Elon Musk's X worth 71.5% less than it was when he bought the platform in 2022, Fidelity says
X, the social media platform formerly known as Twitter, is now worth an estimated 71.5% less than it was when Elon Musk purchased the platform in Oct. 2022, according to a Fidelity securities filing dated Dec. 30, 2023.
The asset management firm, which owns an equity stake in the company under X Holdings Corp., previously slashed X's valuation to a third of Musk's $44 billion purchase price in May of last year.
The new valuation from Fidelity's Blue Chip Growth Fund, which reported data through Nov. 30, 2023, estimates that its shares of X are worth $5.3 million — down from an estimated $6.3 million in October and far from the $19.66 million valuation of its stake just prior to Musk's takeover.
The many controversies that have plagued the platform since the Tesla CEO's purchase scared off advertisers and resulted in more than half of them halting spending on X less than a month after Musk's acquisition was finalized.
In November, major advertisers including Disney, Apple, and Coca Cola pulled paid advertising off the platform to distance themselves from Musk after his endorsement of an antisemitic post.
Musk had praised a post that said Jews "have been pushing the exact kind of dialectical hatred against whites that they claim to want people to stop using against them."
He has since apologized. "I am quite sorry," he said at The New York Times' DealBook Summit in November last year, adding, "I should, in retrospect, not have replied to that particular post."
Musk said that the ad boycott could "kill the company," but he defiantly added, "I hope they stop. Don't advertise," he said at the summit.
"If somebody is going to try to blackmail me with advertising, blackmail me with money, go f**k yourself. Go f**k yourself. Is that clear? I hope it is."
