Musk’s Tweets Irk Biden but Offer Scant Room for Security Review

There may be an argument for some sort of CFIUS review, but it’s thin, according to Emily Kilcrease, a senior fellow at the Center for a New American Security. The panel would only get involved if foreign investors were taking a controlling stake in the new company, she said, something Musk doesn’t appear ready to allow. CFIUS has the right to look at foreign investors, not Musk, Kilcrease said. “So if there’s concerns around Musk, CFIUS is a really messy, imperfect tool to try to deal with that -- and I suspect would be subject to legal challenge,” she said.

US officials have grown uncomfortable over Musk’s recent threat to stop supplying the Starlink satellite service to Ukraine and what they see as his increasingly Russia-friendly stance. The rationale for CFIUS involvement is that Musk has lined up investors in Qatar and Saudi Arabia to help fund the bid, and CFIUS’s job is to review foreign acquisitions of US companies.

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