Elon Musk Breaks Silence After His $474 Million Republican Bet Goes Up in Flames

Elon Musk poured more money into the midterms than any single donor in American history, only to watch the Republicans he backed lose control of both chambers of Congress. The Tesla and SpaceX chief has now broken his silence, and he’s responding with humor.

He spent more than $450 million on Republican campaigns this cycle, a figure some tallies put as high as $474 million. A large share of that money went into Texas, the state where he relocated years ago and where Tesla, SpaceX, and X are headquartered. Musk had been one of Donald Trump’s biggest supporters in 2024 and later led the Department of Government Efficiency. None of it was enough. The Associated Press projected that Democrats had taken both the House and the Senate.

The biggest surprises hit close to home for Musk. In Texas, Democrat James Talarico defeated Ken Paxton in the U.S. Senate race, ending a decades long drought for Texas Democrats in statewide contests. Democrat Gina Hinojosa also unseated incumbent Governor Greg Abbott. Tesla and SpaceX shares dropped around 6 percent in premarket trading early Wednesday as the results became clear.

Musk took to X with a shrug. “Guess my election-interfering space lasers didn’t work this time,” he posted, along with a shrug emoji. The line nodded to an old conspiracy theory that claimed his Starlink satellites had somehow altered vote counts after the 2024 election.

In another post he wrote, “Data centers in space looking pretty appealing right now,” a reference to SpaceX’s plans for orbital AI computing clusters. That comment landed after Hinojosa’s win, given that she has called for pausing new AI data centers in Texas. Reports also said he deleted an earlier post urging followers to “vote red today.”

It wasn’t a complete wipeout. Forbes noted that 18 candidates backed by Musk still won their races, though most of those seats were lower profile ones that Republicans were expected to hold anyway.