JPMorgan CEO Jamie Dimon gushed about one-time rival Elon Musk on Wednesday, as he revealed that he and the mega Trump ally have made amends in their years-long feud.
“The guy is our Einstein,” Dimon told CNBC at the World Economic Forum in Davos, referring to the legendary physicist. “I’d like to be helpful to him and his companies as much as we can.”
The comments came as a shock to those who have followed their contentious which dates back to at least 2016 when JPMorgan stopped underwriting leases to Musk’s company Tesla.
Dimon said that he and Musk have patched up their relationship.
“Elon and I hugged it out,” the billionaire financial executive said. “He came to one of our conferences. He and I had a nice, long chat. We settled some of our differences.”
JPMorgan dropped its $162 million lawsuit against Tesla in November.
The three-year long legal battle began when JPMorgan alleged that Tesla broke a 2014 stock deal. Under the deal’s terms, if Tesla traded stock above a certain price, the company would owe JPMorgan money in shares or cash.
JPMorgan claimed the stock deal became more valuable when Musk tweeted in 2018 that he was considering making Tesla a private company at $420 a share, and that funding was already secured. The move made Tesla’s price surge, but it dropped back down when Musk backtracked weeks later.
Along with the JPMorgan suit, Musk and Tesla had to pay out $40 million in fines to the Securities and Exchanges Commission for the stunt.
Tesla countersued, claiming that JPMorgan capitalized on the tweet to get millions in the stock deal. The lawsuit was later dropped by the financial company without prejudice.
Dimon’s flattery appears to be following the same playbook being used by some of other richest men in the country since Trump won the election in November. Billionaires such as Jeff Bezos and Mark Zuckerberg have made nice with Trump or Musk, who has emerged as a key ally of the president’s. Zuckerberg and Bezos both attended Trump’s inauguration and have offered public praise of the administration.
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