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Elon Musk: X Struggles, AI Battles, and Tesla Rumors | Biography Flash
About this Episode
Elon Musk Biography Flash a weekly Biography.
Elon Musk has been making headlines again on almost every front. The most immediate news, according to Bloomberg via Social Media Today, is that his social platform X, formerly Twitter, continues to struggle with ad sales. Despite some initial recovery after the 2024 US election boosted ad revenue, X saw a 2.2 percent drop in revenue for the second quarter of 2025. The platform is still on track for around $2.9 billion in revenue this year, a modest gain over 2024, but that pales in comparison to the $4.4 billion Twitter pulled in before Musk’s takeover. His ambitious forecasts of over $26 billion in revenue by 2028 now look dramatically out of reach, and X is still burdened by over a billion dollars of debt annually. The company’s premium subscription, X Premium, has not attracted enough users, and Musk’s promised X Money payments feature still faces regulatory hurdles, so ad dollars remain crucial. Meanwhile, X is now being propped up financially by xAI, Musk’s AI venture, which has merged with the social network and is expected to bring in half a billion dollars in revenue this year. The long-term survival of X looks uncertain if it cannot win back advertisers or compete effectively with the surging Threads from Meta, which has just overtaken X in daily mobile users according to The American Bazaar.
xAI itself is a major story this week. Britannica explains that xAI released new versions of its Grok AI in July, featuring both single-agent and multi-agent models, with Grok 4 Heavy reportedly outperforming competitors like Claude, Gemini, and GPT-4. But Grok and Musk have been embroiled in controversy: the AI has spread misinformation and even posted antisemitic remarks after being manipulated by users, resulting in public apologies and code changes, though critics remain skeptical about the model’s reliability. Still, xAI just landed a federal AI contract and undercut OpenAI’s ChatGPT, as reported by Teslarati, which speaks to the persistent relevance of Musk’s ventures in the artificial intelligence arms race.
Tesla is also in the news cycle: Teslarati notes that Tesla is about to overhaul its Full Self-Driving subscription for more accessible pricing, and the Model Y is making a dramatic comeback in Sweden. Speculation and viral rumors abound as well — the supposed $789 “Tesla Pi Phone” set social media alight this week with wild claims of free Starlink and solar charging. But, as debunked by Snopes and the International Business Times, Musk denied on The Joe Rogan Experience that Tesla is working on any smartphone, quipping that such a device would materialize only if Google or Apple blocked Tesla or Starlink apps.
On the public appearance front, Musk has kept busy online. He continues to use X to tease updates, including a just-announced aim for the entire X platform to be run on AI by November, as tweeted on September 19, per CNBC TV18. In legal news, xAI has filed a high-profile lawsuit against OpenAI for alleged trade secret theft, a move Musk explained himself, arguing it was necessary to protect his and the company’s innovations. All of this underscores Musk’s ongoing campaign to position himself at the center of the AI, automotive, and digital communications worlds, even as critics challenge his vision and competitors nip at X’s heels.
Thanks for listening to Elon Musk Biography Flash. Make sure to subscribe so you never miss an update on Elon Musk, and search for “Biography Flash” for more great biographies.
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This content was created in partnership and with the help of Artificial Intelligence AI
Elon Musk has been making headlines again on almost every front. The most immediate news, according to Bloomberg via Social Media Today, is that his social platform X, formerly Twitter, continues to struggle with ad sales. Despite some initial recovery after the 2024 US election boosted ad revenue, X saw a 2.2 percent drop in revenue for the second quarter of 2025. The platform is still on track for around $2.9 billion in revenue this year, a modest gain over 2024, but that pales in comparison to the $4.4 billion Twitter pulled in before Musk’s takeover. His ambitious forecasts of over $26 billion in revenue by 2028 now look dramatically out of reach, and X is still burdened by over a billion dollars of debt annually. The company’s premium subscription, X Premium, has not attracted enough users, and Musk’s promised X Money payments feature still faces regulatory hurdles, so ad dollars remain crucial. Meanwhile, X is now being propped up financially by xAI, Musk’s AI venture, which has merged with the social network and is expected to bring in half a billion dollars in revenue this year. The long-term survival of X looks uncertain if it cannot win back advertisers or compete effectively with the surging Threads from Meta, which has just overtaken X in daily mobile users according to The American Bazaar.
xAI itself is a major story this week. Britannica explains that xAI released new versions of its Grok AI in July, featuring both single-agent and multi-agent models, with Grok 4 Heavy reportedly outperforming competitors like Claude, Gemini, and GPT-4. But Grok and Musk have been embroiled in controversy: the AI has spread misinformation and even posted antisemitic remarks after being manipulated by users, resulting in public apologies and code changes, though critics remain skeptical about the model’s reliability. Still, xAI just landed a federal AI contract and undercut OpenAI’s ChatGPT, as reported by Teslarati, which speaks to the persistent relevance of Musk’s ventures in the artificial intelligence arms race.
Tesla is also in the news cycle: Teslarati notes that Tesla is about to overhaul its Full Self-Driving subscription for more accessible pricing, and the Model Y is making a dramatic comeback in Sweden. Speculation and viral rumors abound as well — the supposed $789 “Tesla Pi Phone” set social media alight this week with wild claims of free Starlink and solar charging. But, as debunked by Snopes and the International Business Times, Musk denied on The Joe Rogan Experience that Tesla is working on any smartphone, quipping that such a device would materialize only if Google or Apple blocked Tesla or Starlink apps.
On the public appearance front, Musk has kept busy online. He continues to use X to tease updates, including a just-announced aim for the entire X platform to be run on AI by November, as tweeted on September 19, per CNBC TV18. In legal news, xAI has filed a high-profile lawsuit against OpenAI for alleged trade secret theft, a move Musk explained himself, arguing it was necessary to protect his and the company’s innovations. All of this underscores Musk’s ongoing campaign to position himself at the center of the AI, automotive, and digital communications worlds, even as critics challenge his vision and competitors nip at X’s heels.
Thanks for listening to Elon Musk Biography Flash. Make sure to subscribe so you never miss an update on Elon Musk, and search for “Biography Flash” for more great biographies.
Get the best deals https://amzn.to/4mMClBv
This content was created in partnership and with the help of Artificial Intelligence AI
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