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

JPMorgan Chase CEO Jamie Dimon said on Wednesday that she and tech billionaire Elon Musk had softened their previously contentious relationship.

“Elon and I hugged,” Dimon told CNBC in a televised 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 talk. We worked out some of our differences.”

Dimon praised several of Musk’s companies, including Tesla, space exploration company SpaceX and Neuralink — a startup trying to develop brain-computer interface systems.

“That guy is our Einstein,” said the JPMorgan chief. “I would like to help him and his companies as much as we can.”

Dimon’s comments come after the US banking giant They agreed to drop a lawsuit late last year He filed against Tesla in 2021, seeking $162.2 million plus fees in a dispute over stock warrant transactions. Earlier, JPMorgan alleged that Tesla violated the terms of a contract signed by the companies regarding the repricing of warranties.

Tesla was required to deliver the stock or cash if the price of its stock on a certain expiration date was higher than the “strike price” agreed in the contract.

The dispute arose when JP Morgan made adjustments to the value of the warrants after Musk tweeted in August 2018 that he was considering taking Tesla private for $420 a share, and a few weeks later the Tesla chief returned to the idea of ​​privatizing the electric utility. car manufacturer

The SEC later charged Musk with securities fraud. Tesla and Musk agreed to pay $20 million to settle the lawsuit.

Musk is currently playing a key role in newly inaugurated President Donald Trump’s administration as head of the Department of Government Efficiency. Dimon said he wants to “be helpful.”

“Government needs to be more accountable, it needs to be more efficient. It should be results-based. I mean, I would say department by department. So I wish them the best,” said Dimon. “It’s going to be complicated. The federal government is complicated.”