Tesla's ad spend on X drops to near-zero
Tesla has nearly stopped spending on ads with Elon Musk's platform X (formerly Twitter).
After dropping $400,000 in 2024, the company spent only $10,000 in the first two months of 2025.
If this pace holds, Tesla's yearly ad spend on X could be just $60,000—a massive drop unless something changes.
Tesla's ad strategy shift
For years, Tesla relied more on hype and Musk's own voice than paid ads. But as EV competition heats up and sales slow, they've started testing out ads for the company's cars—not just on X but also YouTube and Google.
Even after cutting back on X, about 700 Tesla ads were still running across Google at the start of this year.
SpaceX, xAI, and Musk-owned security firms
There's more: In 2024, Tesla paid SpaceX $800,000 for private jet use; that fell to $40,000 by early 2025.
Payments to Musk-owned security firms rose to $2.8 million last year.
Meanwhile xAI (another Musk venture) bought nearly $200 million worth of Megapack batteries from Tesla in 2024 and added almost $37 million more early this year for its Tennessee data center.