JPMorgan’s Jamie Dimon says he’s patched relationship with Elon Musk

JPMorgan Chase CEO Jamie Dimon on wednesday he said he and the tech billionaire Elon Musk they cleared their previously contentious relationship.

“Elon and I hugged,” Dimon told CNBC in a TV interview at the World Economic Forum’s annual event in Davos, Switzerland. “He came to one of our conferences, [and] He and I had a nice, long conversation. We have resolved some of our differences.”

Dimon praised Musk’s various companies, including Teslathe space exploration company SpaceX and Neuralink – a startup that seeks to develop brain-computer interface systems.

“The guy is our Einstein,” the JPMorgan chief said. “I want to be as helpful to him and his companies as we can.”

Dimon’s remarks come after the US banking giant Late last year he agreed to drop a lawsuit filed against Tesla in 2021, seeking $162.2 million plus fees in a dispute over stock warrant transactions. Previously, JPMorgan had asserted that Tesla had violated the terms of a contract signed by the companies regarding the repricing of warrants.

Tesla would have to deliver shares or cash if its stock price exceeded a contractually agreed “strike price” by a certain expiration date.

The conflict came when JPMorgan made adjustments to the value of the warrants after Musk tweeted in August 2018 that he planned to take Tesla private for $420 a share, and again a few weeks later, when the Tesla chief returned to the idea of ​​privatizing the electric car. manufacturer

Musk was later charged with securities fraud by the Securities and Exchange Commission. Tesla and Musk agreed to pay $20 million each to settle the suit.

Musk is now playing a key role in the newly inaugurated president Donald Trumpgovernment as head of the Department of Government Efficiency. Dimon said he wants to “be helpful to them.”

“The government must be more accountable, it must be more efficient. It must be based on results. I mean, I will say department by department. So I want the best,” said Dimon. “It’s going to be complicated. The federal government is complicated.”