Elon Musk ripped an organization for storing authorities information in a mine. Now, DOGE might give Iron Mountain a lift

Elon Musk stood beside a seated President Donald Trump within the Oval Workplace on Tuesday and ranted about examples of presidency inefficiency his DOGE division was in search of to root out of the federal authorities.

“There is a limestone mine the place we retailer all of the retirement paperwork…This mine appears like one thing out of the ’50s, as a result of it was began in 1955, so it appears prefer it’s, like, a time warp,” stated Musk, who went on to clarify that the mine’s elevator velocity determines the tempo at which the federal government can course of the retirements of federal staff.

“Would not that sound loopy?,” he requested.

That mine is run by a little-known firm named Iron Mountain, whose shares have been hit this week within the wake of Musk’s feedback.

However Iron Mountain CEO Invoice Meaney on Thursday stated that he sees the brand new authorities effectivity initiative led by Musk as a “development alternative,” given the corporate’s different work in digital transformation with federal businesses.

“We see this as a continued alternative for the corporate,” Meaney advised analysts throughout Iron Mountain’s Thursday morning earnings name. Earlier, he stated this digitizing arm of the corporate aligns with the “drive to be extra environment friendly” throughout the federal authorities and famous “current curiosity” in Iron Mountain’s federal enterprise dealings.

Meaney stated Iron Mountain rakes in $130 million in income from its information middle and digitization transformation companies. That determine dwarfs the $10 million earned from the federal government storing bodily documentation in websites just like the namesake Iron Mountain mine. In all, Meaney stated that $10 million accounts for lower than half of 1 share level of Iron Mountain’s complete bodily quantity.

The Pennsylvania mine, which was the deal with Musk’s statements in regards to the firm, is the place the federal authorities homes and processes retirement paperwork greater than 200 ft underground. Situated lower than an hour outdoors of Pittsburgh, the mine is billed by the corporate as providing “unbeatable” ranges of safety and safety from disasters.

DOGE — the acronym for the Division of Authorities Effectivity — has been central to conversations and criticisms round President Trump’s return to the White Home as Musk’s group scours federal businesses for fats to chop. Musk’s feedback in regards to the authorities’s contracts with Iron Mountain carry consideration to a unusual setup for doc storage utilized by the federal authorities, which has been beneath Republican scrutiny for a perceived lack of effectivity.

Moreover, these feedback — and the corporate’s subsequent rationalization of its work — can supply a roadmap for what companies that work with federal businesses can count on amid the Trump administration’s deal with slashing spending.

Musk’s vital evaluation of Iron Mountain’s work with the federal authorities appeared to harm the inventory as issues mounted that the contracts could possibly be on the chopping block. Shares have dropped greater than 10% to this point this week, pulling the inventory down greater than 9% on the yr. (A big chunk of these declines got here in Thursday’s session as buyers reacted to the corporate’s slight miss on income expectations from analysts.)

DOGE posted pictures of the mine on X, the social media platform owned by Musk. Textual content accompanying the pictures famous that greater than 700 staff work within the mine, and Musk stated that at most 10,000 retirement functions might be processed every month by this technique.

“As an alternative of working in a mine shaft and carrying manila envelopes to packing containers in a mine shaft, you may do virtually anything, and you’d add to the products and providers of the US in a extra helpful manner,” Musk stated.

In describing Iron Mountain’s work with authorities entities, Meaney advised analysts the corporate companions with greater than 200 federal authorities businesses as both a direct supplier or subcontractor of providers. Moreover, he additionally pointed to an settlement with a state authorities for a tough drive destruction program that can be utilized inside its businesses.

Wall Road, for its half, sees the inventory’s decline following Musk’s feedback and the DOGE put up as unreasonable.

“We view it as a giant overreaction,” Wells Fargo analyst Eric Luebchow wrote to shoppers on Wednesday.

Luebchow stated the corporate’s income isn’t pushed by any single buyer, which means that it doubtless would not take successful even when the federal authorities ended its cope with the mine. If the federal government does pull out, Luebchow stated it could doubtless need to pay Iron Mountain termination charges that may quantity to round one or two years of annual lease.

The analyst additionally backed up Meaney’s declare {that a} deal with effectivity may very well be a boon for different elements of Iron Mountain’s enterprise.

Barclays’ Brendan Lynch agreed, including that the federal government has a authorized requirement to maintain information that Iron Mountain shops someplace.

“We see this as a non-issue,” Lynch advised shoppers on Wednesday, earlier than recommending they “purchase the weak spot.”