Elon Musk has settled two Austin, Texas lawsuits alleging his 2024 $1 million-per-day voter sweepstakes was fraudulent, with settlement terms kept confidential. The suits claimed winners were not chosen randomly and that the promotion was designed to harvest personal data.
Elon Musk has agreed to settle two lawsuits filed in Austin, Texas, stemming from his 2024 pledge to award $1 million per day to randomly selected registered voters in swing states, with the terms of the settlement remaining undisclosed.
The legal challenges centered on allegations that the lottery, run through Musk's America PAC, was fraudulent — specifically that winners were not chosen by chance, as Musk publicly claimed.
During a court hearing related to a separate challenge brought by Philadelphia's District Attorney — who sued to halt the giveaway on the grounds that it constituted an illegal lottery — a PAC representative offered testimony that directly undercut Musk's stated rationale for the sweepstakes.
Chris Gober, a representative for America PAC, told the presiding judge that "The $1 million recipients are not chosen by chance … We know exactly who will be announced as the $1 million recipient today and tomorrow." That statement contradicted Musk's public characterization of the drawings as random.
The two Arizona residents who brought the now-settled suits argued they would not have signed the petition required to enter the sweepstakes had they known the selection process was not random. They accused Musk and America PAC of using the promotion primarily to harvest personal data.
According to the plaintiffs, the petition "places no limitations on America PAC's use of or sale of the personal data it collects, nor does it provide any additional information about the planned use of data." That allegation positioned the giveaway less as a civic gesture and more as a data-acquisition vehicle.
The settlement amount has not been made public, and neither Musk nor America PAC has issued a statement explaining the terms or acknowledging wrongdoing. Court records confirming the settlement were filed in Austin.
The resolution closes the two civil cases but does not necessarily resolve broader legal scrutiny the giveaway attracted. The Philadelphia District Attorney's effort to stop the promotion raised separate questions about election law and the legality of cash-for-signatures arrangements in the context of voter registration drives.
The episode adds to a pattern of legal exposure surrounding America PAC's activities during the 2024 election cycle, reinforcing scrutiny over the methods political action committees use to engage — and collect data from — prospective supporters. Whether additional regulatory or prosecutorial action follows remains to be seen.
Marc Sabatini is a staff writer at TechEchelon covering enterprise software, cybersecurity, and the regulatory beats that shape both. He focuses on the deal flow and policy decisions that move markets.
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