U.S. Midterm Elections》Musk alone donated more than 14.2 billion, setting a record; campaign spending is estimated to exceed 380 billion

Tesla CEO Elon Musk has invested more than $445 million in political funds in the 2026 U.S. midterm elections, becoming the top personal political funder. (Reuters photo)

The U.S. midterm elections will take place on the 3rd. The non-profit organization OpenSecrets estimates that the total expenditure on the 2026 U.S. elections will reach 11.9 billion U.S. dollars (approximately NT$380 billion), setting a new record for the highest expenditure in midterm elections. Among them, Tesla CEO Elon Musk’s personal political donations have accumulated more than 445 million U.S. dollars (approximately NT$14.2 billion), setting the highest number of individual donors in the United States.

Relevant statistics point out that Musk’s huge funds mainly flow to support Republican candidates, Super Political Action Committees (Super PACs) and related peripheral groups, and not all of them are donated directly to individual candidates. In addition to traditional energy and real estate tycoons, the technology and cryptocurrency industries also demonstrated an astonishing silver bullet offensive in this election.

The Washington Post analyzed filings as of July 20, 2026, showing that well-known Silicon Valley venture capitalists Marc Andreessen and Ben Horowitz donated a total of approximately US$91.3 million, of which US$50 million went to Leading the Future, a super political action committee that supports the artificial intelligence (AI) industry. Future); in addition, the cryptocurrency trading platform Coinbase and the blockchain company Ripple also donated approximately US$57.1 million and US$49.6 million respectively, targeting political groups that support the friendly encryption industry.

An analysis released by the Brennan Center for Justice on October 27 pointed out that as of mid-October, the top 40 top donors in the current midterm elections had invested a total of more than $2.4 billion, setting a new high for the same period since the U.S. Supreme Court issued the Citizens United decision in 2010. Among them, the top 40 top donors who specifically support the Republican Party have invested a total of approximately $1.5 billion.

In accordance with U.S. Federal Election Commission (FEC) regulations, super PACs can accept unlimited donations from individuals, businesses and unions, but they can only make independent expenditures and cannot directly coordinate with candidate teams. OpenSecrets further estimates that the independent expenditures of various external groups in this election will total US$3.9 billion, a surge of about 85% compared with 2022, reflecting the rapid expansion of the influence of American money-power politics in the election.