The world's richest man is having a rough Wednesday after voters delivered a sweeping rejection of the Republican Party, leaving Musk with hundreds of millions of dollars in failed political investments, deleted social media posts, and a newly elected Democratic attorney general in his adopted home state of Texas who has already expressed interest in investigating him.

According to a report highlighted by WIRED, more than 99 cents of every traceable dollar Musk spent on races that have been decided went toward a losing candidate.

The scale of the defeat is staggering. One widely circulated estimate puts Musk's midterm spending at $474 million, including more than $150 million in Texas alone.

And judging by his activity on X, the billionaire isn't taking the results particularly well.

On Tuesday morning, Musk urged his followers to "Vote red today!" But by Wednesday, that post was gone from his profile.

What remained was a bizarre series of posts that seemed to capture a billionaire processing an electoral catastrophe in real time.

"Data centers in space looking pretty appealing right now," Musk posted.

Then came another awkward attempt at humor.

"Guess my election-interfering space lasers didn't work this time," he wrote.

In another post, Musk shared a vintage television test pattern bearing the message: "Sorry! We are experiencing technical difficulties."

For a man who spent months attempting to influence the political direction of the country, the sudden pivot to jokes about space lasers and technical difficulties was quite the spectacle.

But the consequences of Tuesday's election could extend far beyond Musk's bruised ego and battered political spending record.

In Texas, Democrat Nathan Johnson won the race for attorney general after campaigning on a promise to scrutinize the state's relationship with Musk and his companies.

Last month, Johnson specifically raised concerns about preferential treatment in state contracting.

"If we're giving Elon Musk preferential access to state contracts because of his wealth and connections, that's corruption," Johnson wrote.

"We cannot put the interests of our state aside to pay monopolists and insiders three times what their competitors charge. I'm ready to investigate."

That development could be particularly significant for Musk, who has increasingly concentrated his business empire in Texas. Tesla moved its corporate headquarters to the state in 2021, followed by SpaceX in 2024.

Musk's decision to move his operations to a Republican-controlled state may now present an entirely different set of challenges.

As attorney general, Johnson will have the authority to pursue investigations into potential violations of state law without relying on cooperation from the Trump Justice Department. Whether any investigation ultimately produces findings of wrongdoing remains to be seen.

Musk positioned himself as one of the Republican Party's most powerful financial backers, deploying enormous sums of money to influence elections while using his ownership of X to amplify his political preferences.

Yet despite his wealth, influence, and control of a major social media platform, voters delivered results that his spending could not prevent.

And while losing nearly half a billion dollars would be financially devastating to most Americans, the reported $474 million represents only a tiny fraction of Musk's personal fortune.

Musk entered the midterms attempting to demonstrate that his money and influence could help determine who holds power in Washington and across the country.

He emerged from Election Day with a spectacular losing record, a trail of deleted posts, and the possibility of scrutiny from a newly empowered Democratic official in Texas.