According published presentations According to the US Federal Election Commission on Tuesday night, Elon Musk, founder of SpaceX and owner of X, is now one of the largest donors to Donald Trump’s campaign. Since publicly endorsing Trump following the July assassination attempt on him in Butler, Pennsylvania, Musk has donated nearly $75 million to his own political action committee, America PAC, which is aggressively campaigning on the ground in undecided states in favor of Trump. Campaign.
Musk has been one of many Silicon Valley elites who have expressed support for Trump. Peter Thiel, billionaire and co-founder of Palantir, has been a long-time Trump supporter (although he said he wouldn’t). donate to candidates in 2024), and venture capitalist David Sacks, who is also a friend of Musk, has also thrown his support behind Republicans. Trump has also received support from PACs and people in the crypto space.
But Musk has poured more money into Trump’s campaign than almost any other individual in the tech industry. In addition to his support of America PAC, he also donated more than $289,000 to the National Republican Congressional Committee. While some Silicon Valley companies and institutions, such as the venture firm Andreessen Horowitz, have endorsed Trump, individual donors to those same companies may not do so. For example, Marc Andreessen and his business partner Ben Horowitz each donated $2.5 million for pro-Trump Right for America PAC last quarter. Andreessen has also donated to the Democratic Congressional Campaign Committee; Horowitz has endorsed democratic campaigns too, and in early October he said he would support Harris over Trump in the future.
Sacks donated only $6,600 directly to the Trump campaign, but $114,500 to the Republican National Committee and $250,000 for Trump 47 PAC. Tyler and Cameron Winklevoss, who run the Gemini cryptocurrency exchange, each donated more than $350,000 to the Make America Great Again PAC, which supports Trump’s campaign. The twins too donated $250,000 each to PAC America. Shaun Maguire, partner at venture firm Sequoia Capital, has donated $500,000 to the America PAC, $300,000 to the Trump 47 PAC and $6,600 to the Trump campaign directly. Antonio Gracias, billionaire and one of the first backers of Tesla donated $1 million to America PAC, as did Palantir co-founder and venture capitalist Joe Lonsdale. Kenneth HoweryA member of the PayPal mafia and former ambassador to Sweden during the Trump administration, he invested $1 million in America PAC in addition to smaller direct contributions to the Trump campaign.
Musk has contributed more to Trump’s campaign than all of them combined, several times over. That puts him on par with Trump. the most generous donorsincluding Miriam Adelson, the widow of Sheldon Adelson, who donated 95 million dollars to the pro-Trump PAC Preserve America over the past three months, including $45 million in September alone. Billionaire Timothy Mellon, heir to the Mellon railroad fortune, remains the campaign’s largest donor, having contributed at least $115 million in Make America Great Again PAC only this year.
Musk’s generosity, combined with his vocal support for Trump on the platform he controls, has been a windfall for Trump in an increasingly tight presidential race. He will continue trying to get out the vote in person this weekend with a series of appearances in Pennsylvania.