Key Points
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SpaceX stock is down after Democrats swept the midterm elections that Elon Musk spent heavily trying to swing the other way.
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Despite Musk’s spending, Republican candidates for Senate, governor, lieutenant governor, and several House seats lost to their Democratic challengers.
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A Democratic Congress could make a Tesla-SpaceX merger and the company’s AI expansion harder, though a new Qualcomm deal for Starlink Mobile helped buffer the fall.
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Space Exploration Technologies Corp. (NASDAQ:SPCX) stock is down 5.3% as of 2:53 p.m. ET on Wednesday, Nov. 4, after Democrats swept the midterm elections that Elon Musk spent heavily trying to swing the other way.
The S&P 500 and the Nasdaq Composite are both up 1.7%.
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Elon Musk’s midterm spending falls short in Texas
Musk spent at leasillion backing Republican candidates this cycle. $224 million of that went to Texas — home of SpaceX and Tesla (NASDAQ:TSLA) — alone. The state featured a high-profile Senate race that will now count as one of the most expensive in U.S. history.
Despite his efforts, the Republican candidates for Senate, Governor, Lt. Governor, and several House races lost to their Democratic challengers.
What a Democratic Congress could mean for SpaceX stock
Musk has been eyeing a merger between Tesla and SpaceX that could leave him controlling most of the votes in the combined company. That was always going to draw scrutiny, but a Democratic Congress could make that harder still.
Image source: Getty Images.
The company’s AI efforts, which have been essential to the company’s recent growth, could face additional hurdles with potential moratoriums on data center building and tougher regulatory oversight of frontier AI labs.
That said, the stock’s fall was buffered by the announcement of a multiyear deal with Qualcomm (NASDAQ:QCOM) to build the ground network for Starlink Mobile, the company’s planned wireless carrier.
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Johnny Rice has no position in any of the stocks mentioned. The Motley Fool has positions in and recommends Qualcomm and Tesla. The Motley Fool recommends Space Exploration Technologies. The Motley Fool has a disclosure policy.
