Musk reportedly tells X staff 'we're barely breaking even' as the big banks start getting antsy over their debt

LOS ANGELES, CALIFORNIA - APRIL 13: Elon Musk attends the 2024 Breakthrough Prize Ceremony at Academy Museum of Motion Pictures on April 13, 2024 in Los Angeles, California. (Photo by Taylor Hill/Getty Images)
(Image credit: Getty Images)

Tech billionaire Elon Musk has been a public figure for decades, but has enjoyed an outsized profile in recent years, not a little of which is down to his decision to acquire Twitter for $44 billion in 2022. In the end, that deal was almost forced on Musk after the courts got involved, but you wouldn't know it from the way the trollish memester launched into his new role with various galaxy-brained schemes that mostly seem to have made Twitter worse: Including, of course, renaming it X.

A new report by the Wall Street Journal claims that some of the banks that helped Musk finance the deal are now getting a little antsy about their investment (some $13 billion of the total) and are looking into how they claw it back. Institutions including Bank of America, Barclays, and Morgan Stanley have been holding onto the debt, hoping for more favourable economic headwinds, and are now hoping to per the WSJ "sell senior debt at 90-95 cents on the dollar, while retaining more-junior holdings."

The waters will apparently be tested next week with a $3 billion package of debt, which follows a sale of $1 billion in debt to private investors. The problem for the banks is that it's widely believed Musk overpaid for the company, and its subsequent underperformance has only confirmed this in the eyes of many. The only real counter to this is Musk's new political position as some sort of right-hand man to President Donald Trump which, some investors believe, could augur well for the future X.

That may prove wildly optimistic (other investors are reportedly braced to take haircuts of around 75%), because few of Musk's grandiose pronouncements about Twitter/X have come to pass. The interest payments alone on Musk's deal amount to $1 billion a year, while new additions such as job listings and a dedicated video tab seem unlikely to make any dramatic change to the bottom line. At one stage Musk said X would become "the everything app", which users could basically live their lives through: That seems like a pipe dream.

The WSJ report includes an email sent to staff by Musk, also seen by the Verge, which is some distance from the positivity of his public pronouncements on the business. "We’ve witnessed the power of X in shaping national conversations and outcomes," claims Musk, but "our user growth is stagnant, revenue is unimpressive, and we’re barely breaking even."

The report adds that the banks hope to use the narrative of Musk’s link to Donald Trump to recoup their losses, as some unnamed investors may be interested in buying based on a belief that its financials are on the way up. Not really sure how that stacks up, but that's high finance for you.

Hours after the WSJ published its story, Musk denied sending the email. "This report is false," said Musk. "I sent no such email. WSJ is lying."

Well, we'll soon see how many investors are rushing out to buy this debt. Despite an exodus of advertisers and various controversies around Musk himself, the company's finances are apparently improving, but X is simply not playing the same game as rivals like Facebook when it comes to ad revenue.

The email from Musk to staff, which Musk claims isn't real, does sound an awful lot like him though: "We are also seeing other platforms begin to adopt our commitment to free speech and unbiased truth,” he ends, presumably a reference to Meta's decision to abandon fact-checking.

Musk has owned X for less than two years, but in that time the site has transformed from a major news source and online forum to, as PCG's Robin Valentine put it, "something so inherently hateful and toxic as to be avoided altogether."

It was striking to see so many individual subreddits recently vote en masse to just blacklist X links and, personally speaking, I barely use the site these days because it's just no longer a pleasure to be on. But the Musk reign shows no sign of ending: Maybe, when it does, he'll once more have time to level up his own characters in PoE2 and Diablo.

Rich Stanton
Senior Editor

Rich is a games journalist with 15 years' experience, beginning his career on Edge magazine before working for a wide range of outlets, including Ars Technica, Eurogamer, GamesRadar+, Gamespot, the Guardian, IGN, the New Statesman, Polygon, and Vice. He was the editor of Kotaku UK, the UK arm of Kotaku, for three years before joining PC Gamer. He is the author of a Brief History of Video Games, a full history of the medium, which the Midwest Book Review described as "[a] must-read for serious minded game historians and curious video game connoisseurs alike."

Read more
WASHINGTON, DC - NOVEMBER 13: Elon Musk listens as U.S. President-elect Donald Trump addresses a House Republicans Conference meeting at the Hyatt Regency on Capitol Hill on November 13, 2024 in Washington, DC. As is tradition with incoming presidents, Trump is traveling to Washington, DC to meet with U.S. President Joe Biden at the White House as well as meet with Republican congressmen on Capitol Hill. (Photo by Andrew Harnik/Getty Images)
Elon Musk and Asmongold are beefing over who the best gamer really is, and no matter who wins, we lose
Tesla and SpaceX CEO Elon Musk gestures as he speaks during the inaugural parade inside Capital One Arena, in Washington, DC, on January 20, 2025. (Photo by ANGELA WEISS / AFP) (Photo by ANGELA WEISS/AFP via Getty Images)
Elon Musk kicks off $97.4 billion effort to buy OpenAI by immediately starting social media beef with Sam Altman
Reddit logo on mobile phone
Reddit users are officially as sick of Elon Musk as I am, with a number of popular subreddits completely banning all links to X
LOS ANGELES, CALIFORNIA - APRIL 13: Elon Musk attends the 2024 Breakthrough Prize Ceremony at Academy Museum of Motion Pictures on April 13, 2024 in Los Angeles, California. (Photo by Taylor Hill/Getty Images)
Elon Musk admits account-boosting on PoE2 and Diablo 4 but says deal with it: 'What would I be apologizing for?'
LOS ANGELES, CALIFORNIA - APRIL 13: Elon Musk attends the 2024 Breakthrough Prize Ceremony at Academy Museum of Motion Pictures on April 13, 2024 in Los Angeles, California. (Photo by Taylor Hill/Getty Images)
Path of Exile 2 players are calling foul on Elon Musk's high-level hardcore character after he streams his struggles with core game mechanics
WASHINGTON, DC - NOVEMBER 13: Elon Musk listens as U.S. President-elect Donald Trump addresses a House Republicans Conference meeting at the Hyatt Regency on Capitol Hill on November 13, 2024 in Washington, DC. As is tradition with incoming presidents, Trump is traveling to Washington, DC to meet with U.S. President Joe Biden at the White House as well as meet with Republican congressmen on Capitol Hill. (Photo by Andrew Harnik/Getty Images)
'Elon is a father who gets lots of sex' somehow leads to renewed claims that Elon Musk superfan Adrian Dittmann is actually Musk himself
Latest in Gaming Industry
Former Treyarch studio co-head and Black Ops 3 director is heading up a new first-party PlayStation studio
Discord Social SDK
Your Discord friends list may soon appear directly in the games you play
Aloy - Horizon
'I feel worried about this art form:' Unsurprisingly, the real Aloy from Horizon isn't a fan of AI Aloy
Geralt, two swords on his back, in the wilderness
2011 was an amazing comeback year for PC gaming
Assassin's Creed meets PUBG
Ubisoft is reportedly talking to Tencent about creating a new business entity to manage Assassin's Creed and other big games
Possibility Space concept art.
Possibility Space owners sue NetEase for $900 million over allegations it spread 'false and defamatory rumors' of fraud at the studio that ultimately forced it to close
Latest in News
Three sheep with big guns in Palworld.
It was 'super popular to hate Palworld' after launch, says community manager: 'A lot of companies might crumble under the threats, under the pressure'
Palworld Ancient Civilization Parts - Grizzbolt with a minigun
'It was a very depressing day': Palworld community manager reveals studio's reaction to Nintendo lawsuit
CS 1.6 remade in CS: Legacy.
A gorgeous ground-up remake of Counter-Strike 1.6 is on its way to Steam, and one of the game's original creators says 'it really gives me old vibes'
Portal P3 pinball table
There's a new Portal game and it costs $12,500
MrBeast posing in front of a stack of cashing, promoting Beast Games season 2
Beast Games opens casting for season 2: MrBeast lost a ton of money on season 1 but apparently not enough that he won't do it again
Ark: Lost Colony teaser still.
Ark 2 is still on: The next Ark expansion 'leads into the events of Ark 2,' says Studio Wildcard