TLDR
- Tesla and SpaceX shares fell about 4% in premarket trading on Wednesday as Democrats pulled ahead in the midterms.
- Both stocks first dipped about 1.8% after hours when Jon Ossoff was projected to win in Georgia.
- Decision Desk HQ projects Democrats will take both the House and the Senate.
- A Tesla-SpaceX merger remains exploratory, with a reported push to announce a deal by the first half of next year.
- Elon Musk gave about $450 million to $500 million to Republican efforts before the vote.
Shares of Tesla and SpaceX fell in early trading on Wednesday as Democrats moved toward wins in the US midterm elections. Both stocks were down about 4% before the market opened.
Premarket quotes showed Tesla at $381.04, down 4.38%. SpaceX traded at $134.65, down 4.71%. Another report put the drops at 3.6% for Tesla and 3.9% for SpaceX.
Space Exploration Technologies Corp., SPCX
What Happened After the Polls Closed
The first move came Tuesday evening. Both shares fell about 1.8% in after-hours trading after Senator Jon Ossoff was projected to win reelection in Georgia.
Regular trading in individual stocks had already closed by then. Tesla ended the day at $398.50, down 1.32%, while SpaceX closed at $141.31, up 3.62%.
Later, Decision Desk HQ projected that Democrats would take control of both the US House and the Senate. Results were still coming in on Wednesday morning.
Democratic wins in key data center areas also raised concerns about limits on new data center projects. Investors cited this as one factor behind the drop.
Musk put nearly $450 million into Republican campaign funds before the vote, according to Bloomberg. Another report put his political spending at about $500 million.
He also urged his 240 million followers on X not to vote for Democrats. Musk served as a White House adviser early last year and now co-leads a new Defense Department initiative.
Where the Merger Talks Stand
Tesla and SpaceX have been discussed as possible merger partners. The idea is still in an exploratory phase.
Bloomberg has reported a push to announce a deal by the first half of next year. The goal is to close it while President Donald Trump is in office.
Vikram Rai of First New York told Bloomberg last week that Congress cannot kill a deal on its own. He said empowered Democrats may be able to slow one down, and that both stocks carry major headline risk in a blue sweep.
Tesla shares had risen 34% since their late-July low, helped by investor interest in artificial intelligence products and the possible SpaceX deal. SpaceX went public in June and holds a market value of about $1.9 trillion.
Tesla stock has reacted to elections before. After Trump won in 2024, the shares rose more than 90% in a little over a month. The gains faded as Musk’s relationship with Trump soured.
Mark Hackett, chief strategist at Nationwide Funds Group, said emotion drives markets before elections. He said fundamentals take over once they are behind us.
Both companies are spending billions of dollars on product development. Plans for robotaxis, robots and Mars colonies are still years from showing up in their income statements.
As of Wednesday’s premarket session, Tesla traded at $381.04 and SpaceX at $134.65, with the midterm count still underway.
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