SpaceX, Twitter and electric car maker Tesla CEO Elon Musk looks on as he speaks during his visit at the Vivatech technology startups and innovation fair at the Porte de Versailles exhibition center in Paris, on June 16, 2023. (Photo by Alain JOCARD / AFP) (Photo by ALAIN JOCARD/AFP via Getty Images)
Alain Jocard | Afp | Getty Images
Tesla and SpaceX CEO Elon Musk, who is also CTO and executive chairman of Twitter, said early Saturday morning that cash flow remains negative at the social media company because of a nearly 50% drop in advertising revenue coupled with “heavy debt.”
“Need to reach positive cash flow before we have the luxury of anything else,” Musk wrote in response to a tweet.
Musk took over Twitter in October of last year in a deal valued at around $44 billion, including about $13 billion in debt. He sold billions of dollars worth of his Tesla shares in part to finance that deal.
By January, hundreds of advertisers had reduced or halted their ad spending on Twitter in response to Musk making steep staff cuts at the company, and implementing changes to the platform, especially restoring previously banned accounts and changing its approach to content moderation.
In April, Musk told a BBC reporter that “almost all” advertisers had resumed buying ads on Twitter. He also claimed at that time that the company was “roughly breakeven,” and expected to become cash flow positive within the next quarter.
His statement about Twitter’s cash flow problems today comes a little over one month since Linda Yaccarino, who previously ran global advertising for Comcast’s NBCUniversal, took on the role of Twitter CEO. NBCUniversal is the parent company of CNBC.
Yaccarino’s appointment inspired hope among media industry insiders that Twitter would address immediate challenges to its ad business.
In recent days, Twitter began doling out a share of its ad revenue to select content creators on its platform. Musk’s remarks were made in response to followers who wanted to know why that revenue-sharing program was so limited in scope.
A number of widely followed accounts on Twitter posted that they were dismayed they did not qualify to earn income from the program yet. As The Verge previously reported, the revenue-sharing program was available only to users who paid for a Twitter Blue verified subscription, and amounts paid were “driven by ads placed in the replies to tweets.”
Influencer Andrew Tate — who espouses misogynistic views online, and faces a trial on charges of rape, human trafficking and forming a criminal gang to sexually exploit women in Romania — posted that Twitter paid him more than $20,000. Tate has sued the accusers who made those charges.
Several right-wing influencers also posted about receiving Twitter payments, along with fans and promoters of Tesla stock and products, including Omar Qazi (who uses the handle “@WholeMarsBlog” on Twitter) and Sawyer Merritt, who each posted about netting more than $5,000.
Mainstream influencers who shared details about their Twitter income included Brian and Ed Krassenstein, Mr. Beast and the account @interneth0f (which stands for Internet Hall of Fame). The Internet Hall of Fame posts screenshots of other people’s popular posts from social media and re-circulates them.
It’s not clear how much Twitter paid creators in total in this first round of payments. Twitter sent an automated reply with a crude symbol in response to CNBC’s request for comment on Saturday. The parent company of Twitter, X Corp., is facing myriad lawsuits from former employees and vendors over non-payment of bills and severance.
Thomas Fuller | SOPA Images | Lightrocket | Getty Images
Apple approved the Epic Games title Fortnite on Tuesday, returning the first-person shooter game to the App Store in the U.S., five years after its removal.
Fortnite was kicked off the App Store in 2020 after Epic updated its game over the web to take payments directly, instead of through Apple’s in-app payment mechanism, which takes fees up to 30%. The move angered Apple and kicked off a years-long legal battle.
Last month, Epic scored a victory in court, when a judge ruled that Apple wasn’t allowed to charge a commission when apps link out for payment, or dictate whether the links look like buttons. Epic said last week that it had submitted Fortnite to the U.S. App Store. To return, Fortnite had to pass App Review, Apple’s process in which new apps or updates are reviewed by Apple employees to ensure they work and adhere to the company’s guidelines.
Apple had dragged out its approval process for the app since May 9, when Epic submitted it to Apple. Last week, Epic filed a legal challenge, and on Monday, a judge said that Apple had to explain why Fortnite hadn’t been approved yet or come to a resolution with Epic over the game’s status.
Apple is appealing the latest court order, and looking to get a pause enabling it to roll back changes the company has already made to the App Store in response. An Apple representative didn’t immediately return a request for comment.
Last month’s ruling led major app makers such as Amazon and Spotify to change their apps to accommodate links to buy content. For example, users can now buy Kindle books inside the Kindle app on an iPhone.
Amazon and Spotify were able to update existing apps that had already been approved with changes enabled by last month’s order. After Epic sued Apple, the iPhone maker revoked Epic’s developer account in addition to booting Fortnite.
Epic was able to get a European developer account and now offers Fortnite in Europe through a third-party app store under the Digital Markets Act, which went into effect last year. IPhone users can also play Fortnite through cloud gaming services. But even in Europe, Apple tried to terminate Epic’s account before backing off, Epic said.
The fees that Apple takes from the App Store are an increasingly important part of Apple’s business. They’re reported in Apple’s Services business, which also includes advertising, AppleCare warranties, payments, and subscription offerings such as Apple TV+. Apple reported nearly $27 billion in services revenue during the March quarter.
A Waymo self-driving car, seen with a driver, stops at a red light outside the U.S. Capitol in Washington, D.C., on Friday, March 31, 2025.
Bill Clark | CQ-Roll Call, Inc. | Getty Images
Waymo co-CEO Tekedra Mawakana told CNBC on Tuesday that the Alphabet-owned ride-hailing company has reached 10 million trips, doubling in the past five months.
“These are all paid trips, and they represent people who are really integrating Waymo Driver into their everyday lives,” said Mawakana, speaking at the Google I/O developer conference. The 10 million figure includes rides in Austin, Los Angeles, San Francisco and the Phoenix area.
Waymo is delivering more than 250,000 paid robotaxi rides a week, Alphabet said in its April earnings report. On Monday, Waymo said it had won approval to expand its autonomous ride-hailing service to more parts of the San Francisco Bay Area, including San Jose.
The robotaxi company is part of Alphabet’s “Other Bets” unit. Revenue in the overall category fell 9% in the first quarter from a year earlier to $450 million, and operating loss grew from to $1.23 billion from $1.02 billion a year ago.
While those figures include a number of businesses, Mawakana confirmed that Waymo is not yet profitable but that the company is “super focused on building a sustainable business.”
“We’re proving out that it can be a profitable business,” she said. “There’s a path to profitability.”
Waymo faces potential competition from Tesla, which has promised to launch its robotaxi service in Austin next month. Tesla CEO Elon Musktold CNBC on Tuesday that the plan was still on track, and that the company will start with about 10 vehicles and rapidly expand to thousands if the debut goes well with no incidents.
Musk said Tesla aims to bring its robotaxis to Los Angeles and San Francisco following the planned Austin launch. He has previously claimed Tesla’s “generalized” approach to robotaxis is more ambitious than Waymo’s. Tesla primarily relies on camera-based systems and computer vision instead of using sophisticated sensors including lidar and radar in its vehicles.
Mawakana said that Waymo has taken what it views as the “safest path.”
“There’s probably a lot of ways it can be done, but we’re the only ones that have done it,” she said. “We’ve been doing it 24 hours a day for almost five years. And so to us, it’s really important to focus on safety, not focus on safety and then cost — not cost and then safety.”
Xreal said its Project Aura glasses will run Google Android XR.
Xreal
Xreal on Tuesday announced a set of so-called “extended reality” glasses that run Google’s Android XR software, as the companies look to take on Meta and Apple in a new arena.
The launch marks an early step from Alphabet‘s Google to become a major operating system for future virtual and augmented reality smart glasses and headsets, much like Android has turned into a default option for most smartphones.
Xreal, a Chinese company backed by Alibaba, calls its glasses Project Aura and describes them as a lightweight extended reality — or XR — product. XR is a broad term encompassing technologies that merge real and virtual worlds.
Android XR, Google’s operating system for these products, was launched last year and is infused with its AI assistant Gemini.
Samsung’s Project Moohan, a type of headset that looks to rival Apple’s $3,500 Vision Pro, was the first device announced that runs Android XR. Samsung plans to launch the hardware this year.
Xreal’s Project Aura is the second device announced that will operate on Android XR, and it is the first such device in the glasses format.
Few details have been released about the tech, which was announced at the Google I/O conference. Xreal said the glasses will have Qualcomm‘s Snapdragon XR chips, which are specially designed for these pieces of hardware.
Xreal also said the glasses will be “tethered,” meaning they will connect to another device to run. The company has not yet provided details on what the glasses will need to be linked to.
The startup has released previous products that have run its in-house operating system, featured its own chips and connected to its own second device. But Project Aura will now rely more heavily on Google’s software and on Qualcomm semiconductors.
The timeline and price of Project Aura were not immediately disclosed. Xreal will likely release a headset for developers to start experimenting and building apps first, then a consumer product at a later date.
For Google, the more devices that run Android XR, the more appealing it will be for developers to build apps for the operating system. A large part of any operating system’s success is the quality of apps available for users.
For Xreal, being an early partner with Google and working with Qualcomm will give it access to the latest technology in the XR space, as well as to marketing for its products.
Glasses also offer an alternative to bulky headsets. Tech giants including Apple and Meta see extended reality as a potential new paradigm in computing.