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Elon Musk’s X is reportedly discussing a new round of financing that would value the social media company at $44 billion, the price that its owner paid for the company formerly known as Twitter in 2022.
The discussions are still ongoing and details are subject to change, Bloomberg News reports, citing people familiar with the matter. If completed, it would be the first known round of investment in the social media company since Musk’s acquisition.
That valuation would mark a major turnaround for X, which struggled to retain advertisers in the face of its owner’s controversial comments and companies’ concerns over hate speech and misinformation. Fidelity Investments, which was one of 19 co-investors aiding Musk’s 2022 purchase, marked down X’s valuation by almost 72% as of the end of October.
But a lot has changed over the last few months.
For starters, President Donald Trump won the 2024 election and took office last month, giving Musk unofficial leadership over the Department of Government Efficiency and immense access to the federal government. Tesla’s (TSLA-2.07%) stock has soared since Election Day; SpaceX in December was valued at $350 billion, making it the biggest tech startup in the world.
Musk’s artificial intelligence startup, xAI, most recently raised $6 billion at a $50 billion valuation, but the company is eyeing a potential fundraising round that could value it at $75 billion. X has a roughly $6 billion stake in xAI, according to Bloomberg.
On Monday evening, xAI revealed its Grok 3 AI model, which it claims can outperform rivals from Google (GOOGL-0.55%), OpenAI, Anthropic, and DeepSeek. X includes access to Grok in its subscription plans and raised its top Premium+ plan to almost $50 per month following Grok 3's release.
Although advertising revenue reportedly fell by as much as 28% year-over-year in 2024, several major companies have returned to X, including Apple (AAPL+0.20%). Linda Yaccarino, who was named X’s CEO after serving as NBCUniversals’ head of global advertising for more than a decade, claimed in January that 90% of advertisers who boycotted the platform are “back on X.”
But not everything is rosy for Musk and X. In January, just days before the Trump administration took over, the Securities and Exchange Commission filed new charges against Musk over his acquisition of Twitter, accusing him of underpaying investors by at least $150 million.