As Musk works to slash federal spending, his personal corporations have obtained billions in authorities contracts

As billionaire businessman Elon Musk has been main an unprecedented effort to slash authorities spending, his personal corporations have, over the past a number of years, obtained an rising quantity of funding by authorities contracts, in line with federal spending information.

Over the past decade, Musk’s corporations SpaceX and Tesla have been awarded not less than $18 billion in federal contracts, in line with spending information — with SpaceX successful greater than $17 million value of contracts since 2015.

Federal contracts to SpaceX doubled at first of the Biden administration, going from $1.1 billion within the 2020 fiscal yr to $2.2 billion within the 2021 fiscal yr. The contracts continued to develop below Biden, reaching $3.7 billion through the 2024 fiscal yr.

Since President Donald Trump took workplace final month, Musk, as the pinnacle of the Division of Authorities Effectivity, has wasted no time finishing up Trump’s effort to trim the federal authorities, together with allegedly terminating tons of of federal contracts throughout a number of businesses and providing “Fork within the Street” buyouts to 2 million authorities workers within the type of a deferred resignation supply.

Within the first two weeks of the brand new administration, DOGE’s X account claimed it terminated $1 billion value of DEIA-related contracts throughout 30 federal businesses — although the accuracy of the declare is difficult to confirm given its obscure nature. Musk himself has not mentioned the specifics of the cuts.

Final week, DOGE’s official social media account claimed it saved greater than $270 million in federal spending by terminating greater than 100 contracts, together with cancelling media subscriptions to POLITICO, The New York Instances and the Related Press that Musk and his allies say have price the State Division, the Treasury Division, and NASA as much as thousands and thousands of {dollars}.

White Home Press Secretary Karoline Leavitt, requested final week by a reporter about Musk’s monetary pursuits with the federal authorities and his disclosure necessities, urged that the tech billionaire himself would decide potential conflicts of curiosity together with his companies.

“If Elon Musk comes throughout a battle of curiosity with the contracts and the funding that DOGE is overseeing, then Elon will excuse himself from these contracts,” Leavitt mentioned, once more stressing that he “has abided by all relevant legal guidelines.”

Musk’s efforts to chop what he calls wasteful spending on the nation’s house company comes as his SpaceX firm is the company’s second greatest contractor. Over the previous decade, SpaceX has earned greater than $13 billion in contracts from NASA, second solely to the quantity awarded to the California Institute of Expertise.

In 2021, SpaceX netted a serious multibillion-dollar contract below the Biden administration to ship the primary lady and the primary individual of coloration to the moon as a part of NASA’s Artemis program, whose long-term is the exploration of Mars.

And final yr, SpaceX was chosen to construct a car to convey the Worldwide House Station out of its orbit when its operational life ends in 2030 — a contract with a possible worth of $843 million.

SpaceX can be one in all NASA’s greatest contractors for its house transportation service, for which it has been paid billions to hold astronauts and cargo to and from house stations over time.

Musk’s firm can be a Protection Division contractor, having obtained tons of of thousands and thousands of {dollars}’ value of protection contracts to offer launch companies for the Air Power through the first Trump administration, in 2018.

SpaceX’s protection contracts then grew below the Biden administration, doubling from $856 million in 2023 to $1.8 billion in 2024 as the corporate gained new contracts for the Nationwide Safety House Launch program. In all, SpaceX has earned greater than $5 billion in contracts from the Protection Division.

Representatives for Musk, SpaceX and Tesla didn’t reply to a request for remark from ABC Information.

SpaceX President and COO Gwynne Shotwell mentioned in November that SpaceX has a symbiotic relationship with NASA, who’s the corporate’s largest buyer.

“We earned that,” she mentioned. “We bid it, we have been the bottom value, finest bidder, we gained and we execute. It is not a foul factor to serve the U.S. authorities with nice functionality and merchandise.”

Musk’s electrical car firm Tesla has additionally obtained federal contracts over the past decade that complete roughly $700,000, together with Common Companies Administration contracts for Tesla’s photo voltaic panels, contract information exhibits.

Some ethics consultants have voiced issues about potential conflicts of pursuits that might come up from Musk’s deep enterprise ties with the federal authorities and the affect he has within the Trump administration. However the public might by no means know the true extent of Musk’s enterprise relationship with the federal government, as a result of he was employed as what’s often known as a “particular authorities worker.”

Not like cupboard degree officers and most high-ranking political appointees who’re required to publicly confide in the Workplace of Authorities Ethics their monetary pursuits and their ethics agreements as a way to keep away from conflicts of curiosity, particular authorities workers undergo the OGE’s inner monetary disclosure and ethics overview course of, with out disclosing any of it to the general public.

Musk has promised transparency inside DOGE’s work — however up to now that is been largely restricted to DOGE’s social media account posting fast overviews of federal contracts it has terminated. Its official web site, doge.gov, nonetheless doesn’t have any content material, merely displaying textual content saying “The folks voted for main reform.”

Noah Bookbinder, president of the federal government ethics advocacy group Residents for Duty and Ethics in Washington, pressured the significance of transparency from Musk and DOGE given his deep monetary ties within the federal authorities.

“Is he going to have an incentive to chop different authorities spending, however not the spending that advantages him?” Bookbinder mentioned. “That is the type of decision-making, based mostly on private curiosity, that we by no means wish to see in authorities. We do not know for a indisputable fact that that is occurring, however we all know that there is a potential for that.”

“A method to give some consolation there could be for him to be completely clear about what his pursuits are and really clear concerning the steps that he is taking to keep away from conflicts of curiosity,” Bookbinder mentioned.