SpaceX, which now owns X, reported the platform's advertising revenue for the first time since Elon Musk took the company private, revealing just how much the business has shrunk under his ownership. X brought in $367 million in advertising revenue in the second quarter of 2026, a modest rise from the previous quarter but far below the $1.08 billion Twitter reported for the same period in 2022, before Musk's takeover.

The decline reflects the turbulence that has followed Musk's acquisition, including mass layoffs, lawsuits against advertisers who withdrew spending, and a public tirade in which he told wary ad buyers to leave the platform. X's CFO Bret Johnsen credited an "overhauled" ad tech platform for the recent quarter-on-quarter uptick, though the topic received only a brief mention during the earnings call. Advertising is now a minor part of SpaceX's overall business, dwarfed by $4.3 billion from Starlink and $2.2 billion from its AI division, largely driven by its deal with Anthropic.