Elon Musk’s social media platform X (formerly Twitter) is still struggling to recover its advertising business. According to the company’s latest financial results, X earned $367 million from advertising during the three months ending June 30, 2026.
This is a small improvement compared to the $343 million earned in the previous quarter. However, it is still much lower than the $426 million generated during the same period last year.
The difference becomes even bigger when compared with Twitter before Elon Musk bought the company. In the second quarter of 2022, Twitter earned $1.08 billion from advertising. This means X is now making only about one-third of the advertising revenue it generated before Musk’s takeover.
New Advertising Technology Shows Small Improvement
During the company’s earnings call, Bret Johnsen, Chief Financial Officer of SpaceX, said the small increase in advertising revenue came after X rebuilt its advertising technology platform.
The company had previously explained that rebuilding the ad system temporarily affected advertising sales. The new platform is expected to improve how advertisements are managed and delivered, but company executives did not spend much time discussing advertising during the earnings presentation.
X Is No Longer Relying Only on Ads
Since Elon Musk purchased Twitter and renamed it X, the company’s business strategy has changed significantly.
Instead of depending mainly on advertising, X is now focusing more on paid subscriptions. The company actively promotes its Premium+ subscription, which gives users extra features and removes advertisements from the platform.
However, the company did not reveal how much money it earned from subscriptions. It also did not share updated numbers for its daily active users, making it difficult to measure how the platform is performing overall.
Major Changes After Musk’s Takeover
After acquiring Twitter, Elon Musk made several major changes to the company. He laid off thousands of employees as part of efforts to reduce costs and reorganize the business.
X also filed a lawsuit against several advertisers and an advertising industry organization. The company claimed they had worked together to organize an illegal advertising boycott against the platform.
However, a US judge dismissed the lawsuit in March 2026.
Musk also created controversy after publicly telling advertisers to stay away from the platform during an interview in which he used strong language in response to criticism from advertisers.
Advertisers Are Returning, But Revenue Remains Low
In recent months, X has said that many large advertisers have returned to the platform.
The company’s advertising chief announced in January 2026 that 97 of X’s 100 biggest advertisers were once again buying ads, with some companies reportedly spending even more than they did before Musk acquired Twitter.
Despite those claims, the latest financial results show that advertising revenue is still far below what Twitter earned before the takeover. This suggests that while advertisers may be returning, the overall advertising business has not fully recovered.
Advertising Is Now a Small Part of SpaceX’s Business
Advertising is no longer one of the biggest sources of revenue for SpaceX’s broader business operations.
During the same quarter:
- The company’s Starlink connectivity business generated $4.29 billion in revenue.
- The space division earned $962 million.
- The AI business brought in $2.56 billion, including $2.19 billion from AI infrastructure and AI solutions.
These figures show that while X continues to improve slowly, advertising now represents only a small portion of the company’s overall revenue, with businesses like Starlink and artificial intelligence contributing much more to its financial performance.
