Elon Musk Reaping Rewards: Why He Was Willing to Spend Rp 5 Trillion on Trump's Campaign
Elon Musk is beginning to reap the rewards of his support for US President Donald Trump. Within days, SpaceX has won contracts valued at more than Rp 115 trillion.
Reuters reports that the US Space Force has appointed SpaceX as the winner of a US$ 4.16 billion contract for the development of satellites designed to detect air threats within US territory. This follows an announcement just days prior that SpaceX also secured a US$ 2.29 billion contract to develop military communication networks in Low Earth Orbit (LEO). In Indonesian Rupiah, the total value of these two contracts exceeds Rp 115 trillion.
These massive contracts were announced ahead of the anticipated Initial Public Offering (IPO) of Musk’s company, which is expected to raise fresh funds exceeding US$ 1.75 trillion (Rp 31,213 trillion). Naturally, news regarding these new revenue streams has had a positive impact on the SpaceX IPO prospects.
Some observers have linked the contracts won by SpaceX to the close relationship between Musk and Trump. Musk contributed nearly US$ 300 million (Rp 5.35 trillion) to support Trump’s campaign during the 2024 US presidential election.
The ‘threat detection satellite’ contract won by SpaceX is part of Trump’s ambition to build the ‘Golden Dome’ air missile defence system to protect the entire US territory, a system similar to Israel’s Iron Dome. However, the scale of Trump’s Golden Dome, which is far larger than Israel’s Iron Dome, requires new technology. Some experts estimate that such a system could require funding of up to US$ 1 trillion (Rp 17,836 trillion).
The project awarded to SpaceX is the ‘Space-Based Advanced Moving Target Indicator’, a system that collects and analyses data from various sources, including space-based sensors and communication networks.
This contract is only a small fraction of the funds Musk has obtained from US government contracts. The Washington Post previously estimated that as of February 2025, SpaceX had received US$ 38 billion (Rp 677 trillion) from the US government in the form of procurement contracts, loans, subsidies, and tax credits.