X’s 2023 advertising revenue is expected to fall to half of what it was in 2022.

According to calculations by Fidelity, the asset management fund that owns shares in Elon Musk’s company, the world’s richest billionaire’s social networking site X (formerly Twitter) is now worth less than a quarter of the $44 billion Musk spent to buy it.

When Musk bought Twitter, Fidelity invested $ 19.66 million . As of the end of July 2024, the company said those shares were worth just $5.5 million. That brings the total value of X to just $9.4 billion.

X is not a public company, so Fidelity’s report is one of the most reliable sources of information for observers to assess the current value of this social network.

Last year, X estimated to have earned $2.5 billion in advertising revenue, just half of what it will earn in 2022. Advertising revenue accounts for 70% to 75% of X’s total revenue.

Faced with financial woes , the company recently closed its San Francisco headquarters and moved to Texas. Its remaining California employees will be moved to a smaller office farther from the city center.

Elon Musk tried to boost morale with the promise of stock grants, provided employees could prove their worth in a memo. But skepticism persisted after previous promises were not kept.

Billionaire Elon Musk

Fidelity isn’t X’s only shareholder. An August filing showed that Bill Ackman and Sean “Diddy” Combs, who is currently in custody awaiting trial on sex trafficking and abuse charges, also own stakes in the company.

Fidelity cut its valuation of X in March, following a cut in January. With the latest cut, the value of Fidelity’s X stake has fallen by a total of 78.7%.

Elon Musk currently has a net worth of $270 billion, maintaining his position as the richest person in the world according to Forbes. In 2022, Musk spent $44 billion to acquire Twitter and renamed it X. Since Musk acquired it, X’s advertising revenue has “plummeted”.

A global survey by market research firm Kantar found that 26% of advertisers plan to cut spending on X by 2025, the largest withdrawal ever from any major advertising platform in the world. The main reason cited was concerns about “brand safety” – that their ads could appear next to extremist content, negatively affecting their business image .

Only 4% of advertisers believe that advertising on X is brand safe, compared to 39% for Google, indicating a significant decline in advertisers’ trust in the Elon Musk-owned social media platform.