Elon Musk’s fortune plunged $33 billion in a single day as markets punished his companies following Democratic victories in Texas.
The Bloomberg Billionaires Index valued Musk, 53, at $865 billion after Wednesday’s close, leaving him still $490 billion ahead of Amazon founder Jeff Bezos, 61, who ranked second at $375 billion. Even losing Bezos’ entire fortune would keep Musk atop the global wealth rankings by $115 billion.
Tesla and SpaceX shares each dropped more than 3%, wiping nearly $100 billion off their combined market value. Tesla shares fell 11.5% to their lowest point since August, while SpaceX slid 8% to around $125 per share. Musk owns nearly half of SpaceX.
The sell-off came after voters in Texas elected Democrat James Talarico to the Senate and Gina Hinojosa as governor. Musk had spent at least $446 million backing Republican candidates and groups ahead of the midterms, including about $224 million in Texas alone.
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.
Both companies maintain headquarters and major operations in Texas. Tesla’s main US manufacturing plant, its Gigafactory, sits just outside Austin, with Musk’s planned Terafab chip factory slated for construction nearby. SpaceX launches its Starship rockets from the Starbase facility in the state.
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.
Forbes estimated that Musk’s fortune slid by more than 9%, or $80 billion, by Thursday afternoon, dropping it below $800 billion less than a month after he returned to trillionaire status. 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.
The scale of Musk’s wealth stems from his enormous holdings in SpaceX and Tesla, which leave him worth more than Bezos and Google founders Larry Page and Sergey Brin combined, who sit third and fourth on the list.
Musk was far from the only billionaire affected by the market rout. 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%.