Tesla closed at $385.19 on 4 November and SpaceX’s Class A shares at $135.92, according to Nasdaq.com quote data read after the 4 p.m. New York close (closing prices marked “Closed at Nov 4, 2026 4:00 PM ET”, read at 21:01 UTC). Against their 3 November closes of $398.50 and $141.31, as our midterm-night piece reported, Tesla fell 3.34% and SpaceX fell 3.81%.
On the share counts in the companies’ 10-Q cover pages used in that piece, that is a change of about $52.6 billion in Tesla’s market value and about $73.2 billion in SpaceX’s, $125.8 billion together, by our arithmetic. On midterm night the after-hours fall was about $61 billion, as we reported.
Business Pill · Concentration
An evergreen Business Engineer explainer on concentration, when a few big pieces make the total. It teaches the general idea only and does not discuss Tesla, SpaceX or the elections.
Tesla and SpaceX share prices as a percentage change from their 3 November closes: the last after-hours trade on 3 November (both -1.75%%) and the 4 November regular-session close. Source: Nasdaq.com quote data; percentages are our arithmetic. Chart: FourWeekMBA.
The key insight: By our arithmetic from Nasdaq.com data and 10-Q share counts, Tesla and SpaceX ended 4 November about $125.8 billion lower in combined market value than at their 3 November closes, against about $61 billion in after-hours trading on midterm night.
Update, 5 Nov, 14:58Z: day two, intraday. At 9:56 a.m. New York time on 5 November, Tesla traded at $347.51, down $37.68 or 9.78% from its 4 November close, and SpaceX’s Class A shares at $125.425, down $10.495 or 7.72%, according to Nasdaq.com real-time quote data (Tesla, SpaceX). These are intraday prices, not closes.
On the same 10-Q cover-page share counts used above (3,952,757,946 Tesla shares; 8,246,541,218 SpaceX Class A plus 5,334,522,491 Class B shares), that is a change of about $148.9 billion in Tesla’s market value and about $142.5 billion in SpaceX’s, $291.5 billion together at that moment, by our arithmetic. Earlier, at 14:31 UTC, zerohedge posted “TESLA SHARES DROP 3.9%, WHILE SPACEX DOWN 4.3%”. We do not attribute the moves to a cause.
Update, 5 Nov, 16:51Z: credit market. Bloomberg published a story headlined “SpaceX Default Risk Hits Fresh Peak as Tech-Led Selloff Builds” at 15:48 UTC on 5 November, according to its Google News listing. We could not read the article beyond its headline, so the size of the move in SpaceX’s default-risk pricing and the level of the previous peak are not given here.
Tesla’s last after-hours trade on 3 November was $391.53 and SpaceX’s $138.84, both 1.75% below their closes, according to Nasdaq.com data cited in our midterm-night piece. From those prices to the 4 November close, Tesla’s market value fell by about $25.1 billion and SpaceX’s fell by about $39.7 billion, by our arithmetic.
During the session, at 11:52 a.m. New York time, SpaceX was down 3.1% and Tesla 3.4%, according to Nasdaq.com, as we reported at midday.
SpaceX’s figure prices its 5,334,522,491 unlisted Class B shares at the Class A price, as in our first piece. On the 8,246,541,218 Class A shares alone, SpaceX’s market value fell by about $44.4 billion since 3 November, by our arithmetic.
Tesla and SpaceX market value on 4 November 2026 against 3 November closes: Tesla fell about $52.6 billion and SpaceX about $73.2 billion, $125.8 billion together. Source: Nasdaq.com quote data and the companies’ 10-Q share counts; market values are our arithmetic.
What Bloomberg and Musk Said
Bloomberg wrote in a post on X at 17:40 UTC on 4 November: “Elon Musk was the biggest 2026 donor by far, even as voters directed their anger toward billionaires and anyone having anything to do with AI”. The ranking and the description of voters are Bloomberg’s; we read the post, not the article behind it.
Musk posted on X at 06:13 UTC on 4 November: “Guess my election-interfering space lasers didn’t work this time ๐คทโโ๏ธ”.
Musk gave America PAC $216.0 million this cycle to 14 October, according to the FEC filings in our America PAC piece.
The Texas Angle
Ars Technica’s Eric Berger wrote on 4 November that Musk’s first post after the result was “Data centers in space looking pretty appealing right now”. Berger also noted that in July 2024 Musk announced SpaceX would relocate its corporate headquarters from Hawthorne, California, to Starbase, Texas, and wrote: “No one I spoke to expects SpaceX to relocate its headquarters from Texas any time soon”.
Texas governor-elect Gina Hinojosa has pledged to crack down on the growth of data center projects, Reuters reported, as we covered in Hinojosa’s data center plans.
As we read the quote data, the move continued after midterm night: from the last after-hours trades on 3 November to the 4 November close, Tesla’s market value fell by about $25.1 billion and SpaceX’s by about $39.7 billion, by our arithmetic.
As we read the two posts on X, Bloomberg tied Musk to the result as the biggest 2026 donor, while Musk’s own post referred to space lasers; neither post gives a reason for the share moves, and we do not assign one.
Bloomberg, post on X, 4 November 2026
“Elon Musk was the biggest 2026 donor by far, even as voters directed their anger toward billionaires and anyone having anything to do with AI”
Three Implications
FOR TESLATesla closed at $385.19 on 4 November, against $398.50 on 3 November, according to Nasdaq.com.
FOR SPACEX SpaceX Class A closed at $135.92 on 4 November, against $141.31 on 3 November, according to Nasdaq.com.
FOR THE COUNT SpaceX’s figure prices Class B shares at the Class A price; on Class A alone the change is about $44.4 billion, by our arithmetic.
The framework says: “The supercycle has a ceiling now, and the ceiling is political.”
As we read it, the framework is about political limits on the AI build-out. This piece reports share prices and posts about the result; it does not assign a cause to the moves in two Musk companies. The framework does not discuss Tesla, SpaceX or the 2026 elections.
Share prices move for many reasons. The quote data do not say why either stock moved on 4 November, and we do not assign a cause; Bloomberg’s 17:40 UTC post concerns Musk’s donations, not the share prices. Market-value figures use share counts from 15 October and change with every trade. We did not read the body of Bloomberg’s article or any data behind its donor ranking.
This Week In The AI Supercycle
Anthropic’s Reality Check, The Capital Squeeze, & The New World Order
This week’s issue: for two years the AI build-out was priced as a growthstory. This week it started being priced as a credit story.
Tesla closed at $385.19 and SpaceX at $135.92 on 4 November, a change of about $125.8 billion in combined market value from their 3 November closes, by our arithmetic from Nasdaq.com data and 10-Q share counts. Bloomberg wrote that Musk was the biggest 2026 donor; Musk’s own post on the result referred to space lasers.
A note on sourcing. Share prices are Nasdaq.com quote data read after the 4 November close; share counts are from the companies’ 10-Q cover pages; quotations are from posts on X by Bloomberg and Elon Musk and from an Ars Technica article. Figures attributed to earlier pieces come from those pieces. Market values are our arithmetic.
Gennaro Cuofano is a CRO and tech executive who has worked in AI since late 2015, starting with bringing NLP, natural-language generation, voice and chatbot products to the marketing industry. His background is in law and finance: he holds a Master's degree in Law and an International MBA with an emphasis on corporate finance (LUISS Business School and the University of San Diego, 2012), and worked as a financial analyst at a real-estate investment firm in San Diego and as an assistant controller. His work focuses on business model strategy, business engineering and, more broadly, structural analysis: how companies make money, read from their own filings. He created FourWeekMBA and leads research there and at The Business Engineer, his newsletter on AI and business strategy, with over 95,000 subscribers and more than 1,000 published analyses. His writing has also appeared on Entrepreneur (for example, How to Digitize a Family Business in Europe) and HackerNoon. Find him on LinkedIn and Substack. See how we source.
