Elon Musk’s X is still trying to woo back advertisers — this time with a rebuilt, AI-powered ads platform that started to roll out on Thursday.
The tech company initially struggled to grow ad revenue in the first few years of Musk’s reign, leading it to shift its focus to other monetization channels, including AI and subscriptions. However, forecasts from eMarketer indicate that X’s ad business has been turning around as of late, with estimated ad revenue of $2.26 billion in 2025, rising to $2.46 billion in 2026. While that’s still half the size of Twitter’s 2021 ad business, it’s headed in the right direction again.
Now, X is hoping to juice that growth further with a new ad platform.
According to X, it has begun a “phased rollout” of the new platform, which it claims will have more modern “retrieval and ranking systems,” powered by AI. These changes are meant to make it easier for marketers to create targeted campaigns that they can control. AI will be used to enhance the campaigns, offering better results, more relevant ad placements, and precise targeting, according to X.
“Very few companies would have the ambition and technical courage to completely rebuild their entire advertising platform in such a short timeframe. This is classic X and xAI — bold, fast, and focused on building something substantially better for advertisers,” said Monique Pintarelli, head of global advertising at xAI, in a statement posted on X. “We are designing this new ad stack to enable more rapid and seamless integration of ongoing innovation. Advertisers can expect a smooth delivery of continuous improvements and a regular drop of new features as we keep pushing the platform forward.”
It’s not surprising that rebuilding X’s ad platform was a priority for the company after it merged with Musk’s xAI last year.
AI has contributed to revenue growth in ad businesses across the tech industry, as this week’s earnings have shown. Google, Meta, and others have been enjoying a “digital ad boom,” The New York Times noted this week, as AI systems have helped to automate the various aspects of marketing, from ad creation to targeting to measurement. This has also lowered the barrier for smaller businesses, giving them access to the same tools used by corporate giants, the report said.
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