Elon Musk's Tesla and SpaceX have lost more than $420 billion in two days as Tesla closed down nearly 11%

Elon Musk spent more money on the 2026 midterm elections than any other donor. Two days after the results, the bill is coming due in the stock market. Tesla and SpaceX, the two companies Musk runs, extended their post-election slide on Thursday, as investors priced in congressional probes, tougher regulation and a possible slowdown in the Texas data center projects both companies are leaning on.

The damage

Tesla fell 10.77% to $343.69 and SpaceX dropped 9.05% to $123.62, according to Yahoo Finance data. Reuters reported that Tesla was down more than 11% during the session. On Wednesday, the first trading day after the election, Tesla had fallen 3.34% and SpaceX 3.81%, even as the Dow posted its best day since April 2025.

Over the two sessions, the companies have lost more than $420 billion in combined market value, CNBC reported. Other outlets measured it differently: Quartz, citing Bloomberg, put the loss at $411 billion as of late Thursday morning, and said MarketWatch had it at $450 billion.

Musk's personal fortune has fallen with the stocks. CNBC, citing Forbes, said his net worth, which topped $1 trillion after SpaceX's initial public offering in June, is now below $800 billion after a drop of about $90 billion in the past week. He remains the richest person in the world.

Why investors are selling

The first concern is political. Musk was the biggest backer of Republican candidates and causes in the midterms, and most of the candidates he supported lost, CNBC reported. Quartz said he contributed more than $445 million to the 2026 midterms, and that his spending totaled at least $474 million, including $224 million in Texas, where Republican Senate nominee Ken Paxton and Gov. Greg Abbott were defeated.

With Democrats now controlling the House and the Senate, investors expect Musk and his companies to face congressional probes and steeper regulatory hurdles for their AI and merger ambitions, according to CNBC.

The second concern is Texas itself, home to both companies. Democrats won the races for Senate, governor and attorney general there, Reuters said. Governor-elect Gina Hinojosa urged a halt to new data center development during her campaign and raised doubts about state tax incentives given to Musk's companies, Quartz reported, citing Bloomberg.

The data center link

That matters more for SpaceX than it once would have. Reuters said SpaceX has increasingly turned to AI computing as a revenue driver, with more than half of its third-quarter sales coming from renting out computing capacity. Tesla is tied to the buildout too, through an energy unit that pitches storage systems to data center operators.

In October, Musk announced plans for Terafab, a joint Tesla-SpaceX chip manufacturing complex in Texas that could cost up to $119 billion, according to Reuters. Goldman Sachs analysts estimated this week that Democratic wins at the state and local level are likely to lead to short-term data center moratoria, potentially affecting about 45% of planned U.S. data center capacity expansion, Reuters reported.

Analysts also told Reuters that the midterm results could complicate a potential merger of Tesla and SpaceX.

The broader selloff

Musk's companies did not fall alone. Thursday was one of the worst days of the year for AI-linked stocks. The S&P 500 fell 4.36% and the Nasdaq Composite 5.52%, according to Yahoo Finance data, while Nvidia lost 9.26% and AMD 17.26%. CNBC noted that the declines in Tesla and SpaceX correlated with that broader technology selloff, which makes it hard to separate the political discount from the sector-wide one.

The limits

Not everything changes right away. Republicans still hold the majority in the Texas Legislature, which limits how much Hinojosa can change state policy, Quartz noted, and newly elected officials do not take office until January. Any congressional investigations would also take time to organize.

What carries into Friday

The next test is whether the selling eases once the election shock fades, or whether investors keep marking down the Musk companies' exposure to Texas and Washington. Friday's October jobs report and the broader direction of AI stocks will set the tone, and any comment from Musk on the results, or from Hinojosa on the timing of data center limits, could move both stocks.