Elon Musk Put $277 Million Into The Election
Elon Musk’s net worth has climbed by more than $200 billion in 2024, a massive increase in the same year that the world’s richest person spent at least $277 million backing Donald Trump and other Republican candidates.
The bulk of the increase, more than $170 billion, has come since Election Day.
The election of Donald Trump gave an unexpected boost to Tesla, the electric vehicle company central to Elon Musk’s immense wealth. As of Friday, Tesla shares were trading about 70% higher than they were on Election Day, fueling a surge in Musk’s fortune.
According to the Bloomberg Billionaires Index, Musk’s net worth now stands at roughly $442 billion. That figure includes a $50 billion pay package from Tesla that remains in legal limbo after a Delaware court struck it down earlier this year and reaffirmed the decision this month. Tesla has vowed to appeal the ruling.
Trump has signaled a business-friendly agenda for his return to office, which could spell significant gains for Musk’s empire. The president-elect’s plans to cut regulations—and potentially offer direct support to allies like Musk, who has become a prominent political figure—could further boost Tesla and Musk’s other ventures.
On another front, debates over healthcare policies highlight the complexities of regulation and cost. Under Obamacare, insurers were required to cover an ever-expanding list of services, including mandatory contraceptive coverage.
While this broadened access, it also increased the cost of policies. Insurers, facing higher expenses, passed these costs onto consumers in the form of higher premiums—an outcome critics argue was inevitable.
Bureaucratic hurdles in healthcare have also led to frustrations, such as delayed billing and “surprise” medical costs. Insurers have attempted to address these issues by requiring prior authorization for major procedures and employing AI tools to speed up claims processing.
However, these efforts often draw backlash, with critics accusing insurers of denying essential care or relying too heavily on technology to make life-impacting decisions.
Ultimately, resources are finite. If insurers—whether private or public—are compelled to cover everyone and everything without limits, they face a stark choice: raise premiums, deny claims, or exit the market entirely.
The push for broad coverage under Obamacare, while well-intentioned, has contributed to higher premiums and tougher scrutiny on claims. Yet, the same advocates for these policies are now decrying the very consequences they helped create.
In the end, it’s ironic to see some progressives celebrating symbolic victories, like criticizing insurers, while sidestepping the systemic issues their policies have exacerbated.
Trump picked Musk to co-chair a nongovernmental advisory group on cuts to federal spending and regulation known as the “Department of Government Efficiency,” or DOGE, potentially allowing the tech entrepreneur to shape policies that affect his businesses. Musk did not respond to a request for comment.
“Elon Musk is a once in a generation business leader and our federal bureaucracy will certainly benefit from his ideas and efficiency,” said Brian Hughes, a spokesman for the Trump-Vance transition. He described Musk and Trump as “great friends and brilliant leaders working together to Make America Great Again.”
Musk launched his entrepreneurial career in 1995 when he abandoned a graduate program at Stanford to found a start-up later called Zip2 that created online city guides. It was sold for about $300 million in 1999.
He went on to co-found an online banking company, X.com, that merged with another start-up to create PayPal. Auction site eBay acquired PayPal in 2002 for $1.5 billion.
Musk went on to pivot into the more physical ventures that have come to define him, most prominently Tesla and rocket-maker SpaceX; but also brain interface developer Neuralink; and a tunnel construction start-up, the Boring Co.
The huge success of Tesla and SpaceX catapulted him to the rank of world’s richest person — and arguably the United States’ most successful immigrant.
“Elon stuck his neck out, he made a big bet — and he was right,” said Gene Munster, managing partner at investment firm Deepwater Asset Management.
The fortunes of Tesla, the jewel in Musk’s portfolio, are entangled with federal regulation. The billionaire has staked the company’s future on self-driving vehicles and taken the largely unique approach of trying to enable cars bought by consumers to drive themselves without supervision — a concept for which there is not yet a well-established regulatory regime.
In a July earnings call, Elon Musk emphasized that regulators have a “moral obligation” to greenlight autonomous vehicles if a company can demonstrate a solid safety record.
Tesla’s Cybercab, an autonomous vehicle slated for potential deployment by 2027, may face smoother federal approval under Donald Trump’s promised regulatory rollbacks and his close ties to Musk. In October, Musk announced plans to use the future DOGE panel to establish a streamlined federal approval process for autonomous vehicles.
On Friday, Reuters reported that Trump’s transition team proposed eliminating a federal crash-reporting requirement for vehicles with driver-assistance features — a policy Tesla has opposed.
The National Highway Traffic Safety Administration (NHTSA) has relied on this data for investigations and recalls related to Tesla’s technology. Removing the requirement could reduce regulatory scrutiny on Tesla and other autonomous vehicle manufacturers.
Dan Ives, an analyst at Wedbush Securities, noted last month that Trump is likely to “fast track autonomous and AI initiatives” within the next 12 to 18 months, calling it a “game changer” for Tesla.
Jessica Caldwell, head of insights at Edmunds, added that while uncertainty persists in Tesla’s autonomous driving efforts, the regulatory climate now seems more favorable. “It looks like things will align in Tesla’s favor — at least for the next four years,” she said.
Beyond Tesla, Musk’s extensive portfolio includes leadership roles in SpaceX, Neuralink, X (formerly Twitter), and artificial intelligence company xAI. Both SpaceX and Neuralink operate in highly regulated sectors that could benefit from Musk’s involvement in Trump’s efficiency commission and his broader push for deregulation. S
paceX, a critical partner for the U.S. space program, may also gain from policies introduced by Trump or his NASA appointee, billionaire entrepreneur Jared Isaacman.
Isaacman, who has twice orbited Earth on private SpaceX missions, recently made headlines for conducting the first spacewalk by a private citizen. SpaceX recently completed a tender offer that crowned it as the world’s most valuable private startup, adding an estimated $50 billion to Musk’s net worth, according to Bloomberg News.
However, Musk’s social media venture, X, has faced hurdles. Fidelity recently marked down the value of its X investment by about 70% compared to its original purchase price, reflecting the platform’s struggles since Musk acquired it.
Advertising revenue plummeted after Musk relaxed content moderation policies. Despite this, Saudi Prince Alwaleed bin Talal, X’s second-largest investor, expressed confidence, citing the platform’s investment in artificial intelligence through xAI as a key growth driver.
Meanwhile, the Trump transition team has pledged to ensure that members of the DOGE group, which Musk will co-chair, comply with conflict-of-interest guidelines. Critics, however, remain vocal.
Democrats in Congress argue that Musk’s financial ties, campaign contributions, and rising net worth could compromise the incoming administration’s ethics. “It’s a glaring conflict of interest,” said Sen. Richard Blumenthal (D-Conn.). “Musk stands to profit enormously from dismantling safety regulations that protect drivers and the public.”
Blumenthal accused Musk of lobbying Republicans to clear regulatory pathways for self-driving cars, leading to a surge in Tesla’s stock price. Sen. Edward J. Markey (D-Mass.), a long-time critic of Tesla’s driver-assistance technology, took to X earlier this month, claiming Musk is “already cashing in on his investment in Trump.”
In a statement, Markey warned that easing regulations for autonomous vehicles would “turn our public roads into a massive testing ground for the world’s wealthiest man.” He added, “I’ll fight tooth and nail to ensure Elon Musk doesn’t rewrite the rules at the expense of public safety.”
This report was contributed by Clara Ence Morse. credit Washington post