Is Elon Musk a threat to national security? Biden says worthy of scrutiny

Washington: The cooperation or the technical relationships that Tesla founder Elon Musk is having with other countries is worthy of being looked at, US President Joe Biden has Wednesday.

Questions have been raised over Saudi Arabia's acquisition of a stake in Twitter as part of the Musk's blockbuster takeover.

“I think that Elon Musk's cooperation and/or technical relationships with other countries is worthy of being looked at,” he told reporters at a White House news conference on Wednesday.

“Whether or not he is doing anything inappropriate, I'm not suggesting that. I'm suggesting that it is worth being looked at. That's all I'll say,” Biden said when asked if he thinks Musk is a threat to the US national security.

“There are a lot of ways,” he said when asked how.

Saudi Prince Alwaleed bin Talal has had a stake in Twitter since 2011 and his firm Kingdom Holdings currently owns about 4% of the platform, making him the second-largest shareholder after Musk.

Biden snubbed Tesla last year by not inviting the top-selling electric vehicle maker to an e-vehicle expo at the White House, apparently because it lacks a unionized workforce. SpaceX, however, receives large US government contracts.

The president urged an investigation of Musk while taking a victory lap after Democrats fared better than expected in the midterm elections — with control of the House and Senate still undetermined as vote-counting continues.