A Guardian analysis found that between May 31 and June 12, 2026, Elon Musk posted, replied, or shared other people's posts about race and immigration 303 times on X. More than three-quarters of those posts focused on UK politics. On June 12, the same day his company SpaceX went public on the stock market, raising $85.7 billion—the largest amount ever raised in an IPO, or initial public offering (when a private company sells shares to the public for the first time).

On the night of June 11, just before SpaceX's listing, Musk shared a video of a far-right UK politician calling for migrants to be deported if they could not support themselves financially. That single day alone, he posted about UK immigration nearly a dozen times. Over the same thirteen days, he posted only 114 times about SpaceX itself.

The IPO in Numbers

SpaceX set its share price at $135 each, making the company worth about $1.77 trillion on its first day of trading. The $85.7 billion raised exceeded SpaceX's initial goal of $75 billion. The company did something unusual: it reserved a large portion of shares for individual investors rather than big investment firms. This required SpaceX to run a roadshow—essentially a sales tour—to convince regular people to buy in. The result made Musk worth over $1 trillion, likely the first person ever to reach that threshold.

What Was Happening in the UK

Musk's posting surge happened at a tense moment in British politics. Two high-profile crimes—the murder of a teenager named Henry Nowak by Vickrum Digwa, and knife attacks that sparked riots in Belfast—had put immigration and security at the center of national debate. British Prime Minister Keir Starmer publicly said Musk was trying to stir up division in the country.

This is not the first time Musk has involved himself in UK immigration debates. In September 2025, he gave a video speech to a London rally against immigration that drew about 110,000 people, expressing support for far-right figures including Tommy Robinson, according to Reuters. He has also accused UK police of unfairly policing opinions about immigration, per BBC reporting.

Why This Matters

The numbers show something clear: during the two weeks when SpaceX was preparing to go public, Musk spent much more time posting about UK immigration than about his own company's massive milestone. He posted 200 times about the UK alone, but only 114 times about SpaceX in total.

SpaceX's choice to sell large numbers of shares to regular people is worth noting. Those ordinary investors are the kind of people who use social media. Musk's platform, X, is where many of them spend time and form opinions. It is not clear whether Musk's political posts actually changed how many shares people wanted to buy. But the connection between what Musk posts and what ordinary investors see and think about is now obvious.

When the British Prime Minister publicly criticized Musk by name, it signaled something new: British leaders are no longer treating his involvement in their politics as a quirk or joke. They are treating it as a deliberate strategy that deserves an official response. What happens next—whether other countries regulate how foreign billionaires use social media to influence domestic politics—remains an open question.