Wednesday, April 1, 2026

Elon Musk’s coterie of companies are getting more and more pushback from Democrats

Jessica Mathews here, filling in for Allie to give you a quick update on some recent reporting that looks at the pushback that Elon Musk’s companies are getting around the country.

Last week, I wrote about the lawsuit that Baltimore’s mayor and city council had filed against xAI, Elon Musk’s artificial intelligence company. The lawsuit accuses Grok of exposing residents to the risk that any photograph they uploaded—of themselves or of their children—could be ingested by Grok and transformed into sexually degrading deepfakes without their knowledge or consent.

Not long after that lawsuit was filed, the Baltimore Ravens’ football team announced it was walking away from a tunnel proposal it had pitched to Boring Company, for a free tunnel project around its Ravens stadium. And the Baltimore Mayor, a Democrat, said publicly that he wouldn’t have approved it anyway.

The sentiment shift in Baltimore, in particular, was notable, as the city had a decade ago welcomed Elon Musk’s business with open arms.

Here’s more, from the story:

Maryland and Baltimore have historically welcomed Musk’s companies through incentives and partnerships. Former Maryland Governor Larry Hogan, a Republican, was one of the first politicians to publicly get behind a major Boring Company project in 2017, when Boring Company announced it planned to build a high-speed tunnel for autonomous vehicles between Baltimore and Washington, D.C. The Maryland Department of Transportation sponsored the project, and Baltimore’s then-Mayor, a Democrat, had said the project would have “tremendous potential.”

That posture has shifted since Musk donated $300 million to President Trump’s campaign and took a hands-on role in government through DOGE. Governor Wes Moore, a Democrat, was an early critic of Musk’s work at DOGE, characterizing the firing of thousands of federal workers in 2025 as “arbitrary” and “draconian” during a working session in March 2025 and saying it was cruel. Boring Company president Steve Davis, one of Musk’s longtime trusted fixers, helped Musk run the government department.

Meanwhile, in Las Vegas—where Boring has had repeated safety and environmental problems—two legislators recently sent a demand letter to Nevada Governor Joe Lombardo, requesting he address “structural failures” in the state’s oversight of Elon Musk’s tunneling startup, which has been digging tunnels below Las Vegas. The two state legislators, Assemblymember Howard Watts and Senator Rochelle Nguyen, sent a letter to the Governor, describing “significant concerns about record integrity, administrative accountability, and structural failures” in Nevada’s workplace safety system and saying that they “require clear action from the Executive Branch.”

The pushback is largely coming from Democrats and illustrates the challenges Musk’s collection of companies are receiving as the famously impulsive and truculent multi-billionaire has turned himself into a political lightning rod.

See you tomorrow,

Jessica Mathews
X: @jessicakmathews
Email: jessica.mathews@fortune.com

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VENTURE CAPITAL

- WHOOP, a Boston, Mass.-based watch designed for health insights, raised $575 million in Series G funding. Collaborative Fund led the round and was joined by 2PointZero Group, Qatar Investment Authority, Mubadala Investment Company, Abbott, and others.

- TENEX.AI, a Sarasota, Fla.-based AI-native security operations control platform, raised $250 million in Series B funding. Crosspoint Capital Partners led the round.

- 9fin, a London, U.K.-based AI-powered platform for global debt markets, raised $170 million in Series C funding. HarbourVest Partners led the round and was joined by Canada Pension Plan Investment Board and existing investors Redalpine, Highland Europe, Spark Capital, and Seedcamp.

- OpenFX, a New York City-based foreign exchange infrastructure company, raised $94 million in Series A funding from Accel, Atomico, Lightspeed Faction, M13, Northzone, and Pantera.

- Censys, an Ann Arbor, Mich.-based internet intelligence and insights platform, raised $70 million in Series D funding. Morgan Stanley Expansion Capital led the round and was joined by Decibel Partners, Greylock Partners, GV, Intel Capital and others.

- Kestra, a Paris, France-based open-source orchestration platform designed to unify data, AI, infrastructure and business workflows, raised $25 million in Series A funding. RTP Global led the round and was joined by Alven, ISAI, and Axeleo.

- Treeline, a San Francisco-based IT infrastructure company, raised $25 million in Series A funding. Andreessen Horowitz led the round,

- Variance, a San Francisco-based developer of AI agents designed for compliance investigation, raised $21.5 million in Series A funding. Ten Eleven Ventures led the round and was joined by 645 Ventures, Y Combinator, Urban Innovation Fund, and Okta Ventures.

- Scala Biodesign, a Tel Aviv, Israel-based protein development biotech, raised $16 million in Series A funding. Grove Ventures led the round and was joined by TLV Partners, Deep Insight, the Israel Innovation Authority, and others.

- memQ, a Chicago, Ill.-based quantum networking company, raised $10 million in Series A funding. Quantonation and Ocean Azul Partners led the round and were joined by others.

- Nomadic, a San Francisco-based developer of a spatial intelligence layer for physical AI, raised $8.4 million in funding. TQ Ventures led the round and was joined by Pear VC, Jeff Dean, and others.

- Riplo, a London, U.K.-based developer of an agentic operating system for consulting, raised £2.3 million ($3 million) in pre-seed funding. Cherry Ventures led the round and was joined by Blue Lion Capital and others.

PRIVATE EQUITY

- Allshares, a portfolio company of Bregal Milestone, acquired Amalia, a Lille, France-based sales commission and performance management software company. Financial terms were not disclosed.

- FormativGroup, backed by Rockbridge Growth Equity, acquired Flok, a White Plains, N.Y.-based Salesforce consulting firm. Financial terms were not disclosed.

- KJA, a subsidiary of Thompson Street Capital Partners portfolio company ATIS, acquired Vinspec, an Edmonton, Alberta-based elevator and escalator consulting and inspection services company. Financial terms were not disclosed.

- Resultant, backed by Investcorp, acquired Liberty Advisor Group, a Chicago, Ill.-based business and technology consulting firm. Financial terms were not disclosed.

- Tiger Infrastructure Partners acquired Orbis Protect, a London, U.K.-based security infrastructure company. Financial terms were not disclosed.