The Connection Between Elon Musk's Net Worth And The US Government Will Surprise You

Elon Musk is the richest man in the world, with a net worth of somewhere around $342 billion dollars as of the latest figures available. Although people are selling their Tesla cars in record numbers, which may end up damaging that current status, the true damage of that to his wealth has yet to be seen. While it is most commonly known that the billionaire entrepreneur, CEO, and now political advisor made his money through a handful of successful companies he leads, there is actually a surprising connection between Musk's net worth and the U.S. government that may shock you to hear.

According to a report by the Washington Post, throughout the last two decades, as much as $38 billion dollars of Musk's net worth has come from "government contracts, loans, subsidies and tax credits" to his various companies. However, it's likely that in reality this number is far higher. This being the case, numerous ethical concerns have been raised on behalf of the fact that Musk has been working so closely with the government through his efforts with DOGE. This is because many people are concerned he is doing so to further enrich himself. Knowing this, it's important to dive deeper into the true connection between Musk's net worth and the federal government in order to fully comprehend the depth of this matter.

For starters, Space X, which is Elon Musk's company that builds rocket ships to take humanity further into the cosmos, has received billions of dollars worth of government contracts from both NASA and The Department of Defense. While NASA in particular was funding Space X for rocket development, the majority of specifics regarding the contracts from the DoD have not been publicly disclosed, likely for national security reasons. Regardless, it has been made clear that one of the jobs Space X was tasked to do by them was to build satellites for intelligence and military purposes. This specific contract worth $1.8 billion, combined withother contracts, have amounted to over $20 billion in total paid out to Space X by the government. This would make Space X the recipient of the lion's share of funding Musk's businesses have received from the U.S. government, seeing as Musk's companies have reportedly received around $38 billion total.

Outside of this, in an effort by The Department of Energy and other government entities to encourage electric vehicle production in the United States, regulatory credits have been issued to Tesla over the years that as of today total around $11 billion. This appears to have initially begun in 2010 for Tesla in particular, when The Department of Energy bailed the electric vehicle manufacture out with a loan totaling over $450 million.

Although at first glance it may sound rather nefarious that Elon Musk's companies have received so much money from the federal government, there may actually be a rather simple explanation for it. For starters, Musk's companies provide products and services that are useful to various arms of the United States' government and so in turn they pay for them. According to the U.S. Government Accountability Office, the federal government outsources hundreds of billions of dollars every year acquiring various forms of contract work from different parties. In 2023 the government spent close to $760 billion dollars on different contract services of this nature.

This being the case, it appears that Musk's companies being funded by the federal government is part of a larger initiative by the United States to outsource to private contractors for work they can not complete alone. However, this only applies to Space X, as government work with Tesla over the years is likely more closely related to encouraging the production and sale of electric vehicles by a U.S. based manufacturer. Musk's most valuable asset isn't Tesla anymore, and Space X is likely to continue boosting the richest man on the planet's worth by continuing to rake in money from government contracts.