The world’s richest man gave $5 million on May 8 to V-PAC: Victors, Not Victims — joining Jeff Yass, Ratmir Timashev and William Ackman among the billionaires who have supplied most of the nearly $42 million behind Vivek Ramaswamy’s run against Democrat Amy Acton.
Tesla and SpaceX chief executive Elon Musk gave $5 million on May 8 to the super PAC working to elect Vivek Ramaswamy governor of Ohio, according to a campaign finance report the committee filed with the Federal Election Commission on Wednesday. Listed under Musk’s title as SpaceX’s chief executive, the contribution makes the world’s richest person the newest billionaire bankrolling Ramaswamy’s bid.
The money went to V-PAC: Victors, Not Victims, which its own website calls the #1 Super PAC supporting Ramaswamy’s campaign. Unlike a candidate’s committee, a super PAC can raise unlimited sums and spend them to support a candidate, but it cannot coordinate with the campaign or give money to it directly.
For Musk, it is a first. He and Ramaswamy were tapped together to lead the Department of Government Efficiency after President Donald Trump’s 2024 election win, but Ramaswamy left the cost-cutting effort before Trump took office and launched his campaign for governor. NOTUS, which first reported the donation, described the $5 million as Musk’s first contribution to his former DOGE partner.
A handful of billionaires supply most of the money
Musk is far from alone. FEC records show V-PAC has raised nearly $42 million this election cycle, and most of it has come from a small group of ultra-wealthy men. Pennsylvania investor Jeff Yass, a co-founder of the trading firm Susquehanna International Group, has given $20 million — including two $5 million checks in the first quarter of this year. Ratmir Timashev, the Russian-born co-founder of the software company Veeam whom Forbes describes as a billionaire, gave $5 million on May 12. Pershing Square hedge-fund manager William Ackman gave $1 million on June 8. Interactive Brokers founder Thomas Peterffy, another billionaire, added $100,000. Stone Ridge Asset Management founder Ross Stevens has given $6 million.
Those four billionaires — Yass, Musk, Timashev and Ackman — account for $31 million, or nearly three of every four dollars V-PAC has raised. Add Stevens’ contributions, and five men have supplied roughly $37 million, close to seven of every eight dollars the group has taken in.
Several of V-PAC’s largest donors have direct financial stakes in matters Ohio’s next governor would help decide. Timashev has said publicly that he wants to turn Ohio into a hub for artificial intelligence — an industry built on the data centers Ramaswamy has campaigned to expand, and in which Ramaswamy himself holds investments across the sector he would regulate. Corporate and industry money has flowed in as well: the Sports Betting Alliance, an industry group, has given $650,000; Marysville-based lawn-care company The Scotts Company gave $250,000 in January; and building-products distributor ABC Supply Co. gave $500,000.
A billionaire’s race
Ramaswamy is himself a billionaire, with a net worth estimated at roughly $1.8 billion, and he has loaned his own campaign $25 million this year — about 83% of what the campaign raised in 2026. Because the money is structured as a loan, he can repay himself from funds the campaign raises later.
His Democratic opponent, former state health director Dr. Amy Acton, is not a billionaire. Her campaign has built a record-setting Democratic fundraising total for an Ohio governor’s race on small-dollar donations, with an average gift of a few dozen dollars.
Ramaswamy, the Republican nominee, is running to succeed term-limited Gov. Mike DeWine and faces Acton in the Nov. 3 general election. The nonpartisan Cook Political Report recently shifted its rating of the contest from “Lean Republican” to “Toss-Up.”
V-PAC has already spent on Ramaswamy’s behalf. It ran a $3 million ad campaign spotlighting Trump’s endorsement, and TiffinOhio.net reported last month that one of its ads made false claims about Acton’s role in Ohio’s COVID-19 shutdowns — decisions DeWine has repeatedly said were his alone. The group also paid for a Times Square billboard urging New Yorkers to move to Ohio.
Because super PACs must disclose their donors, the filings offer a public ledger of who is financing what is on pace to be the most expensive governor’s race in Ohio history — a contest in which a small circle of the country’s wealthiest people, together with the candidate’s own fortune, now accounts for most of the money on one side. Acton has led or run even with Ramaswamy in recent public polling despite the spending gap.
