Tesla’s advert spend on X has shrunk to virtually nothing

Tesla spent $400,000 promoting on Elon Musk’s social media platform X in 2024, in response to a brand new regulatory filing. However the automaker seems to be on observe to spend only a fraction of that in 2025 as gross sales have struggled.

Within the first two months of 2025, Tesla spent $10,000 on X advertisements, placing it on observe to spend solely $60,000 yearly except it radically will increase its promoting for the rest of the yr. Throughout the identical time interval final yr, it had already spent $200,000 on X, Tesla disclosed. Tesla’s spending slowed significantly after these first two months, paying one other $200,000 throughout the rest of 2024. 

Tesla by no means used to promote. It wasn’t till CEO Elon Musk gave in to shareholder stress in 2023 that he stated his firm would attempt it out. Adverts for the corporate’s vehicles began exhibiting up in Google outcomes and on YouTube in late 2023 and early 2024, and likewise on X.

It’s unclear if spending has picked up on X since February, although Google’s Adverts Transparency database exhibits Tesla nonetheless has round 700 energetic ads across Google’s properties like Search and YouTube. The corporate didn’t reply to a request for remark.

Elsewhere in Musk world, Tesla disclosed that it paid SpaceX round $800,000 for using one of many rocket firm’s personal jets — an settlement that Musk often takes nice benefit of with a purpose to shuttle across the headquarters of the varied corporations he oversees. That stated, even that expense appears to be on observe to be lowered in 2025. Tesla solely paid SpaceX round $40,000 by February 2025 for using the jet.

Defending Musk throughout all that journey is just not low-cost, both. Tesla revealed within the proxy that it paid a safety firm owned by Musk $2.8 million in 2024 — a rise from the $2.4 million it paid when it first engaged the safety firm in 2023. That safety firm earned $500,000 from Tesla by February 2025, and like final yr, the automaker notes that this solely represents a “portion of the whole price of safety companies regarding Mr. Musk.”

However the greatest transaction between Musk corporations final yr got here from xAI, which really paid Tesla $198.3 million. Almost all of that was for Tesla’s Megapack battery storage merchandise, which xAI is using at its data center in Tennessee. xAI paid Tesla one other $36.8 million for Megapack merchandise by the primary two months of this yr, too.

Tesla’s success has been good for Musk’s brother Kimbal, too. Not solely is he a board member, however the brand new proxy submitting revealed that Tesla paid his drone firm, Nova Sky Tales, $300,000 for the show it put on on the automaker’s “We, Robotic” occasion in October 2024.