Elon Musk’s chaotic first year at Twitter leaves X Corp. with shaky finances

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One year after Elon Musk’s $44 billion purchase of Twitter, which he completed on October 27, 2022, after months of legal drama, the social media firm that Musk renamed “X” is on shaky financial ground.

Musk has expressed ambitions to transform X into an “everything app” that includes a digital payments platform and audio and video calling. He told employees that, despite massive cuts eliminating most of Twitter’s pre-Musk workforce, he sees “a clear but difficult path” to a future valuation of more than $250 billion.

X doesn’t provide detailed financial statements or user numbers because Musk took the company private when he bought Twitter. But data leaked to news media and third-party research depicts a platform in decline, which might not be exactly what Musk meant when he called the firm “an inverse startup.”