Latest / Elon Musk Podcast / Inside the Contradictions of Musk's Empire, January 2026

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Inside the Contradictions of Musk's Empire, January 2026 · Elon Musk Podcast

• 0:00
  New financial filings just revealed what Elon Musk probably
• 0:03
  didn't want you to see. X, formerly Twitter, of course,
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  lost 58% of its revenue in 2024. Now documented an official UK
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  regulatory filings that dropped this week that we spent the last
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  two years hearing about advertisers fleeing, about the
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  rebrand chaos, about whether Musk's social media gamble would
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  pay off. Now we have the answer, and it's
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  brutal. This is particularly fascinating
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  because 2024 was supposed to be Musk's victory lap.
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  He became the most politically influential tech billionaire in
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  America, practically lived at Mar a Lago with Donald Trump,
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  helped shape a presidential administration as well.
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  His visibility had never been higher, and yet X was bleeding
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  out. And I've also got some news on
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  the EU launching a formal investigation into Grok over
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  deep fake porn. Plus a genuinely surprising
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  partnership between Tesla and Warren Buffett's company, and
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  we'll get right into that after this very short break.
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  So let's talk about what a 58% of revenue decline actually
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  means for X. When Musk bought Twitter in late
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  20/22 for 44 billion, a lot of people thought he overpaid for
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  it. Now, the bull case was that he'd
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  unlock value by cutting costs, removing what he called bloat,
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  and turning the platform into an everything app.
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  And the bear case was that advertisers would flee, the
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  platform would become toxic, and the whole thing would spiral out
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  of control. Now, these UK filings suggest
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  that the bears were right. Now, these are specifically UK
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  revenue numbers, but they're a proxy for the broader health of
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  the company because the UK is a major advertising market.
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  And when brands have pulled back, they're pulling back kind
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  of everywhere. It's a it's a litmus test.
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  And here's what's interesting about this.
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  Musk has been adamant publicly that X is doing fine.
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  He's pointing to engagement numbers, to new features, to the
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  premium subscription tier. But engagement revenue are
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  completely different things. You get 1,000,000 of people
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  scrolling and still watching your ad business collapse.
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  Advertisers don't just want your eyes on the product.
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  They want it to be safe and they want predictability.
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  They want to not wake up to headlines about their logo
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  appearing next to something that makes their PR team cry tears of
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  sorrow. And X under Musk has been the
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  opposite of predictable. The timing makes this even more
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  striking. Throughout 2024, Musk was
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  everywhere, posting constantly, engaging with political figures,
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  hosting Twitter Spaces with presidential candidates.
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  If personal brand translated directly to business success, X
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  should be printing money. Instead, the opposite happened.
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  The more visible Musk became, the more nervous advertisers
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  got. There's a lesson in there
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  somewhere about the difference between attention and trust.
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  Now I trust that you are subscribed to this channel.
• 3:12
  I've been digging through the analytics of the show and
• 3:13
  noticed that 39% of you are following the show and I am
• 3:17
  forever grateful for you. And the other 61% of you have
• 3:21
  probably listened to a few episodes, just forgot to hit the
• 3:23
  subscribe or follow button. So if you could do that right
• 3:26
  now, that'd be great. I've been an independent
• 3:28
  journalist covering Elon and Space Flight and tech for the
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  last seven years. I'm going to continue for the
• 3:33
  next 10 and all I ask from you is one second of your time.
• 3:37
  I'm extremely grateful for you to be here.
• 3:39
  Thank you for joining this community.
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  Now let's move on while X deals with its revenue crisis.
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  Back in the day, another Musk venture just landed in
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  regulatory crosshairs. The European Union announced a
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  formal investigation into Grok, Musk's AI chatbot, through XAI
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  over concerns of deep fate pornography.
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  This isn't a sternly worded letter or a tweet from some EU
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  commissioner. It's a formal probe under EU
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  digital services regulations, and it carries real teeth.
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  The issue is that Grok has been notably less restricted than
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  competitors like ChatGPT or Claude Must position this as a
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  feature, not a bug. He's been critical of what he
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  calls overly censored AI, arguing that other companies are
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  too cautious, too politically correct.
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  Grok was supposed to be the edgy alternative.
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  The problem is that edgy and generate sexualized deepfakes
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  are different, and the EU isn't interested in debating
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  philosophical approaches to AI freedom.
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  They passed the AI Act, they've been the most aggressive
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  regulator on the planet when it comes to tech, and now they're
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  coming for Grok. This matters beyond just the
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  regulatory find that came. The EU is a massive market.
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  If Grok gets restricted or banned in Europe, that's a
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  significant chunk of potential users gone, and it creates a
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  template for other regulators around the world.
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  The UK might actually follow Australia, So making noise about
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  AI regulation, the US, probably not going to happen there, But
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  once one major jurisdiction acts, others tend to pile on.
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  So this isn't just a European thing.
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  This is about whether Musk's approach to AI, which is
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  basically move fast and let's figure this out eventually, can
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  survive contact with actual governments.
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  And what strikes me is the Pattern X is struggling because
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  Elon prioritized his vision of free speech over advertiser
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  comfort. He didn't think of the business
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  model, he just did what he wanted to do.
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  Grok is in trouble because Musk prioritized his vision of
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  uncensored AI over regulatory expectations.
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  There's a consistency to it. He genuinely believes these
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  institutions, advertisers, regulators are all wrong.
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  And he's right. Maybe he is, but being right and
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  being financially viable aren't always the same thing.
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  Now, let's kind of move into something more positive here
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  because this week also brought news that Warren Buffett's
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  company willpower test the semi trucks.
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  Warren Buffett, the guy who famously avoids tech stocks, the
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  guy who said he doesn't invest in things he doesn't understand.
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  The guy who's been skeptical of Tesla, specifically that Warren
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  Buffett's operation is now partnering with Elon Musk.
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  How? The deal involves Berkshire
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  Hathaway's energy subsidiary providing charging of structure
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  for Tesla Semi deployments. This is significant for a few
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  reasons. First, it suggests that Tesla
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  Semi is finally moving towards serious commercial scale.
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  The truck has been in development limbo for years,
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  with production starts and stops questions about battery range.
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  Skepticism from the trucking industry getting a Buffett
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  company involved signals that serious old school money
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  investors see a real business model here. 2nd, it's a
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  validation of Tesla from someone who has historically been
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  allergic to the company. Buffett and Musk occupy
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  completely different corners of the business world.
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  Buffett is patient capital, long time horizons, dozens and dozens
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  of years in the making, boring industries.
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  Musk is move fast, blow rockets up, sleep at the factory, do
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  whatever you got to do to make this thing work.
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  The fact that Buffett's team looked at Tesla Semi and said
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  yes we want it tells you something about how the industry
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  views that tech now. And 3rd, this is exactly the
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  kind of institutional partnership Tesla needs as it
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  tries to diversify beyond consumer vehicles.
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  The Tesla Semi targets commercial fleets, logistics
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  companies, enterprises with massive fuel budgets.
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  Those customers aren't swayed by Twitter posts or cyber truck
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  aesthetics. They want proven tech and
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  reliable infrastructure. Having Berkshire Hathaway's
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  energy arm involved checks both of those boxes.
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  So here's where we are with the Musk empire as we close out
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  January 2026. Today, X is hemorrhaging money.
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  Back in the day, even as Musk's personal influence peaked, his
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  AI company faces a formal EU investigation that could reshape
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  how Grok operates in major markets.
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  But Tesla? His oldest company just locked
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  in a partnership with one of the most conservative, credibility
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  focused investors on the planet. The empire is simultaneously
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  expanding and contracting depending on where you look.
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  Question for the rest of this year is whether Musk's political
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  capital can translate to business stability, or whether
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  the financial cracks in EX and regulatory pressure on Grok will
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  eventually matter more than how many times that Elon posts in a
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  day.