SpaceX and Tesla have high election stakes as Elon Musk pours $366 million into campaigns
Article excerpt
In this article Elon Musk's business empire is tying itself ever closer to the federal government just as he spends record sums to help decide who controls it in the 2026 midterm election. SpaceX has racked up $6.78 billion in federal work so far this year, according to FedScout, a research firm that tracks government spending and contracts, nearly twice its total for all of 2024. Tesla, SpaceX and Musk's artificial intelligence business also face high-stakes government decisions over defense spending, launch licenses, spectrum, autonomous vehicles, electricity and data centers. At the same time, Musk has committed roughly $366 million to the 2026 election cycle across at least 40 races, making the world's richest person the midterms' biggest individual donor so far. At least $276 million of that money has flowed to Republican groups and Musk's own political operation, America PAC, since July, according to a CNBC analysis of Federal Election Commission filings, as Republican candidates have been whacked on the cost of living and the war in Iran. For Musk, Republican victories could help preserve his influence and a favorable political environment for his companies. Democratic control of either chamber could instead bring subpoenas and investigations into his businesses, federal contracts and his work leading President Donald Trump's Department of Government Efficiency...
Keep reading with a free account
The rest of this article, and every signal for SpaceX, is in your free account.
Extracted from this sentence
In late May alone, the Space Force awarded SpaceX $2.29 billion for a military communications network tied to Golden Dome and, three days later, another $4.16 billion for threat-detection satellites.
