# How Elon Musk is Utilizing His Political Affect to Safe the Way forward for X

Make no mistake, Elon Musk’s X challenge is a failure, and was on a solidifying path to chapter, earlier than Elon “saved” the platform by using the political clout that he gained by means of the app to set his broader “X Corp” physique of initiatives up for ongoing success.

Although the ways that he’s utilized in doing so are extremely questionable, and there’s nonetheless no assure that X will survive, long-term, as a basic social media utility. And that’s earlier than we get into his “all the pieces app” growth, however proper now, X is certainly each solvent and protected resulting from a brand new injection of funding, because of Musk’s political wheeling and dealing.

Right here’s a take a look at how Elon has used his authorities position to immediately prop up his enterprise, and the varied conflicts of curiosity in such efforts.

And earlier than we start, to all of the Elon fanboys studying this, sure, I’m going to query his ways, and no, you’re not going to agree with my audacity in daring to problem the genius that’s Elon Musk. I stay up for your emails and feedback.

So, the narrative at this stage is that Elon Musk “rescued X from the brink”, by means of a sequence of shrewd strategic strikes which have now made the platform related once more.

Although that’s not fully true, what Elon and his crew have performed is that they’ve carried out a sequence of questionable methods, whereas additionally weaponizing Musk’s newfound political affect, to halt the corporate’s slide into chapter 11, which Elon himself has admitted was seemingly at one stage.

How? Nicely, to totally perceive Musk’s evolving technique at X, you need to return to why he purchased the app within the first place, and the way he grew to become enamored with the idea of Twitter as a political affect instrument.

To start with…

The seeds of Elon’s Twitter buy have been planted again in 2019, when Musk and Tesla have been looking for entry to Bolivia’s lithium assets. Then Bolivian President Evo Morales was seen as a roadblock on this entrance, resulting from his dedication to maximizing broader market alternatives for the nation, whereas additionally defending Bolivia’s pure assets.

With this because the backdrop, Morales was unseated in a coup in late 2019, and within the aftermath, studies recommended that the CIA helped to prepare the revolution in opposition to Morales, which ultimately led to Morales being changed by Jeanine Áñez, who, shortly after her ascension, open the gates for U.S. firms to achieve expanded entry to Bolivia’s lithium (observe: in 2022, Áñez was jailed for 10 years for her position within the U.S.-backed coup).

So how did the CIA supposedly affect a Bolivian political motion?

As reported by The Morning Star:

“Tens of hundreds of pretend Twitter accounts have been created to help the army coup in opposition to Bolivia’s elected president Evo Morales, a brand new research suggests. Over 68,000 false accounts have been set as much as attempt to legitimize the military’s overthrow of Mr Morales following his re-election final month and to justify the massacres of protesters in opposition to the coup which have adopted.”

The suggestion is that U.S. operatives basically weaponized Twitter to gasoline dissent, and drive the overthrow of the nation’s elected chief, in an effort to profit U.S. companies although expanded entry to its assets.

And given his vested curiosity, Elon had a entrance row seat.

Musk shortly deleted this publish, however this was the preliminary spark that seemingly opened his eyes to the broader potential of Twitter as each a political and market affect instrument.

All through 2021, Musk grew to become extra lively on Twitter, utilizing his huge following to spark vital inventory actions in varied cryptocurrencies and companies. These, seemingly, have been experiments, of kinds, in seeing how Musk himself may sway sentiment and investor motion, by means of his personal tweets. Musk had additionally seen the affect of his tweets on the worth of his personal firm, after posting feedback about Tesla, which additional underlined the worth of the app as an influential power.

Like Donald Trump earlier than him, Musk had discovered that Twitter might be a robust driver of motion, and mixed along with his broader information of the way it had additionally been used to overthrow the Bolivian management, he solidified his plan to regulate that power for himself.

Taking inventory

From 2021 onwards, Musk additionally started tentatively buying Twitter inventory, with a view to how he would possibly play a controlling position in its techniques and insurance policies shifting ahead. By April 2022, Musk had change into Twitter’s largest shareholder, which preceded his transfer to amass the corporate wholesale, which was finalized in late 2022.

Elon partnered with varied traders, and took on a variety of loans, in an effort to fund his Twitter buy, with the mythology of his market genius underpinning the assumption that he would have the ability to flip round its failing enterprise.

Musk set to work shortly, culling 80% of Twitter employees, and shutting down regional workplaces, whereas additionally re-aligning its insurance policies round political actions that he favors. That additionally aligned with the Republican social gathering, and inside that, Musk noticed a chance to grab political energy, through the use of Twitter as an affect machine on American voters.

The shift to Neighborhood Notes fact-checking and decreased moderation oversight each saved the corporate cash, whereas additionally additional aligning with this shift, and Musk then hitched his hopes to Donand Trump, and utilizing his newfound affect to sway the American election, his most vital challenge.

And it labored. Donald Trump was re-elected, Elon Musk grew to become a star of the Republican push, and he acquired a seat on the desk in any respect of Trump’s cupboard conferences.

The associated fee, in fact, is what Twitter itself misplaced promoting {dollars}, and public help, as Musk strikes additionally allowed an increasing number of misinformation and hate speech to proliferate within the app. The lack of advert {dollars} ultimately threatened to kill the app fully, with its revenues declining nearly 50% on pre-Musk ranges, and none of Elon’s grand plans to put it aside (like promoting verification checkmarks) labored out like Elon hoped.

It’s protected to say that had Donald Trump not gained the 2024 election, Twitter/X would’ve been on the ropes, amid accumulating money owed and declining utilization. Certainly, in October 2024, it regarded sure that X was going to publish a loss for the total yr.  

However by November, with Trump’s re-election secured, Elon’s strategic play was again on, and he emerged with a newfound swagger of political clout to power his will.

And power it he has, as a way to reinvigorate the flailing firm.

Political foundations

So how is Elon trying to save X by means of his political affect?

Nicely, for one, following the election, X instantly set forth on a brand new push to stress advertisers to re-up with the corporate, or face the potential wrath of Trump’s rules.

As reported by The Wall Road Journal:

“With Musk ascendant after the election, X took a brand new strategy to ginning up new advert spending. In December, a lawyer from X known as a lawyer at promoting conglomerate Interpublic Group, hinting that its lately introduced $13 billion deal to merge with rival Omnicom Group may face bother from the Trump administration, given Musk’s highly effective position. IPG signed a brand new annual cope with X for potential consumer spending.”

X has additionally used the specter of its ongoing lawsuit in opposition to the World Alliance for Accountable Media (GARM) and its companions to stress extra massive manufacturers to renew their advert spend, prompting many to work out new offers to keep away from the harms attributable to a protracted authorized battle.

Nevertheless it’s Musk’s direct political integration, by means of his position with the Division of Authorities Effectivity (DOGE) that’s actually going to solidify X shifting ahead.

Along with his X challenge, Musk has additionally been pushing to change into a participant within the AI race, by means of his personal AI challenge xAI. Musk seemingly got here up along with his xAI plan out of spite; Spurned by his rejection from OpenAI, after committing tens of millions in funding in its preliminary phases, Musk has been incensed by the previous non-profit firm switching to a for-profit enterprise mannequin, from which Musk himself beneficial properties no profit.

That’s the spark that prompted Musk to construct his personal AI challenge, to tackle OpenAI, which he’s since framed as a “non-woke” various to the opposite, extra censored AI initiatives.

And using the broader AI hype, xAI has shortly change into a related participant, gathering billions in funding from varied traders to fund its push into AI improvement.

Certainly, xAI is now reportedly price $80 billion in its personal proper, which has now enabled it to soak up X, the platform, into its enterprise construction.

Which means that X now shares funding with xAI, and as such, its personal monetary efficiency is much less necessary as a driver of its future. On condition that X posts are a key knowledge supply for xAI, any funding that goes to Elon’s AI challenge can be now shared with X, which is how Elon has basically “saved” X.

So is xAI truly price $80 billion?

Nicely, it’s onerous to say. OpenAI is reportedly forecasting greater than $12 billion in income this yr, primarily based on subscriptions to its varied AI era fashions, together with enterprise and training packages designed to facilitate broader AI integration.

Presumably, xAI is aiming for a similar market, although preliminary curiosity in its Grok AI chatbot has been restricted primarily based on X Premium take-up. However xAI launched a separate Grok app again in February, which it’s now pushing by way of Grok chatbot outputs on X, and the hope, seemingly, is that xAI will ultimately elevate cash by way of rising shopper and enterprise take-up. And with round half of People theoretically in favor of a much less censored model of OpenAI’s providing, there must be a giant market there.

However then once more, it’s additionally dealing with competitors from Google, Apple, and Meta, and it’s onerous to see how xAI is de facto going to compete for that AI money.

However xAI does have one main benefit that appears set to safe its future: Elon’s personal political affect.

As Elon’s DOGE crew has reported, the subsequent stage of their authorities effectivity plan will contain the mixing of AI into authorities techniques, so as streamline operations, and additional cut back prices.

You’ll be able to wager that xAI can be a number one bidder on any tender for such a service, and with inside information of the necessities for such, it appears that evidently Elon’s AI play is ready to win a variety of main authorities provide contracts, and safe its funding into the long run.

Which additionally looks like a battle of curiosity, proper? {That a} key authorities adviser shouldn’t have the ability to immediately profit his personal firms on this manner.

It looks like it, however that hasn’t stopped DOGE from additionally making X the central public communications platform for presidency businesses.

So Elon’s securing X’s future, by embedding it as a component of the U.S. authorities’s communications infrastructure, whereas he’s additionally on observe to solidify xAI by means of authorities contracts.

Which can be how Starlink has succeeded, and SpaceX, utilizing authorities funding to prop up Elon’s enterprise empire, by means of long-term, self-securing offers.

So whereas Elon has, in principle, saved X as a platform, the framework underpinning that is political affect. Which is the precise purpose why Elon initially bought Twitter within the first place.

I imply, he meant to place stress on politicians from a distance, through the use of the sway of X as a way to achieve for favorable offers for his companies. However now, he’s doing the identical extra immediately, pulling the strings on authorities contracts to cement funding for his initiatives.

It’s a tremendous feat, which few may pull off so blatantly, and in that sense, it’s onerous to query the general genius of Musk’s plan.

So I assume, on this sense, Elon is a galaxy mind chief, like he says, however the way in which he’s doing so is questionable, on many fronts, utilizing the voting public as pawns for his personal achieve.  

However that, once more, has been the plan all alongside, with Elon utilizing the influential worth of Twitter/X for his personal enterprise achieve. 

If anybody questions the facility of social media within the trendy panorama, that is a tremendous case research to contemplate.