Tesla’s ad spend on X has shrunk to almost nothing

Recent regulatory filings reveal a significant decline in Tesla's advertising expenditure on the social media platform X, owned by Elon Musk. In 2024, the company allocated $400,000 for ads, but projections suggest that spending could plummet to a mere $60,000 in 2025 if current trends continue. In the initial months of 2025, Tesla spent just $10,000 on X advertisements, a stark contrast to the $200,000 spent in the same timeframe the previous year. The automaker's advertising efforts have notably slowed after the first two months, with an additional $200,000 spent throughout the rest of 2024. Tesla had historically avoided advertising until CEO Elon Musk responded to shareholder demands in 2023, resulting in ads appearing on platforms like Google and YouTube in late 2023 and early 2024. While it's uncertain if spending has rebounded since February, Google's Ads Transparency database indicates that Tesla still maintains around 700 active ads across its services. Tesla did not provide comments regarding their advertising strategy. In other financial developments, Tesla disclosed payments made to SpaceX for private jet usage, totaling approximately $800,000. However, this expense is also on track to decrease, with only $40,000 paid to SpaceX for the jet in early 2025. Additionally, Tesla reported a substantial security expenditure of $2.8 million in 2024 for services provided by a security firm owned by Musk, an increase from the previous year. This amount only accounts for part of the overall security costs associated with Musk's travels. The most significant financial transaction between Musk's companies was xAI's payment of $198.3 million to Tesla, primarily for Megapack battery storage units used at xAI’s data center in Tennessee. Furthermore, xAI continued its purchasing trend into 2025 with an additional $36.8 million for Megapack products. Kimbal Musk, Elon’s brother and a board member at Tesla, also benefited from these transactions, as the company paid his drone operation, Nova Sky Stories, $300,000 for a performance during Tesla’s "We, Robot" event in October 2024.