In May 2025, Elon Musk said he was pulling back from political spending.
“I think in terms of political spending, I’m going to do a lot less in the future,” Musk said in an interview with Bloomberg at the Qatar Economic Forum. “I think I’ve done enough.”
He then left room to change course: “Well, if I see a reason to do political spending in the future, I will do it,” he said. “I don’t currently see a reason.”
He had just finished the 2024 election cycle as the country’s biggest political donor, according to OpenSecrets. That year, he gave $291.5 million, all to Republicans. The next-largest donor, Timothy Mellon, gave $197 million.
In the 17 months since, Musk has given $427.5 million to federal political committees, according to a Fortune analysis of Federal Election Commission filings through Oct. 14. That’s nearly $200 million more than George Soros, the man Musk has claimed “astroturfed” anti-Tesla protests. Soros, the Democratic megadonor, has given personally $243.2 million to federal committees in 47 years of FEC records.
How much has Musk contributed?
Most of Musk’s money arrived after July 1 of this year. SLF PAC, the flagship super PAC for Republican Senate candidates, reported a $75 million check from Musk on Sept. 9 and an $83 million check on Sept. 23. Musk has spent more than $200 million to help elect Ken Paxton, the Texas attorney general, to the Senate, according to a New York Times analysis.
America PAC, the super PAC Musk funds, reported $165.6 million from him between July 1 and Oct. 14, in its October quarterly and pre-general reports. That includes $8 million in in-kind support from United States of America Inc., one of his companies, which America PAC attributed to Musk.
He also gave $20 million on Sept. 4 to the Congressional Leadership Fund, the main super PAC for House Republican candidates. And on Aug. 21, his trust gave $10 million to Lone Star Liberty PAC, which supports Paxton, who is running against Democrat James Talarico.
Other counts put him higher. The Times and OpenSecrets rank Musk as the top donor of the 2026 midterms, at $445.6 million for the full cycle (outside of the FEC, a Fortune analysis of IRS filings found he gave $10 million to the Republican Governors Association and $2 million to the Republican Attorneys General Association on July 6). The Brennan Center for Justice, which counts his company alongside him, puts the total at $483 million.
How much has Soros contributed?
Soros’s largest personal checks came before July 2026. He gave Democracy PAC II, one of his family’s two super PACs, $125 million in September 2021 and $50 million in November 2022. In the 2024 cycle, he gave $4.2 million personally to federal committees, FEC records show.
Soros has also given $67.8 million to political groups that report to the IRS, including $24.2 million to Justice & Public Safety PAC, according to IRS filings. FollowTheMoney, which compiles state campaign finance records, lists about $70 million more in state and local contributions. Together, that comes to about $381 million, still less than Musk has given since May 2025.
The comparison changes if groups Soros funds are counted. The Fund for Policy Reform, a nonprofit, has given $210.5 million to Democracy PAC since 2020, including $60 million in January 2024 and $50 million in January 2026, but the nonprofit doesn’t disclose its donors. The Times describes it as a channel for Soros family money and notes that Alex Soros, George’s son, is a director. Counting the fund, Soros’s federal total is $453.7 million, more than Musk has given since his remarks.
The Times counts George and Alex Soros together at $103.4 million this cycle and reports that the family’s two super PACs held about $173 million in cash as of mid-October.
Over his lifetime, Musk has given $723.8 million to federal committees, about three times Soros’s personal federal total, according to Fortune’s analysis of FEC filings. Fortune’s analysis counts contributions each man made to federal political committees as reported to the FEC, including in-kind gifts that recipients attributed to them, and excludes duplicate memo entries. Musk’s totals run through Oct. 14, 2026; Soros’s run through Sept. 9, 2026.
Musk’s totals exclude donations to groups that don’t disclose their donors, as well as any money given after Oct. 14.
Disclaimer : This story is auto aggregated by a computer programme and has not been created or edited by DOWNTHENEWS. Publisher: fortune.com
