Tesla and SpaceX erase $411 billion after election results

Tesla and SpaceX shares fall sharply

Quartz reports that Tesla stock dropped as much as 12% on Thursday after falling 3.3% on Wednesday. SpaceX stock also moved lower, touching an 11% decline at one point after a 3.8% drop on Wednesday. In recent trading, Quartz says Tesla was down 11% and SpaceX was down 8%. Tesla stock was down about 24% for the year.

Combined value and Musk’s net worth decline

According to Quartz, Tesla and SpaceX had lost $411 billion in combined market value since the election results became clear as of 11:40 a.m. Eastern time. MarketWatch put the two-day loss at $450 billion. Bloomberg said Elon Musk’s net worth was down about $74 billion by noon Thursday, following a $33.5 billion drop on Wednesday. If that decline held, Bloomberg said Musk would end Thursday with about $790 billion, down from a $1.3 trillion peak reached after SpaceX went public in June.

Election results and Texas political shifts

Quartz says Democrats won majorities in both houses of Congress and captured important offices in Texas, where Tesla and SpaceX are based. Bloomberg reported that Gina Hinojosa defeated Gov. Greg Abbott in the governor’s race. During the campaign, Hinojosa called for a halt to new data center development and questioned the state tax incentives given to Musk’s companies, according to Bloomberg.

Investor concerns and merger questions

Joe Gilbert, a portfolio manager at Integrity Asset Management, said the market is trying to “re-price the risk of a material slowing in data center buildouts,” according to Bloomberg. Quartz also reports that investors are watching a possible merger between Tesla and SpaceX. Special committees at both companies are evaluating a potential deal, and there is pressure to finish it before the Trump administration ends, according to Bloomberg. David Wagner, a portfolio manager at Aptus Capital Advisors, said a less friendly Congress would make that route more complicated, even if it would not automatically stop it.

Broader market selloff

Quartz says the Tesla and SpaceX drops came as the Nasdaq Composite fell more than 5% on Thursday amid selling in AI-related chip and data center stocks. The S&P 500 fell 4%, and the Dow Jones Industrial Average lost 1,639 points. The Nasdaq 100 fell as much as 6.4%, which Bloomberg said was its worst intraday performance since April 2025.

Campaign spending and Texas limits

Quartz reports that Tesla and SpaceX stock had already fallen in premarket trading on Wednesday after Democrats won control of Congress and Musk-backed candidates lost races across the country. Musk gave more than $445 million to the 2026 midterms, more than any other donor, and his total spending was at least $474 million, including $224 million in Texas. Quartz says Republican Senate nominee Ken Paxton and Abbott lost there, while Republicans still hold the majority in the Texas Legislature, limiting how much Hinojosa can change state policy.