How Elon Musk stands to cash in on Trump’s presidential victory

As Donald Trump celebrated his presidential victory early Wednesday morning, Elon Musk was right there with him.

“A star is born. Elon,” Trump said on stage at his Mar-a-Lago resort, thanking the world’s richest person for spending two weeks campaigning in Pennsylvania.

Musk, who poured at least $130 million into a pro-Trump campaign effort, turned Trump support into another full-time job in recent months, funding a swing-state operation to register voters and using his social media platform X to constantly touting his preferred candidate, often with misinformation.

Musk’s investment in Trump is already paying off, even though Trump won’t take office until January 20.

Tesla shares rose 15% on Wednesday, adding about $15 billion in paper value to Musk’s net worth. The electric car maker faces headwinds in the global market from China-based competitors, declining European sales and growing consumer distaste for his political views.

But with Musk cozying up to Trump and the president-elect promising to cut back on the types of regulations Musk detests, Wall Street is betting Tesla will be a beneficiary overall.

For Musk, the potential gains go far beyond Tesla.

During his victory speech, Trump also praised Musk’s SpaceX and thanked Musk for providing Starlink Wi-Fi terminals to hurricane-stricken parts of the United States. and his businesses.

Musk’s companies are currently involved in a number of investigations and lawsuits by federal agencies regarding issues including alleged violations of securities laws, workplace safety, labor and civil rights violations, violations of federal environmental laws, consumer fraud, and vehicle safety defects.

Given the executive branch’s outsized control over federal regulatory agencies, Musk can look forward to regulators and intelligence agencies winding down some or all of the 19 known ongoing federal investigations and lawsuits against Tesla, SpaceX and X, formerly known as Twitter.

In New York’s Madison Square Garden on October 27, Musk was one of many Trump fans and surrogates who spoke during an all-day rally. Much of the coverage of the event focused on comedian Tony Hinchcliffe’s bigoted jokes, including his description of Puerto Rico as a “floating island of trash.”

Musk was introduced by Cantor Fitzgerald CEO Howard Lutnick, who called Tesla’s CEO the “greatest capitalist” in US history. Lutnick said he and Musk were co-founders of the envisioned “Department of Government Efficiency,” and he asked Musk how much he thought could be cut from the federal budget.

Musk replied “at least $2 trillion,” which is more than the federal government estimated budget of $1.7 trillion. The remark received a scream from Lutnick and applause from the crowd.

Musk did not specify what he was trying to cut, but he has previously accused agencies including the SEC, the Environmental Protection Agency and the Federal Aviation Administration of overstepping the law or violating his freedom of speech.

He also accused the Biden administration of hiring too many IRS staff and has loudly protested a so-called billionaires tax.

Having a role on a tailor-made commission could give Musk power over federal agency budgets, staffing and the ability to push to remove inconvenient regulations.

Musk also said during a Tesla earnings call on Oct. 23 that he intended to use his influence with Trump to establish a “federal approval process for autonomous vehicles.” Currently, approvals are done at the state level.

Tesla has been working on driverless technology for more than a decade, but has yet to produce a robot axle or a vehicle that is safe to use without a human ready to steer or brake at any moment.

In addition, a Trump administration may agree to increase the government’s work with his companies.

Musk’s newest startup, xAI, develops large-scale language models and generative artificial intelligence software that aims to compete with similar products from Microsoft-backed OpenAI, Meta and others.

Meta recently announced its open source llama models were available to US government agencies in the areas of defense and national security. And OpenAI is already working with the US military, having added a retired US Army general and former director of the National Security Agency to its board in June.

Musk did not respond to a request for comment.

According to research on federal spending and prime contracts by FedScout, SpaceX has received more than $19 billion from federal government contracts since 2008, including from NASA, the US Air Force and the Space Force.

The company is on track to receive several billion dollars annually from prime contracts with the federal government in the coming years, according to FedScout CEO Geoff Orazem.

This figure does not include classified spending, smaller items like Starlink terminals, or spending done at the state level via block grants from the federal government, such as when the Federal Emergency Management Agency provides assistance to states to help recover from natural disasters.

Meanwhile, Tesla has reported about $10 billion in sales of “automotive regulatory credits,” or environmental credits, since 2015, Orazem found by evaluating the company’s financial filings.

These incentives are largely derived from federal and state regulations in the United States, which require automakers to sell a number of low-emission vehicles or buy credits from companies like Tesla, which often run a profit.

Regulatory credits were about 60% of Tesla’s net income in the second quarter of 2024 and 39% in third quarter. Other government rebates on EV sales represented about 50% of Tesla’s profits in the third quarter.

According to for analysis from NBC NewsMusk has repeatedly posted pro-Kremlin content to his hundreds of millions of followers on X. He even engaged with content from Tenet Media and its creators at least 60 times on the social network. Tenet was at the center of one alleged Russian covert operation to manipulate American public opinion ahead of the 2024 election, according to Ministry of Justice.

While Vice President-elect JD Vance recently called Putin an American adversaryTrump has often spoken of his affection for the Russian president, even since Russia’s devastating invasion of Ukraine in 2022. Kremlin officials have celebrated Trump’s victory at this week’s election.

Musk, who publicly endorsed Trump moments after the first assassination attempt on the former president in July, has said he intends to remain involved in American politics for a long time.

He said in a discussion on X Tuesday that his super PAC would continue its work after the presidential election and would try to influence the results of midterm elections, midterm elections and district attorney elections across the United States

A priority, Musk said, would be to help elect district attorneys “who prosecute repeat violent criminals who are clearly a danger to people.”