Elon Musk’s social media platform, X, has reportedly soared back to a $44bn valuation after a recent funding round, marking a dramatic turnaround from its valuation just months prior.
The value of Elon Musk‘s social media platform, X, has reportedly soared back to the $44bn he paid for it, in a dramatic reversal of fortunes since the billionaire became a key ally of Donald Trump.
Elon Musk is a South African-born entrepreneur and business magnate.
He co-founded PayPal, which was later sold to eBay for $1.5 billion.
Musk then founded SpaceX, with the goal of reducing space transportation costs and enabling the colonization of Mars.
In 2008, he co-founded Tesla, Inc., a leading electric vehicle manufacturer.
Musk has also been involved in other ventures, including Neuralink, a neurotechnology company, and The Boring Company, which aims to reduce traffic congestion in cities.
A Dramatic Turnaround
In a recent secondary deal, investors valued the site formerly known as Twitter at $44bn (£33.9bn), according to a Financial Times report. This marks a significant turnaround from the platform’s valuation of just $10bn by existing investor Fidelity Investments in late September.
Musk took control of what was then Twitter in October 2022 and subsequently rebranded the platform as X. Since taking over, Musk has loosened the site’s moderation policies, which prompted many advertisers to pause or leave. However, he has since sued a global advertising alliance and several big companies, including Unilever, Mars, and CVS Health, accusing them of unlawfully conspiring to shun the social network.
A New Era for X
The new $44bn valuation represents a remarkable turnaround for the platform and its investors, which include Andreessen Horowitz, Sequoia Capital, 8VC, Goanna Capital, and Fidelity Investments. The secondary deal will set a price for the primary fund raise of $2bn.
Institutions that provided loans to help fund Musk‘s X takeover also received a boost after Musk gave a 25% stake in his artificial intelligence start-up, xAI, to them early last year. Since then, xAI has obtained a valuation of $45bn, providing new security to lenders and boosting the updated valuation of X.
A Shift in Musk’s Business Empire
Revenues at the social media platform have fallen since Musk‘s takeover, but it posted adjusted profits of $1.2bn last year. Meanwhile, Musk‘s vast stake in Tesla is no longer the most valuable asset in his business empire, with the electric car company’s market value continuing to fall as investors sell off stock and customers turned away in disgust at his politics.
Musk‘s stake in SpaceX, his private rockets and satellites business, is now the tycoon’s largest asset for the first time in five years, according to Forbes.
- theguardian.com | Value of Elon Musk’s X ‘rebounds to $44bn purchase price’
