Washington: Billionaire Elon Musk has taken a sarcastic swipe at his own efforts to help Republicans in the US midterm elections after the party suffered a major setback, joking that his supposed "election-interfering space lasers" had failed to deliver the desired results.

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"Guess my election-interfering space lasers didn't work this time," Musk posted on X on Wednesday, adding a shrug emoji. The remark came after Democrats made sweeping gains, winning control of both the US House of Representatives and the Senate in a major blow to President Donald Trump's political agenda.

Musk had spent hundreds of millions of dollars backing Republican candidates and political groups during the election cycle, emerging as the biggest individual donor in a federal election cycle since unlimited election spending was permitted in 2010, according to campaign finance tracker OpenSecrets.

His contributions reportedly amounted to nearly $500 million, with much of the money channelled through his Republican-leaning America Political Action Committee (PAC) and the Republican Senate Leadership Fund (SLF).
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Musk-backed Republican candidate loses in Texas

One of the significant setbacks for Republicans came in Texas, where Democrat James Talarico defeated Republican candidate Ken Paxton, a close Trump ally. Talarico's victory marked the first time a Democrat had won statewide office in Texas since 1994.

Musk's financial backing had also extended to the Texas Senate race. The Republican Senate Leadership Fund used $158 million in contributions from the billionaire in September to support Paxton's campaign.

Addressing supporters at a victory rally in Austin, Talarico took aim at some of the most powerful figures in American politics.

"In this race, we went up against our own Goliaths. The richest man in the world, the most powerful man in the world and the entire Washington, DC establishment," he said.

In another pointed attack, Talarico said his campaign had faced more than $300 million in spending, negative advertisements, smear campaigns, foreign bots and AI-generated deepfakes.
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'Data centres in space' remark adds to Musk's sarcasm

Musk followed his post about the failed space lasers with another remark on X: "Data centers in space looking pretty appealing right now."

The comments came amid uncertainty over the future of the technology sector following the Democrats' gains. Stock futures fell overnight as investors assessed the possible implications of the election results for the technology industry and the booming data centre business.

The midterm outcome marks a significant reversal in Washington, giving Democrats control of both chambers of Congress and greater power to challenge Trump's legislative agenda.

(With AFP inputs)