That may well be, but Elmo has foregone short-term profit to gain power long-term before. Twitter is the obvious example here – you may remember all the headlines in 2022 and 2023 how it didn’t make sense to trash the existing brand, roll out the red carpet for horrible people, offend partners by not paying for stuff, and lose money at the same time. Granted, I can’t say if this behavior stems from a coke-addled mind or thorough planning but whatever it may be, it arguably panned out perfectly. Twitter was in the news all the time and Twitter helped get Trump elected, making Elmo’s investments surge and helping him gain a powerful government position. Many of the advertisers are already back, more will come post-Jan 20, and Twitter will gain (even more) relevance as a communication platform through the new US government.

There also is the incident where Elmo threatened Ukraine with disabling their Starlink access. While yes, that access is free, it shows that Musk may just discontinue service when ideological alignment is no longer a given.

Iow, I would be careful because the guy is maybe not that trustworthy, even if you pay him.