India, Oct. 26 -- Elon Musk, the world's richest person, has given more than $445 million to political groups ahead of the November 3 US midterm elections, a sum American law allows because its courts treat political spending as a form of free speech. India, the UK, Canada and Germany regulate political money in other ways.

That total includes $77 million in the first two weeks of October to America PAC, Musk's own super PAC, Bloomberg reported. A super PAC is a political committee that can raise and spend unlimited sums to support or oppose candidates, as long as it does not give money to the candidates or coordinate with their campaigns. America PAC, for example, has spent millions of dollars on canvassing, phone calls, text messages a...