Musk's $474M political gamble flops as Democrats seize Congress

Musk went big, and it didn't land. The billionaire poured a record-breaking $474 million into political groups, overwhelmingly in support of Republicans, betting that spending could keep Washington friendly to his business empire. On Tuesday, Democrats recaptured control of Congress and that bet came up short.

The result flips the board overnight for Musk. He now faces a divided Washington that, according to SCMP, is keen to examine the sprawling web of domestic government contracts behind his companies and his deep commercial links to China. Analysts cited by the outlet point to SpaceX's government contracts and Tesla's China operations as the likeliest targets.

Those two threads run through the core of his empire. SpaceX leans heavily on federal work, while Tesla's business is woven into China's manufacturing and sales machine — a pairing that turns any congressional spotlight into a two-front problem. Musk spent the money to soften that terrain. Instead, he gets lawmakers with fresh incentive to poke at it.

The timing is rough. Musk had positioned the spending as a shield for his sprawling interests, and the midterm outcome stripped away the friendly math he was counting on. Now the same contracts and overseas ties he was protecting sit squarely in front of a Congress controlled by the other party.

What comes next isn't settled. The source report stops short of predicting specific hearings or legislation, but analysts say congressional scrutiny is now the live risk hanging over SpaceX and Tesla alike. For a man who just wagered nearly half a billion dollars on politics, the bill may arrive in the form of questions he'd rather not answer.