According to a Thursday Bloomberg report, new Federal Election Commission filings show that [Elon] Musk contributed another $77 million to his America PAC in the first half of October, bringing his total political giving this election cycle past the $445 million mark.
Wilkens describes the $445 million as an “eye-popping figure,” which it is, both as a concrete sum of money and as a political contribution. It’s worth considering the amount in the context of Musk’s vast wealth, however. Musk’s estimated net worth was $1.011 trillion on October 21, 2026, the day before Bloomberg’s report (it’s down to $922 billion as of this writing). $445 million is a staggering amount of money to most of us, but represents approximately 0.05% of Musk’s net worth. It’s the equivalent of a millionaire donating $500, or the typical American family (median net worth: $216,000) donating $108.
In other words, to Elon Musk, spending $445 million to buy himself political insurance is effectively an accounting error.