According to documents released by the US Federal Election Commission on Tuesday night, Elon Musk, founder of SpaceX and owner of X, is now one of the biggest donors to Donald Trump’s campaign. Since publicly endorsing Trump after the July assassination attempt in Butler, Pennsylvania, Musk has donated nearly $75 million to his political committee, America PAC, which is campaigning for Trump in different countries. campaign.
Musk was one of many Silicon Valley actors to voice their support for Trump. Peter Thiel, the billionaire and co-founder of Palantir, has been a longtime Trump supporter (although he has said he won’t donate to the 2024 candidate), and financier David Sacks, a friend of Musk, has also supported him. Republicans. Trump also received support from PACs and individuals in the crypto space.
But Musk put more money into Trump’s campaign than any other person from the tech industry. In addition to his support for America PAC, he also donated more than $289,000 to the National Republican Congressional Committee. While some companies and institutions in Silicon Valley, such as venture capital firm Andreessen Horowitz, have supported Trump, individual donors from those same companies may not agree. For example, Marc Andreessen and his business partner Ben Horowitz donated another $2.5 million to the pro-Trump Right for America PAC last quarter. Andreessen also contributed to the Democratic Congressional Campaign Committee; Horowitz has also supported Democratic campaigns, and in early October said he would support Harris rather than Trump.
The chart below focuses more on donations helping Trump directly, rather than the GOP giving more broadly. You can see a breakdown of how much each person donated—and where the money went—by scrolling or touching each name.
The sacks donated only $6,600 to the Trump campaign directly, but $114,500 to the Republican National Committee and $250,000 to the Trump 47 PAC. Tyler and Cameron Winklevoss, who run the crypto exchange Gemini, each donated more than $350,000 to the Make America Great Again PAC, which supports the Trump campaign. The twins also donated $250,000 each to the America PAC. Shaun Maguire, a partner at venture capital firm Sequoia Capital, has donated $500,000 to the America PAC, $300,000 to the Trump 47 PAC, and $6,600 to the Trump campaign directly. Billionaire and early Tesla backer Antonio Gracias donated $1 million to America’s PAC, as did Palantir founder and venture capitalist Joe Lonsdale. Kenneth Howery, a member of the PayPal Mafia and former ambassador to Sweden under Trump, has put $1 million into America PAC in addition to smaller direct donations to the Trump campaign.
Musk contributed the most to Trump’s campaign combined, multiple times. That puts him in a relationship with Trump’s richest donors, including Miriam Adelson, the widow of Sheldon Adelson, who has donated $95 million to the pro-Trump Preserve America PAC in the past three months—including $45 million in September alone. Billionaire Timothy Mellon, heir to the Mellon railroad fortune, remains the campaign’s largest donor, having put at least $115 million into the Make America Great Again PAC this year.
Musk’s size, combined with his vocal support for Trump in the area he controls, has been a boost for Trump in the looming race for the presidency. He will continue to try to get out the vote in person this weekend with a series of appearances in Pennsylvania.
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