Elon Musk has sold X, formerly Twitter, in a deal worth $45 billion (£34.7 billion) which values the social media site at $33 billion (£25 billion) with $12 billion (£9 billion) in debts.
The Tesla boss bought the social media site in 2022 for a deal worth $44 billion (£34 billion) and marched into the company’s offices carrying a sink in an attempt to make a joke.
Many staff soon afterwards ended up losing their jobs, some of them were soon asked to return to the roles they’d just been fired from in scenes which would end up becoming familiar to many US government employees after Donald Trump returned to power and brought Musk into his government.
Since buying Twitter, Musk changed the name to ‘X’, introduced a paid subscription tier for people who wanted blue ticks and brought in a plethora of new features including ‘Grok’, his own developed AI.
Speaking of Musk’s AI, guess who he sold X to?
He might as well be shaking hands with himself (Beata Zawrzel/NurPhoto via Getty Images)
That’s right, himself.
The X deal was an all stock transaction which transfers ownership of the social media site to xAI, a company Musk founded in 2023 to develop artificial intelligence.
Writing on his social media platform, Musk said: “xAI and X’s futures are intertwined. Today, we officially take the step to combine the data, models, compute, distribution and talent.
“This combination will unlock immense potential by blending xAI’s advanced AI capability and expertise with X’s massive reach.
“The combined company will deliver smarter, more meaningful experiences to billions of people while staying true to our core mission of seeking truth and advancing knowledge.
“This will allow us to build a platform that doesn’t just reflect the world but actively accelerates human progress.
Who just bought X off Elon Musk? That’s right, Elon Musk did (VINCENT FEURAY/Hans Lucas/AFP via Getty Images)
“I would like to recognize the hardcore dedication of everyone at xAI and X that has brought us to this point. This is just the beginning.
“Thank you for your continued partnership and support.”
In the same message he said that xAI was valued at $80 billion (£61 billion).
Musk is the world’s richest man, at least in terms of net worth, though last month it was reported that he’d lost about £41 billion in wealth since the start of 2025.
Despite losing that amount of worth in such a short time, due in part to a significant slump in Tesla stock after many people started boycotting the electric car brand because of Musk, he remains the richest man in the world.
Among the reasons why some people are boycotting Tesla is because of Musk’s close association with the Trump administration and controversy around the salute he twice gave on a stage during Trump’s inauguration.
