Elon Musk's net worth revealed after spending $458m on disastrous Republican midterms
Elon Musk's net worth has taken a significant hit in the wake of the US midterm elections, with shares in both Tesla and SpaceX heading lower.
Business Insider reported that Bloomberg's Billionaires Index valued the billionaire at $865 billion at Wednesday's close, after his fortune dropped by $33 billion in a single day.
Yet that still left him sitting $490 billion clear of the world's second-richest person, Amazon founder Jeff Bezos, who was worth $375 billion.
Put another way, Musk could lose Bezos' entire fortune and remain the richest person on the planet by $115 billion.
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That scale comes down to his enormous holdings in SpaceX and Tesla, which leave him worth more than Bezos and Google founders Larry Page and Sergey Brin, who sit third and fourth on the list, combined.
Tesla and SpaceX shares each fell by more than 3% on Wednesday, wiping close to $100 billion off their combined market value.
How much did Elon Musk spend on the midterms?
Musk had thrown his financial weight behind Republican candidates and groups ahead of the vote. He spent at least $446 million supporting them, including about $224 million backing Republicans in Texas.
Voters in the Lone Star State instead elected Democrat James Talarico to the Senate and Gina Hinojosa as governor.
Reacting on X, Musk joked that his 'election-interfering space lasers' had failed.
He added that SpaceX's plans to build data centers in orbit looked 'pretty appealing right now' after the Democratic victories in Texas.
What do the midterm results mean for Tesla and SpaceX?
Both companies are headquartered in Texas and have significant operations there.
Tesla's main US manufacturing plant, its Gigafactory, sits just outside Austin, where plans are in place for Terafab, Musk's chip factory, to be built nearby, while SpaceX launches Starship from its Starbase facility.
Hinojosa has pledged an immediate moratorium on new data centers, and Democratic control of Congress could bring closer scrutiny of tech companies.
The Wall Street Journal, reported that multiple firms have been preparing for congressional scrutiny, setting up internal task forces and planning to win over Democratic lawmakers.
The sell-off deepened on Thursday.
Forbes estimated that Musk's fortune slid by more than 9%, or $80 billion, by the afternoon, dropping it below the $800 billion mark less than a month after he returned to trillionaire status.
Tesla shares fell 11.5% to their lowest point since August, while SpaceX dropped 8% to around $125 per share. Musk owns a nearly 50% stake in SpaceX.
Thursday marked one of the largest hits ever to his wealth, which fell $80 billion in August and $350 billion in June, not long after he became the world's first trillionaire following SpaceX's initial public offering.
He was not the only billionaire affected.
Michael Dell's fortune fell $18.6 billion, Nvidia CEO Jensen Huang lost $15 billion, and the net worths of Larry Ellison and Mark Zuckerberg dropped $11.3 billion and $9.4 billion respectively, pushing Ellison out of the world's 10 wealthiest.
President Donald Trump has also lost more than $200 million since Election Day, with shares of Trump Media & Technology Group down more than 11%.
UNILAD has approached Tesla and SpaceX for comment
Thomas Bamford
