Tesla’s Ad Spend on X Drops Drastically in 2025

Tesla’s advertising spend on Elon Musk’s social media platform X has dramatically decreased, with the automaker spending only $400,000 on ads in 2024, according to a new regulatory filing. However, Tesla’s advertising budget is on track to be significantly lower in 2025 as the company faces sales struggles.

In the first two months of 2025, Tesla spent just $10,000 on X ads, suggesting the company is on track to spend only $60,000 annually on the platform, unless it increases its ad budget in the coming months. In comparison, during the same period last year, Tesla had already spent $200,000 on X advertising. The company’s spending slowed considerably after the first two months of 2024, with a total of $200,000 spent for the remainder of the year.

Tesla, which historically avoided advertising, only began running ads in 2023. This shift came after Elon Musk faced shareholder pressure to invest in advertising. Ads for Tesla’s cars appeared on Google, YouTube, and X in late 2023 and early 2024. It remains unclear if Tesla's ad spending has increased on X since February, although Google’s Ads Transparency database shows the company still has around 700 active advertisements across Google’s properties like Search and YouTube. Tesla did not respond to requests for comment.

In addition to its ad spending, Tesla disclosed that it paid SpaceX approximately $800,000 for the use of one of the rocket company’s private jets. Musk frequently uses the jet to travel between the headquarters of his various companies. However, this expense seems set to decrease in 2025, with Tesla paying only $40,000 for the jet through February 2025.

Tesla also revealed in its proxy filing that it spent $2.8 million on security services in 2024, an increase from the $2.4 million spent in 2023. The company paid a security company owned by Musk to provide protection during his travels, though this figure only represents a portion of the total security costs associated with Musk.

The most significant financial transaction between Musk companies last year came from xAI, which paid Tesla $198.3 million for Megapack battery storage products. These products are used at xAI’s data center in Tennessee. xAI also paid Tesla $36.8 million for additional Megapack products through the first two months of 2025.

Tesla’s financial dealings have also benefited Musk’s brother, Kimbal Musk. Tesla paid $300,000 to Kimbal’s drone company, Nova Sky Stories, for a show it put on at Tesla’s “We, Robot” event in October 2024.