Elon Musk posted that to reach the smartest people in the world, one should advertise on X. This is a recurring advertising pitch he has used, previously stating that X gathers the most influential and highest purchasing power audiences, and that key decision-makers do not use short video platforms, with important announcements happening on X.

Recently, the advertising business roadshow highlighted Grok matching as a selling point: using models to understand user interests, delivering dynamic product ads, and planning to insert ads into Grok responses, with advertisers only needing to upload materials while the model handles the rest. He stated that X's audience purchasing power is in the trillions, targeting CEOs, heads of state, and real-world opinion leaders. Third-party and regulatory documents show that Twitter's advertising revenue was about $4.5 billion annually before the acquisition; after a significant decline from 2023 to 2024, it is expected to rebound to a range of $1.8 billion to $2.3 billion in 2025, still significantly below pre-acquisition peaks. Quarterly disclosures indicate advertising revenue of about $340 million to $370 million, still weaker than historical periods. The head of advertising previously stated that the vast majority of the top 100 advertisers have returned, but independent monitoring shows that actual spending recovery in the U.S. is uneven.

X's advertising is now incorporated into a larger aerospace and AI report, with subscription and data licensing growth outpacing advertising, leading to a decrease in advertising's share of combined revenue. After brand safety controversies, the platform emphasized that ads only appear in positions allowed by advertisers and used third-party effectiveness data to persuade media agencies.

In market mechanics, buyers are brands looking to reach executives and policymakers, while sellers are X, bundling timelines with Grok; the driving force is founder traffic and model targeting, rather than the brand safety commitments from before the acquisition. Funds are flowing from advertising budgets to the platform, while also being diverted by subscriptions and APIs. Benefiting are those who can write "smart people are here" as a premium sales narrative, while pressured are the advertising expenditures that have not yet returned to 2021 levels, and brands that allocate budgets to short videos and search.

Source: Public Information