Silicon Valley's $600M midterm bet flops as Democrats sweep Congress
What's the deal? Silicon Valley donors who backed Republicans with more than $600mn in the US midterm elections suffered heavy losses, as voters handed Democrats large majorities in both houses of Congress. Elon Musk alone spent more than $470mn, giving Republicans the biggest fundraising advantage in US history.
Where it hurt most: Nearly half of Musk's spending went to Ken Paxton, the scandal-plagued Texas Republican who lost to Democrat James Talarico. Other Republicans in battleground Senate seats and several House races also fell.
"Elon Musk spent half a billion dollars and lost every race he showed up in," said one political operative who coordinated tech spending before the vote.
Why now? A majority of voters cited AI data centres as a crucial or major factor in their vote, according to an NBC exit poll. That ran alongside anger over rising inflation and the Iran war, driving what the operative called a "monolithic" swing to Democrats.
Who else paid in: Venture capitalists Marc Andreessen and Ben Horowitz spent more than $90mn, including $50mn to the pro-AI political action committee Leading the Future. OpenAI co-founder Greg Brockman and his wife Anna gave $25mn to Maga Inc and $25mn to the same PAC; crypto's Winklevoss twins spent more than $5mn.
Fairshake, a crypto-aligned Super PAC credited with unseating Sherrod Brown in 2024, spent more than $50mn on ads against the Ohio senator — who returned to the Senate anyway. Leading the Future's $2.5mn behind South Carolina Republican Darline Graham also failed, handing Democrats a Senate seat there for the first time in decades.
The data-centre revolt: Dozens of data centre moratoriums passed across the country as voters opposed the infrastructure underpinning the AI boom. Reuters reported more than $380mn in TV advertising mentioning data centres, signalling the issue reached far beyond local politics.
What's next? Senior Democrats, including progressive House leader Greg Casar, are calling for the party to use its new powers to force AI executives to testify under oath next year.
What could go wrong? The result points to political risk for technology firms: potential scrutiny of data-centre siting, energy costs, and incentives. Local votes and campaign promises alone, though, do not set national policy.
For the donors, the sums were a fraction of their fortunes — for Musk, the equivalent of a millionaire giving $400. After the "blue wave" became clear, he deleted an X post urging voters to "Vote red today!"
The signal: "The money didn't work," the operative said. The midterms suggest cash cannot outrun public anxiety about AI and Big Tech — a warning that writing cheques no longer guarantees friendly policy.
Read more: Financial Times
Image credit: Bold Frontiers
