Elon Musk spent almost $450 million (£334 million) backing Republican candidates in the 2026 midterms — more than anyone has ever spent in an election cycle — and it was not enough to keep Democrats from a resounding victory.

Among the most striking wins went to Democrat James Talarico, who beat Republican Ken Paxton for a US Senate seat in Texas.

Musk spent at least $45 million supporting Paxton, according to a BBC analysis of campaign finance data, and millions more in Arizona, Michigan, Wisconsin and Minnesota, with records showing his spending continued into Monday.

Musk's political focus was heavily on Texas, where he lives and where Tesla and SpaceX are headquartered.

Houston Public Media reports he spent around $180 million in Texas races, including a $5 million donation to Governor Greg Abbott's campaign and $10 million to a PAC backing Paxton's Senate run — both of whom lost to Democrats.

Cameron County, home to SpaceX headquarters, went for Talarico by nearly 40 points.

The scale of the failure is the story: the largest election-cycle spending ever recorded produced zero protection against a blue wave that handed Democrats both chambers of Congress and, per NewsCord's aggregation, control of the Texas House and Senate.

Talarico's win flipped the Texas Senate seat to Democrats for the first time since 1988, and he told supporters, "We just proved that all the money in the world is no match for the people of Texas."

By Tuesday night, Musk seemed to concede on X, joking that his "election-interfering space lasers didn't work." LinkedIn founder Reid Hoffman, a major Democratic donor, called the results an "overwhelming wave against Trump and his cronies."

The Republican losses may carry significant business consequences. SpaceX has gained an estimated $10 billion in new government contracts since Trump's second election, and several Democratic lawmakers say the company's growing role in government and national security should be investigated.

Senator Ed Markey quipped on X that tech executives "are going to need to plant new forests for all of the subpoenas we'll be printing." Tech stocks rose broadly Wednesday, but Tesla and SpaceX fell 4.9% and 3.4% respectively.

AJ Bell's James Flintoft said investors face a "period of uncertainty" over whether tech will face greater regulation.

SpaceX's data-center ambitions now face new headwinds. In Georgia, the just-elected Democratic governor ran partly on limiting data-center growth and the tax breaks tech companies get to build them, and dozens of state measures limiting their development passed on Tuesday.

Houston Public Media reports governor-elect Gina Hinojosa campaigned on a moratorium on data centers until the Texas legislature regulates them — authority she now holds.

NBC News, cited by NewsCord, notes her warning that "Texas is not for sale," after Texas Monthly reported officials had discussed selling Boca Chica State Park to SpaceX. Musk quipped that building data centers in space was "looking pretty appealing right now."

By Wednesday, Musk had gone quiet politically: he stopped posting about politics on X, praised his xAI chatbot GrokBot instead, unpinned a post explaining his "concern" with Democratic wins, and deleted a "Vote red today!" post aimed at his 241 million followers.

Houston Public Media's experts suggest his Texas investments — including the $16.8 billion Terafab chip plant in Grimes County — are likely to continue, though with more regulation.

As University of Houston's Brandon Rottinghaus put it, "You won't see the last of Elon Musk. But for sure, his political influence is on the wane."