X ‘barely breaking even,’ Elon Musk reportedly emailed staff

Social platform X is “barely breaking even,” owner Elon Musk emailed employees, the Wall Street Journal reported.

“Our user growth is stagnant, revenue is unimpressive, and we’re barely breaking even,” Musk reportedly said. In a story about banks preparing to sell billions of dollars in debt borrowed by X, WSJ printed other parts of the email:

“Over the last few months, we’ve witnessed the power of X in shaping national conversations and outcomes…We are also seeing other platforms begin to adopt our commitment to free speech and unbiased truth.”

The latter sentence refers to Meta, which is removing fact-checks in favor of community notes, which X already has.

Elon Musk has denied writing this to staff, posting on X, “This report is false. I sent no such email. WSJ is lying.”

Since his takeover of then-Twitter in 2022, Mashable has reported that X’s user base has declined, fleeing for alternatives like Bluesky, especially after the 2024 U.S. presidential election. Advertisers have been no different, with the trend of companies removing ads on X expected to continue this year.

The WSJ article stated that Morgan Stanley bankers have reached out to investors ahead of a $3 billion sale of debt it and other banks lent to X to complete Musk’s buyout in 2022. Investors have allegedly expressed interest in buying the debt as they see X’s financial position on an “upward trajectory,” WSJ reported, likely because of Musk’s alliance with President Trump.

Musk has been in the news this week for other reasons, including his attendance at Trump’s inauguration on Monday and the “Roman salute” he gave during a speech.