Reid Hoffman, co-founder of LinkedIn and Inflection AI, weighed in on expectations for the incoming Trump administration in an opinion piece for the Financial Times. And while he seems cautiously optimistic that President-Elect Donald Trump could clear the way for more competition and faster innovation in the technology industry, Hoffman also expressed concerns around Trump providing certain individuals and companies with favored status in a way that could be damaging to American innovation.

One in particular who Hoffman believes would benefit from Trump's rise is Elon Musk, CEO of Tesla, SpaceX, and xAI, and owner of The Boring Company, Neuralink, and X. Musk, along with Vivek Ramaswamy, will also lead an advisory commission that Hoffman says is planned—the Department of Government Efficiency, or DOGE.

Hoffman called Musk's ownership in xAI specifically "a serious conflict of interest."

"Using his position in any way to favor xAI, such as awarding government contracts to xAI, encouraging federal agencies unfairly to harass AI companies, or imposing new regulations that restrict exports will come at the expense of U.S. technological, economic, and cultural security, and competitiveness," Hoffman wrote.

Tesla, SpaceX, and Neuralink are also all in heavily regulated industries, the bodies that oversee which could stand to gain or otherwise be impacted by staff losses through Musk's tenure at DOGE.

Hoffman, who has supported Kamala Harris VP nomination and been a vocal opponent of the Trump presidency, also weighed how crypto could be affected both positively and negatively by Trump's support. He said that "ending arbitrary enforcement policies against the cryptocurrency industry" as seen under the Biden administration could create a "more stable environment for blockchain innovation." But he questioned whether Trump will "use his new embrace of crypto, and his regulatory authority over it, as a way to privilege a few favored coins?

For his part, Trump has his own crypto venture, World Liberty Financial, with a native token that launched in October, and is reportedly working on a new stablecoin that can serve as a stand-in for the U.S. dollar. And this week reported that the president-elect's social media company, Trump Media, is in advanced talks to acquire cryptocurrency trading platform Bakkt.

As such, Hoffman is absolutely right to feel that Trump might be playing favorites. In his piece, he mentioned that in Trump's first term, the he targeted "a number of iconic U.S. companies for personal and political reasons, creating constant chaos and uncertainty."

For example, Trump frequently criticized Amazon and its CEO Jeff Bezos, accusing the company of unfairly benefiting from USPS rates, which led to policies scrutinizing Amazon’s deals. Bezos, who owns The Washington Post, now appears to be amenable to Trump and has defended his decision to withhold the newspaper’s endorsement of Harris.

Musk is also known for publicly taunting and denouncing competitors and others with whom he disagrees. His road to acquiring Twitter, now X, was paved with public lambasting and questioning of the leadership and business model of the company.

Hoffman — who helped finance E. Jean Carroll's rape case against Trump — criticized him as a "convicted felon and pathological liar" and has expressed fears that the president-elect would retaliate against him and others in business. But he ended his piece on an upbeat note despite his skepticism. "I very much hope that Trump succeeds wildly in enabling US entrepreneurship and innovation, increasing wages for workers and creating a country where every American is free to pursue their ambitions with dignity, purpose and a sense of belonging," Hoffman wrote. "That's why I will continue to do everything I can to build the next generation of companies that bring life-changing opportunities for individuals and society."