How Much X (Twitter) Changed in Value After Elon Musk Took Over - Features Added, User Stats, and 5-Year Outlook
Elon Musk completed the Twitter acquisition on October 27, 2022 for about $44B (often summarized as $54.20/share).
Since then, the company became private, rebranded to X, pushed hard into subscriptions and creator monetization, and increasingly tied its product roadmap to Musk’s AI company xAI (including xAI’s acquisition of X in 2025).
Because X is private, its “value” is not a single official number. What we can track are investor marks (like Fidelity) and secondary transaction valuations reported by major financial outlets.
1) Did X “grow in value” after the takeover?
Not in a straight line. The story is a sharp drop (2023-2024) followed by a partial rebound (2025) - depending on which valuation signal you trust.
Valuation timeline (publicly reported signals)
Snapshot-style figures for a private company - these are reported signals, not a single “official” price.
| Date | Reported signal | Implied valuation |
|---|---|---|
| Oct 2022 | Purchase price | ~$44B |
| Aug/Sep 2024 | Fidelity markdown (reported) | ~$9.4B |
| Mar 2025 | Reported secondary deal | ~$44B |
| Mar 28, 2025 | xAI acquires X | $33B (equity value, plus debt context) |
Notes
- Fidelity marks are internal estimates used for fund reporting and can lag or be conservative.
- Secondary trades may reflect a limited set of transactions and not a full-market clearing price.
- Deal valuations can be deal-specific and may include different assumptions about debt and structure.
Why these numbers differ:
Fidelity marks are estimates used for fund reporting and can lag reality or skew conservative.
Secondary trades can reflect a small set of buyers/sellers and may not represent what a full sale would fetch.
The xAI acquisition valuation is a negotiated internal transaction in Musk’s ecosystem and includes debt context.
Bottom line on “growth”
If you measure from the lowest reported investor marks (~$9-10B in 2024) to the 2025 deal signals ($33B to $44B), X rebounded significantly.
But versus the $44B purchase price, the “net change” depends on which 2025 valuation you treat as most credible.
2) Major features added since Musk took over
The platform didn’t just change branding - it reoriented toward: subscriptions, creators, video, messaging/calls, and AI.
A) X Premium (Blue) and long-form content
One of the clearest product shifts was making “more capability” a paid tier:
Longer posts up to 25,000 characters (for subscribers).
Longer video uploads expanded for paid users during the Blue-era push.
B) Creator monetization (ads revenue share)
X pushed hard to keep creators posting on-platform:
Creator Ads Revenue Sharing launched in mid-2023 (and expanded).
C) Audio and video calling
X moved further into “communications app” territory:
Audio/video calls rolled out (iOS first, later Android).
D) Payments direction: “X Money”
The “everything app” vision became more concrete with payments:
X announced a Visa partnership for an “X Money Account” (real-time payments/wallet direction), planned for 2025 rollout.
E) AI: Grok integrated into X
The biggest strategic shift is how tightly X became linked to xAI:
Grok rolled out to X Premium+ users, then expanded.
xAI later acquired X, explicitly framed as combining data + distribution with AI capabilities.
Important note: AI integration also increased platform risk. For example, media and regulators have reported controversies around harmful AI-generated content and deepfakes, which can affect trust and advertiser confidence.
3) Active user stats since the takeover (and why they conflict)
You’ll see multiple “truths” online because metrics aren’t consistent:
MAU (monthly active users) vs DAU (daily active users)
“Total active” vs “monetizable” vs “mobile only”
Some figures are company statements, others are third-party estimates
A few widely cited snapshots
In March 2024, X publicly claimed 250M daily users and 550M monthly visitors.
In May 2024, Musk claimed ~600M monthly active users and about half daily.
Some third-party measurement reports put daily active mobile app users in the ~100M+ range in mid-2025 (mobile-only, not web).
Other estimates place monthly active users around the mid-500M range in 2025.
How to interpret this practically:
X appears to remain very large globally, but growth is debated and competitors are pressuring mobile engagement time.
The most “decision-useful” metric for brands is often: can you still reach the audience you care about? That depends more on your niche than the global MAU headline.
4) What changed the business model most?
Ads became less predictable; subscriptions became the stabilizer
The big shift was trying to reduce dependency on advertising by layering:
Premium subscriptions
Creator payouts and “earn on platform”
Video push
Payments roadmap
AI features tied to Premium tiers
X’s legal and advertiser relationships have also been a recurring theme (including reporting about advertiser pullbacks and disputes).
5) Projections for the next 5 years (2026-2031)
These are scenarios, not guarantees - X is private, reporting is uneven, and strategy is unusually dependent on Musk’s broader ecosystem (xAI, politics, and partnerships).
Scenario 1: Base case (most likely)
X stays big, stays influential, grows slowly
User base is broadly flat to modest growth globally
Ads partially recover, but never return to “old Twitter” stability
Premium + creator monetization becomes a meaningful revenue pillar
Grok and AI tooling becomes a default layer inside the app
What this implies for value: “steady private-company range” (think: closer to the $33B deal valuation than a breakout).
Scenario 2: Bull case
Payments + AI + video actually work together
X Money becomes widely adopted in at least one major market
AI features improve ad targeting, content creation, moderation, and support workflows
X becomes a stronger “creator economy + video” destination
What this implies for value: a path to exceed the 2022 price sustainably, but it requires execution and trust.
Scenario 3: Bear case
Trust and safety + advertiser concerns keep dragging growth
User growth slows or declines in key markets
Competitors keep eating mobile time
Regulatory pressure increases (especially around AI content risks)
Subscriptions plateau
What this implies for value: stuck in “distressed but surviving” territory (more like the 2024 markdown era).
What this means for businesses (and why it matters to web + product teams)
If you’re building or marketing in 2026:
X is evolving from “social feed” into a paid capabilities + creator + AI distribution channel
Expect: more paywalled reach/features, more video, more AI-generated content, and more volatility in brand safety dynamics
For mid-sized companies, the practical move is: treat X as a high-signal channel for certain niches, not your only growth engine