SpaceX shares fall after midterm results and election spending

Share price reaction

Yahoo Finance reports that Space Exploration Technologies Corp. stock was down 5.3% at 2:53 p.m. ET on Wednesday, Nov. 4. The article says the drop came after Democrats won the midterm elections, which Elon Musk had spent heavily trying to turn in the opposite direction. Yahoo Finance also notes that the S&P 500 and the Nasdaq Composite were each up 1.7% at the same time.

Musk’s election spending

According to Yahoo Finance, Musk spent at least $224 million supporting Republican candidates in this election cycle. The article says $224 million of that total went to Texas, where SpaceX and Tesla are based. It also says Texas had a closely watched Senate contest that is now among the most expensive in U.S. history. Despite Musk’s efforts, the Republican candidates for Senate, governor, lieutenant governor, and several House seats lost to Democratic opponents.

Possible policy effects

Yahoo Finance says a Democratic Congress could make it harder for Musk’s interest in merging Tesla and SpaceX. The article says such a deal could leave him controlling most of the votes in the combined company, which was already expected to attract scrutiny. It adds that SpaceX’s AI-related work, which the article describes as important to the company’s recent growth, could face more obstacles if lawmakers pursue limits on new data center construction or tighter oversight of frontier AI labs.

Offset from a Qualcomm deal

Yahoo Finance reports that the decline was partly cushioned by SpaceX’s announcement of a multiyear agreement with Qualcomm. Under that deal, Qualcomm will help build the ground network for Starlink Mobile, which the article describes as the company’s planned wireless carrier.

Investment note in the article

The piece closes by pointing readers to a Motley Fool Stock Advisor note saying Space Exploration Technologies was not among its latest 10 stock picks. Yahoo Finance includes the service’s past performance examples, including Netflix and Nvidia, and says Stock Advisor’s average return is 885% versus 208% for the S&P 500.