Overview
- A White House financial filing disclosed in reporting on Sept. 10 showed Katie Miller owns a stake in Elon Musk’s xAI that reporters and filings value at roughly $500,000 to more than $1 million.
- A Washington Post analysis found Miller published nearly 500 posts over about nine months attacking ChatGPT, Anthropic’s Claude and Google’s Gemini while posting favorably about xAI’s Grok more than 160 times.
- The filings and reporting say Miller bought xAI shares in December after she began consulting for the company and that the holding likely rose in value when xAI was folded into SpaceX and the combined company went public.
- When questioned about the lack of disclosure Miller replied with profane denials and said she was not paid to post while FTC Chair Andrew Ferguson said no laws the agency enforces were alleged to be broken and legal experts maintained that FTC guidance would normally require disclosure.
- The episode spotlights gaps in current rules for commentators with private company stock, raises new ethics questions about political operatives working with tech firms, and could prompt calls for clearer disclosure standards and watchdog scrutiny.