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Two days of selling hit Musk’s companies hard, with investors reassessing political exposure and AI expansion plans.

📉 Two stocks, a $456 billion reversal

• Tesla and SpaceX lost a combined $456 billion in market value across Wednesday and Thursday, extending their post-election slide.
• Thursday delivered the heaviest damage, with both companies falling substantially more than the broader market as investors reduced exposure to technology and AI infrastructure stocks.
• Tesla closed Thursday down 10.77% at $343.69, losing $41.50 a share in one session. The decline followed Wednesday’s retreat, putting fresh pressure on a valuation tied partly to Musk’s ties to Washington and his big-ticket government contracts now up in the air.
• SpaceX fell 9.05% to $123.62, finishing about 8.4% below its $135 IPO price from June. Its market capitalization stood near $1.68 trillion.

🏗️ Political risks meet AI spending fears

• Democratic victories have complicated the outlook in Texas, where both companies are headquartered. Candidates opposing data-center expansion won key races, raising concerns about construction delays and permit application rejections.
• Both businesses have direct exposure to that buildout. SpaceX generated more than half its third-quarter sales from renting computing capacity, while Tesla markets battery-storage systems to data-center operators.
• A potential Tesla–SpaceX merger adds another uncertainty. Musk said last month that special committees were exploring a deal, but the changed political environment could complicate regulatory approval.

💸 Musk’s fortune takes an $80 billion hit

• Musk’s estimated wealth fell $79.7 billion on Thursday, leaving him worth $785 billion on the Bloomberg Billionaires Index. He remains the world’s richest person (no tears were shed, most likely).
• The company losses and Musk’s wealth decline measure different things. The $456 billion represents the reduction in both companies’ total equity value over two sessions.
• Musk’s roughly $80 billion decline covers Thursday’s change in his estimated personal fortune, driven by the value of his ownership stakes.