Disgraced Twitter owner Elon Musk, the second richest man in the world with a reported net worth of $180 billion, told Taylor Swift on April 19 Surprising compliment. The 12-time Grammy winner reportedly backed out of a $100 million tour sponsorship deal with FTX, the cryptocurrency exchange founded by Sam Bankman-Fried, after it was revealed that After the bankruptcy in November, Musk reacted with praise on Twitter: "I'm not surprised," the Tesla founder wrote on Twitter. "Taylor is smart and her father is a respected investment banker."
Adam Moskowitz, an attorney representing the plaintiffs suing FTX, said on The Scoop podcast that Swift is the only celebrity the company has negotiated with who has truly outright questioned FTX’s practices. "Taylor Swift actually asked them, 'Can you tell me these are not unregistered securities?'" he said, referring to tradable assets with value, such as stocks or bonds. As first reported by the Financial Times in December 2022, the deal reportedly collapsed after FTX was unable to provide a satisfactory answer.
The way Musk has run Twitter since acquiring it has been controversial, but he's right about one thing: Swift's wisdom in the situation. A December SEC filing showed that FTX's securities were indeed not registered, which is what she was asking about. Because she didn't sign the agreement, Swift avoided being sued along with celebrity FTX endorsers such as Shaquille O'Neal, Tom Brady and Larry David, who are named in the $5 billion lawsuit against the company.
As for her father, Scott Swift has worked as an investment banker at Merrill-Lynch since 2012. Considering his daughter is a potential future billionaire (current net worth is $570 million), it's unknown if he still holds the job. Her cat Olivia Benson is the third richest pet in the world.
This isn't the first time Musk has commented on Swift, although the most recent examples are much stranger. On March 16, he responded to Swift's Eras Tour rehearsal photo with just a cigarette emoji. That day, a Tesla account asked if the two would make a "cute couple," to which Musk simply responded with a dumbfounding emoji. Later, when Dogecoin founder Billy Marcus tweeted, "Taylor Swift sets the rules and if you don't agree with them I'm pretty sure you'll be kicked off the internet," Musk decided to write , “Her fringe resonance skills are outstanding.”
