Musk Spent $474 Million on the 2026 Midterms and Lost

Elon Musk spent at least $474 million on the US midterm elections, a record for one person, CNBC calculates. Almost none of it paid off. Of the $87 million his America PAC put into 44 races, more than $80 million, or 93%, backed candidates who lost. Nearly half of all his money, $224 million, went to Texas, where Democrats won both the Senate seat and the governor’s office.

$474mspent by Musk on the 2026 elections, a record for one person (CNBC)93%of his America PAC’s spending went to races Republicans lost$224mwent to Texas, where both Ken Paxton and Gov. Greg Abbott lost29 of 32called races backed by America PAC were lost by Republicans

As of Wednesday morning, Republicans backed by America PAC had lost 29 races and won three, with 12 still uncalled, according to CNBC. Democrats flipped seven Republican Senate seats and won the House majority.

The billionaires who gave the most

Musk tops the list of the largest donors by a wide margin. The next, investor Jeff Yass, gave about a fifth as much. The biggest Democratic donors, Michael Bloomberg and LinkedIn co-founder Reid Hoffman, gave around $108 million combined.

The billionaires who gave the mostContributions to FEC-reporting political action committees, $ millionRepublicansDemocratsElon Musk444Jeff Yass93Michael Bloomberg75Stephen Schwarzman38Reid Hoffman33Diane Hendricks30Timothy Mellon21Steve Wynn17Konstantin Sokolov14Joe Ricketts14FEC data compiled by the Financial Times.

Totals differ slightly by source because they count different things. The Financial Times counts contributions to committees reporting to the Federal Election Commission and puts Musk at $444 million. OpenSecrets and The New York Times count $445.6 million, CNBC $474 million including other spending, and the Brennan Center $483 million including Musk’s company.

Joe Ricketts, tenth on the list, is the father of Nebraska Sen. Pete Ricketts, one of the few Republicans who held a contested seat.

Where Musk’s money went

Musk’s largest checks went to the Senate Leadership Fund, the main Republican Senate super PAC: $75 million on 9 September and another $83 million on 23 September, Fortune reports from FEC filings. His own America PAC received $165.6 million from July to mid-October. He also gave $20 million to the Congressional Leadership Fund, which backs House Republicans, and $10 million to Lone Star Liberty PAC, which supported Ken Paxton in Texas.

Paxton lost to Democrat James Talarico, and Gov. Greg Abbott lost to Democrat Gina Hinojosa. For the race-by-race Senate results, see our 2026 Senate results page.

Musk and Soros

Musk has repeatedly attacked George Soros for meddling in politics. In personal contributions to federal committees, he has now given three times as much. By Fortune’s count, Musk’s lifetime total is $723.8 million, while Soros personally gave $243.2 million over the 47 years covered by FEC records. Adding the Fund for Policy Reform, which The New York Times describes as a channel for Soros family money, brings his total to $453.7 million. In this cycle, George and Alex Soros gave $103.4 million, according to The New York Times.

Data centers became a campaign issue

AI data centers turned into an unexpected campaign theme. Candidates and outside groups spent $173 million on ads about them, almost all negative, with $140 million from Democrats, CNBC reports, citing AdImpact. In Ohio, Sherrod Brown beat Sen. Jon Husted after attacking his support for data centers. Texas Gov.-elect Hinojosa has called for a moratorium on new data centers and an end to industry tax breaks. For Musk, whose company xAI is building large data centers, that is another unwelcome signal.

What a Democratic Congress means for Trump, and how many votes impeachment would take, is covered in our impeachment explainer.

Sources: CNBC, Fortune, Newsweek, CNN, Financial Times.

By the Around Prague newsroom