Elon Musk’s IPO prospectus for Space X also includes, for the first time under his ownership, a clear indication of the fiscal health of social media platform X, formerly Twitter.
The numbers don’t measure up to before Musk, said to be the world’s richest man, took ownership in 2022.
But the biggest change might be that X is no longer seen as the product, it is a data and distribution layer for Musk’s AI play, Grok.
X, according to the prospectus, sits within the AI segment with Grok, data licensing, subscriptions and AI infrastructure.
The AI segment generated revenue of $US3.2 billion in 2025, up about 22% on the year before.
The actual advertising revenue for X isn’t stated but analysts say it’s reasonable to assume about $US1.8 billion, well below the pre-Musk era of $US4.5 billion when it was a public company.
eMarketer earlier this month put X's 2025 advertising revenue at $US2.26, the first rise since Musk's 2022 acquisition.
But it’s too soon to call it a rebound. “Even as brands return and new advertisers start spending, X’s ad revenues will still be smaller in 2025 than they were prior to Elon Musk’s acquisition,” according to eMarketer.
Many of the bigger advertisers had pulled out of X on band safety concerns when content moderation controls were eased, in the name of free speech, when Musk took over in 2022.
Musk then alleged in legal action that the advertisers and big agencies unlawfully boycotted his social media platform.
The antitrust lawsuit took aim at the now-disbanded GARM (Global Alliance for Responsible Media) and the World Federation of Advertisers (WFA) for “coercive exercise of market power”.
WPP, Publicis Groupe and denstu eventually did a deal with regulators in the US stopping prosecution for allegedly unlawfully colluding to impose “brand safety” standards across the digital advertising industry.
The Federal Trade Commission (FTC) said the agencies, together with their primary competitors Omnicom and IPG, operated through trade associations to establish a common “Brand Safety Floor” to target “misinformation”.
The FTC believes the advertising industry has been “plagued by deliberate, coordinated efforts” to steer ads away from certain news organisations, media outlets and social media networks.
This is seen as a reference to efforts by president Donald Trump's administration to root out political bias against conservative voices and causes.
According to the Space X prospectus, the social media part of the business in April began a phased roll-out of a new advertising platform
“The new Ads Manager is built to help advertisers launch better campaigns, faster, with stronger ROI,” the prospectus said. “Powered by AI, the new systems enable more precise, relevant and dynamic ad delivery.”
The prospectus said advertising remains a core monetisation channel for the AI segment, with revenue driven by the ability to deliver highly relevant ads.
“We aim to grow advertising revenue per user by strengthening performance advertising, expanding AI‑driven targeting and measurement, and introducing richer ad formats and creative tools,” the prospectus said.
“A central focus of ours is making ads feel like content—contextually relevant, aligned with user interests, and integrated into real‑time conversations.
“Grok increasingly supports this strategy by helping advertisers with campaign creation, creative optimisation, and alignment with trending topics and user intent.
“While these factors help us drive advertising revenue, the pricing of our advertising products is also affected by other factors, including the global economy and the highly competitive nature of our industry.
“We believe continued investment in AI‑powered advertising will further improve advertiser ROI while further enhancing user experience.”
Have something to say on this? Share your views in the comments section below. Or if you have a news story or tip-off, drop us a line at adnews@yaffa.com.au
Sign up to the AdNews newsletter, like us on Facebook or follow us on Twitter for breaking stories and campaigns throughout the day.