The Scoop
Elon Musk’s employees may share his visions of colonizing Mars, building electric robotaxis, implanting brain chips, and digging holes. But they don’t share his politics.
Workers at his three biggest companies — X, Tesla, and SpaceX — have overwhelmingly donated to Democratic candidates and political action committees this election cycle, even as Musk has spent more than $75 million to elect former President Donald Trump and other Republicans. Their donations are mostly relatively small and given directly to the candidates. The data suggest that Musk’s companies follow the new Silicon Valley pattern — familiar across industries — in which the rank-and-file often support Democrats as executives lean Republican.
The donations align with past contributions. In 2020, employees from SpaceX and Tesla respectively donated seven and nine times the amount to Democratic candidates and their PACs than to the GOP, OpenSecrets data shows. Employees at Twitter, which Musk did not own at the time, contributed 15 times more money to Democrats or progressive-leaning PACs during that election cycle, according to OpenSecrets. Representatives from SpaceX, Tesla, and X did not respond to Semafor’s requests for comment.
Political donations from employees at Musk’s other companies — Neuralink, xAI, and the Boring Company — were negligible, Federal Election Commission data shows.
Know More
In recent weeks, Musk has become Trump’s right-hand man on the campaign trail, appearing with him at rallies in New York and Pennsylvania, and helping promote false claims about voter fraud that benefit Republicans. He’s part of a broader shift that includes Andreessen Horowitz co-founder Marc Andreessen, who has endorsed the former president and donated $3 million to Republican candidates and PACs since the beginning of 2023, FEC data shows. Sequoia alum Doug Leone also endorsed Trump, after previously renouncing his support of the former president following the Jan. 6, 2021 attack on the US Capitol building. Venture capitalists David Sacks and Chamath Palihapitiya hosted a fundraiser for the candidate in San Francisco over the summer, and crypto investors and brothers Cameron and Tyler Winklevoss are on the Trump train as well.
Notable
- Over the last two decades, the political views of corporate employees have shifted to the left, according to a report by Columbia law professor Reilly Steel. In Silicon Valley, tech executives are splitting into distinct right- and left-wing factions, where in the past they have donated in a more united fashion.