Elon Musk’s $450m US election spending fails to stop Democratic sweep

Elon Musk spent almost $450 million – the largest ever amount in a single election cycle – to back Republican candidates in the United States midterm elections, but the funding did not prevent a decisive Democratic victory.

According to a BBC analysis of campaign finance data, Musk contributed at least $45 million to Texas Senate candidate Ken Paxton, who was defeated by Democrat James Talarico. His money also flowed into races in Arizona, Michigan, Wisconsin and Minnesota, with spending continuing into the following Monday.

After the results, Musk joked on his platform X that his “election‑interfering space lasers didn’t work.” The loss of numerous Republican seats could have implications for his businesses, as several Democratic lawmakers have called for investigations into SpaceX’s growing role in government contracts and national security.

In Georgia, the newly elected Democratic governor, who campaigned on limiting the expansion of large data‑centre projects, may affect SpaceX’s data‑centre operations there. Musk later posted that his idea of building data centres in space was “looking pretty appealing now.”

Tech stocks rose on Wednesday, though Tesla and SpaceX shares fell 4.9 % and 3.4 % respectively. Musk has since shifted his X posts from politics to promoting his AI chatbot GrokBot.

Source: BBC News. Photo: Markus Spiske / Pexels.