SpaceX Earnings Reveal X's Incredible Shrinking Ad Biz 08/06/2026
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SpaceX Earnings Reveal X's Incredible Shrinking Ad Biz
by Colin Kirkland
August 5, 2026
While SpaceX's most recent earnings report barely<br>mentions X -- the social media platform previously known as Twitter -- it is clear that the company's advertising revenue has fallen hundreds of millions of dollars since Elon Musk took over in<br>2022.<br>Tucked into SpaceX’s “AI Segment” category, X’s second-quarter ad earnings were $367 million between April and June of this year. While this number is an<br>improvement over the previous quarter ($343 million), prior to SpaceX becoming a publicly traded company, it marks an $83 million year-over-year decline.<br>X's current quarterly ad revenue has<br>dropped even more drastically compared to the last quarter before Musk bought the popular social-media platform. In the second quarter of 2022, Twitter reported $1.08 billion in ad revenue, roughly<br>$713 million more than Q2 2026.<br>advertisement<br>advertisement
Compared to SpaceX's additional monetization streams, X's ad revenue is miniscule. According to the earnings report, the company made $2.2 billion from its AI<br>division, $4.3 billion from Starlink, and $962 million from its “space” division.<br>The company’s earnings report and its call with analysts on Tuesday did not mention<br>X’s ad business, aside from SpaceX CFO Bret Johnsen relating X’s quarterly ad revenue boost to a recently “overhauled” ad-tech platform.<br>There is also a vague reference<br>to X’s subscription revenues, which the report says saw “an increase” as the company continues to push an ad-free Premium+ tier.<br>Over the past year, X has seemingly tried to<br>reclaim its reputation as a trustworthy place for advertisers and creators.<br>The platform has rebuilt its Android app and rolled out two stand-alone<br>apps for private messaging and digital payments, while trying to boost original content by cutting aggregator payouts, labeling paid partnership posts, decluttering the main feed, and introducing a million-dollar fund intended to incentivize creators to livestream on the<br>platform via a new video editor.<br>Still, the once-profitable social platform has not yet been able to rekindle the advertising dollars as it once did.
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