According to filings released by the US Federal Election Commission, Elon Musk, founder of SpaceX and owner of X, finished the campaign season as one of Donald Trump’s biggest donors by far. Between publicly endorsing Trump on the heels of the July assassination attempt against him in Butler, Pennsylvania, and November 25, 2024, Musk donated more than $238 million to his own political action committee, America PAC, which aggressively campaigned on the ground in swing states for the Trump campaign. He donated an additional $43 million to RBG PAC and other pro-Trump groups, for a total of $281 million.
Musk has been one of many Silicon Valley elites who have expressed their support for Trump. Peter Thiel, billionaire and cofounder of Palantir, has been a longtime Trump supporter (though he said he would not be donating to candidates in 2024), and venture capitalist David Sacks, who is also a friend of Musk’s, has also thrown his support to the Republicans. Trump has also received support from PACs and individuals in the crypto space.
But Musk has put more money into the Trump campaign than nearly any other individual from the tech industry. In addition to his support for Trump's presidential run, he also donated more than $289,000 to the National Republican Congressional Committee. While some companies and institutions in Silicon Valley, like venture firm Andreessen Horowitz, have backed Trump, individual donors from those same companies may not. For instance, Marc Andreessen and his business partner Ben Horowitz each donated $2.5 million to the pro-Trump Right for America PAC last quarter. Andreessen has also donated to the Democratic Congressional Campaign Committee; Horowitz has backed Democratic campaigns as well, and in early October said he would support Harris rather than Trump going forward.
The graphic below focuses specifically on donations that help Trump directly, rather than GOP giving more broadly. You can see a breakdown of how much each person gave—and where the money went—by scrolling over or tapping each name.
Sacks donated only $6,600 to Trump’s 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 the venture 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 the America PAC, as did Palantir cofounder and venture capitalist Joe Lonsdale. Kenneth Howery, a PayPal Mafia member and former ambassador to Sweden under Trump, put $1 million into America PAC in addition to smaller direct contributions to the Trump campaign. And WhatsApp cofounder Jan Koum donated $5 million to the Make America Great Again PAC in October.
Musk has contributed more to the Trump campaign than all of them combined, several times over. His largesse, combined with his vocal support of Trump on the platform he controls, has been a windfall for Trump in an increasingly close presidential race. He has put substantial resources into the Trump campaign's get-out-the-vote efforts, and has been a visible figure on the campaign trail lading up to the election.
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This story has been updated to reflect total campaign contributions from Elon Musk in support of Donald Trump as of 11/25/24.
