Figure caption, Watch: Key moments from the US midterm election results
Elon Musk spent almost $450m (£334m) – more than anyone ever has in an election cycle – to back Republican political candidates in the US midterm races. It was not enough to keep Democrats from a resounding victory .
Among the most striking wins went to Democrat James Talarico, who beat Republican Ken Paxton for a US Senate seat in Texas. Musk spent at least $45m in support of Paxton, according to a BBC analysis of campaign finance data .
Other races where Musk spent millions included Arizona, Michigan, Wisconsin and Minnesota. His spending continued into Monday, records show.
By Tuesday night, Musk seemed to admit defeat, joking on X that his "election-interfering space lasers didn't work."
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The loss this week of so many Republican seats may have significant implications for Musk and his businesses.
SpaceX has gained an estimated , external $10bn in new government contracts since Trump was elected to his second non-consecutive term. Several Democratic lawmakers have said the company's extensive and growing role in government and national security should be investigated , external .
SpaceX's future development of massive data centres is also facing new potential difficulties - as are the data centre developments of other tech companies.
In Georgia for instance, where SpaceX has data centre operations, the just elected Democratic governor ran in-part on limiting the rapid rise of the massive buildings , as well as the huge tax breaks tech companies usually get to build them.
A number of other politicians ran on limiting data centres and dozens of state measures to limit their development passed on Tuesday , external .
Data centres are sprawling buildings that house stacks of computing hardware. Tech and artificial intelligence (AI) companies use them to run online platforms such as ChatGPT, Claude, and Musk's X and his AI company xAI.
Musk posted to X on Tuesday that his previously floated idea to somehow build data centres in space was "looking pretty appealing right now."
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James Flintoft, head of investment solutions at AJ Bell, pointed to Musk's unsuccessful spending on Republican candidates and the scale of wins by Democrats as bringing in a "period of uncertainty for investors as they assess whether tech companies are set to face greater regulation."
Senator Ed Markey on Wednesday responded on X to a person asking if major tech industry executives would be the target of investigations, saying: "They are going to need to plant new forests for all of the subpoenas we'll be printing."
Tech stocks were broadly up on Wednesday morning. Yet, Musk's Tesla…