Elon Musk has hit back at the Sydney Morning Herald after it suggested he would quit his trillion-dollar company Tesla next year.
The newspaper published an article by technology editor David Swan on Sunday which shared a series of predictions for tech in the new year.
One of the predictions was that Musk, the world’s richest man, would be forced to part ways with electric car company Tesla due to his new role in Donald Trump’s administration.
Musk will be co-lead of the new Department of Government Efficiency, with a remit to slash red tape and bureaucracy in Washington.
‘To be juggling leadership roles at X, Tesla, SpaceX, xAI, the Boring Company and Neuralink was already unsustainable,’ the SMH op-ed read.
‘Musk has already found himself at loggerheads with MAGA diehards like Steve Bannon over immigration issues, and the inauguration is still weeks away.
‘He’s also been at loggerheads with the justice system, after a US judge blocked Musk’s $US56 billion ($90 billion) pay package from Tesla.
‘After constant controversies and distractions, it will all come to a head in 2025, and Musk will be forced to hand over the reins at Tesla, a company many mistakenly think he founded.’
But Musk snapped back with a cheeky reply on his platform X, formerly Twitter.
‘I predict that the Sydney Morning Herald will continue to lose readership in 2025 for relentlessly lying to their audience and boring them to death,’ Musk wrote.
A reply to his post alleged that the ‘legacy media is in a doom spiral’, to which Musk said: ‘yeah’.
Many other X users flooded the comments with criticism for Mr Swan’s bold prediction.
‘MSM (mainstream media) is in their death throes. Circling the drain,’ wrote one.
‘Sydney Morning Herald hasn’t been relevant for quite some time now,’ another said.
A third simply shared a screenshot of the share price of Nine Entertainment, publisher of the Sydney Morning Herald, which shows it has plummeted by almost 40 per cent over the past year.
‘Elon is absolutely right (as per usual),’ wrote one person.
‘Legacy media is in a doom spiral and agenda-fuelled outlets like the SMH are firmly in the firing line – alarmingly out of touch and destined for consistent, continual rejection from the masses.’
David-Lea Smith, Associate Professor of Microbiology at University of East Anglia, said it was ‘always amusing when people with a journalism degree and no entrepreneurial or technical/engineering/scientific experience make technology predictions’.
‘I’ll keep paying more attention to the revolutionary entrepreneur whose companies develop cutting edge technology, including sending rockets into space,’ Mr Smith added.
‘The mainstream media keeps getting worse so Elon’s prediction is likely to be more correct.’
However, Mr Swan seemed unperturbed by Musk’s criticism.
‘Damn, roasted,’ he quipped after re-posting Musk’s barb on X.
On LinkedIn, he added: ‘Couldn’t disagree more with Elon on this one’, while sharing a screenshot of Musk’s retort.
The SMH was forced to apologise to its readers for falsely identifying one of the two men who died during the Sydney to Hobart yacht race on Friday.
The paper had claimed South n barrister and the Bowline skipper Ian Roberts was the man who died when he was struck by the vessel’s boom.
However, that article was hastily removed when Daily Mail revealed it was in fact 65-year-old Nick Smith who had died and an apology sent to readers.
‘The Sydney Morning Herald incorrectly named Adelaide barrister Ian Roberts as one of the victims in the Sydney to Hobart yacht race,’ the SMH said in a statement sent to its seven million subscribers.
‘This was incorrect. We apologise to Mr Roberts and his family.’
Musk has made it his mission to criticise ‘legacy media’ in favour of new media, such as the platform he owns, X.
He consistently comments on n politics and has been very critical of the Anthony Albanese’s plan to ban social media for children under the age of 16.
The South-African-born billionaire has also regularly locked horns with ‘s ‘world-first’ e-Safety Commissioner, which is tasked with policing the internet.
He launched legal action against the government agency earlier this year after it had threatened to fine him $800,000 over an ‘offensive post’, as first revealed by Daily Mail .
Musk is, of course, no stranger to controversy and has already found himself engaged in a ‘MAGA civil war’ over skilled visas.
Musk has voiced support for H-1B visas, which allow highly-skilled foreigners to work in the US for six years, rather than prioritizing American employees.
Musk this week even threatened to ‘go to war’ with MAGA republicans after he defended the visas, and Donald Trump shocked faithful followers by siding with the SpaceX founder on the controversial topic.