—yes, I’m talking about Elon Musk’s falling-out with President Donald Trump—was a barn burner. But rather than rehashing the gory details here (as extraordinary as their social media back-and-forth was, it was also entirely predictable), it’s more interesting to consider what this means for tech’s broader relationship with the Trump administration. I’m talking about the tech bros still in the White House—most obviously artificial intelligence and crypto adviser David Sacks—as well as big tech companies like Meta Platforms and Amazon whose principals have been buddying up to Trump. Certainly jokesters on X think Sacks’ days are numbered, presumably because of his long relationship with Musk—see posts like this and this. But judging from Sacks’ own commentary, he has no intention of following Musk out the door. Check out his appearance on a recent “All-In” podcast, where he strongly defended Trump’s Big Beautiful Bill, basically repeating top Trump aide Stephen Miller’s talking points. That put him at odds with Musk’s criticisms of the bill. Sacks even walked back his complaint, made during the previous “All-In” podcast, that the bill didn’t include the Department of Government Efficiency’s cuts: he said he was misinformed about the legislative process (there is a separate bill to enact the DOGE cuts into law). Sacks has plenty of good reasons to stick around. For one thing, AI and crypto are his bailiwick. Crypto is flourishing under Trump, as demonstrated by today’s blockbuster first-day trading of stablecoin firm Circle Internet Group (see below). Why would Sacks want to give that role up right now? The same is true for AI. And it also applies to techies like Marc Andreessen, who are Musk fans but also have a lot invested in crypto. What about Meta and Amazon? Meta’s Mark Zuckerberg certainly doesn’t appear to have gotten anything out of Trump as payback for his outreach—the government’s antitrust lawsuit went to trial and has now wrapped up. It’s possible that relations could have been worse than they are now if not for Zuckerberg’s efforts, of course. As for Amazon founder Jeff Bezos, his Blue Origin rocket startup might benefit from the Musk-Trump rift, particularly given Trump’s threats to cancel all of Musk’s contracts. That would hurt SpaceX far more than it would most of Musk’s companies (it would also hurt the U.S.’s space ambitions, given SpaceX’s current dominance of the launch business). In other words, Musk’s rift doesn’t necessarily signal a broader break between tech and the White House, at least from tech’s point of view. What is less clear is whether the squabble will influence the attitude of folks in the White House toward techies. Many in the administration were already hostile to big tech, of course. One thing is for sure: This soap opera has a few more episodes left. It’s what you call a first-day pop. Shares of Circle, the stablecoin firm, leapt from their opening at $69 and rose as high as $103.75 before closing at $83.23. That’s up 168% from Circle’s IPO selling price of $31. As my colleague Yueqi Yang explained on Wednesday evening, Circle is going public at a great time—after four years of trying. Circle is sure to benefit from the crypto-friendly Trump administration. While competition in the sector is on the increase as others also see opportunities under the new president, Circle is the second-biggest issuer of stablecoins, which positions it to benefit. For more details, including Circle CEO Jeremy Allaire’s comments, see here. • Apple’s plan to launch its AI features in China in partnership with Alibaba Group is facing delays, as the country’s top internet regulator hasn’t approved their application, the Financial Times reported. More than 100,000 readers rely on The Information‘s Creator Economy newsletter for coverage of the creator startups making waves, big tech companies’ social media playbooks, and scoops on the sector's biggest hires. Start receiving the free newsletter here. | 
