What the Democratic landslide means for GOP booster Elon Musk and his businesses

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Set us as preferred The historic landslide victory for Democrats in the midterm elections deeply bruised the Republican Party and President Trump, but there’s one man who may have been hurt equally as bad: Elon Musk, the world’s richest person and the party’s biggest donor.The near trillionaire reportedly spent close to $450 million backing GOP candidates across the country and in Texas specifically — where his SpaceX and Tesla are headquartered and have large operations — but his massive donations failed spectacularly and may have backfired.Now Musk and his businesses could face a challenging time ahead as Democrats are expected to rein in the unfettered growth of AI businesses and likely expose him and his companies in particular to more congressional and regulatory scrutiny.“Top of the Democratic agenda on day 1 needs to be a pause on advanced AI development, regulation of this out of control industry, and a ban on artificial superintelligence,” Rep.

Yassamin Ansari (D-Ariz.), wrote on X.With Democrats taking control of House and Senate committees, Musk also faces the possibility of being called before Congress to answer questions about his controversial role leading DOGE, or the so-called Department of Government Efficiency.Even Musk quipped on X about the results: “Guess my election-interfering space lasers didn’t work this time.”A representative for Musk could not be reached for comment.Joe Sandri, a technology executive and general counsel at the Environmental Health Trust, said that the party should be taken at its word.“If the Democrats are to be believed, which I think they are, they’ve got years of questions unanswered on a whole bunch of things — and Musk is clearly one of the primary people they have questions about,” Sandri said.Shares of SpaceX closed down 3.8% on Wednesday to $135.92, while Tesla fell 3.3% to $385.19.

Both companies have market caps well above $1 tr...