Elon Musk funneled $474 million into Tuesday’s US midterms, and based on polling estimates after a definitive Democratic sweep, approximately 98% of that money went to losing candidates.
A trace of Musk’s midterm donations by Wired estimated even higher: 99% to losers.
Even worse, Musk ended up losing an additional $33 billion of personal net worth within 24 hours of polls closing, as spooked investors in Tesla and SpaceX sold down shares in fear of political tides turning after the blue wave.
Most of Musk’s donations went to Republican super PACs, political action committees that can raise unlimited amounts of money.
Federal filings trace Musk’s money through three main pipes. His own America PAC collected roughly $216 million, the Senate Leadership Fund took $168 million, and the Congressional Leadership Fund, which backs House Republicans, took $30 million.
Musk steered at least $225 million into Texas, by OpenSecrets’ count, including Ken Paxton’s doomed campaign for Senator. Paxton lost to Democrat James Talarico by a double-digit margin in a surprising upset for the historically conservative state.
Ad-tracking firm AdImpact called Tuesday’s Texas Senate seat contest the costliest Senate race on record for political advertising, with $573 million in spending and reservations through October 30.
Musk was the largest single donor to that race, and his candidate lost.
Musk $33 billion poorer after midterms
Both of Musk’s publicly traded companies, Tesla and SpaceX, sank in Wednesday’s trading session as news of Musk’s political losses disseminated.
Tesla fell more than 5% in early trading before closing 3.3% lower than Tuesday’s close. SpaceX, public only since June, dropped more than 7% premarket and closed 3.8% lower than Tuesday.
Bloomberg’s Billionaires Index put his one-day net worth decline at $33.5 billion, a 3.7% drop to $865 billion, even while the broader market rallied.
XTB research director Kathleen Brooks explained, “There is now a political risk premium attached to both Tesla and SpaceX that could weigh on their share prices.”
Read more: Justin Sun takes on Elon Musk in race to be Trump’s top donor
Musk responded by posting, “Data centers in space looking pretty appealing right now,” a reference to xAI and Grok’s AI infrastructure that might become threatened in Texas.
Then he added, “Guess my election-interfering space lasers didn’t work this time.”
In addition, he quietly deleted his election day plea to vote Republican.
This cycle, The Atlantic estimated Musk’s giving at about a quarter of all donations Republicans received for this week’s midterm campaigns.
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