Tesla is paying $20,000 a year to be on Elon Musk’s X, and it’s not clear why
Tesla keeps creating new paying accounts on Elon Musk’s X (formerly Twitter) to the point that it is now likely paying around $20,000 per year to be on the social media platform.
It’s not clear what it is getting in return.
Public companies, like Tesla, have to disclose any “related transaction” that may have conflict of interest between its executives or board members and any other companies that they have interests in.
For example, Tesla often disclosed dealings with SpaceX over the shared use of Elon Musk’s plane or the latter’s purchase of Tesla parts.
Now Tesla is going to have more to disclose and possibly justify to its shareholders as it is starting to spend more money on X (formerly Twitter), which is under the ownership of its CEO, Elon Musk.
X has been having issues behind being profitable with advertising, and it has turned to subscription services.
Twitter Blue, now X Premium, is a $8 per month subscription service for X users. It “verifies” the user, gives them a blue badge, and gets them more visibility.
But X is also pushing a subscription for businesses called “Verified Organizations” with similar features:
It is quite expensive. X charges $1,000 a month for the main account and then $50 per month for every other “affiliated account.”
Tesla is paying for this service and Electrek has found 13 accounts affiliated to Tesla’s verified org account.
It means that Tesla is paying $1,650 per month – or roughly $20,000 per year – to be on X.
Where things are starting to look excessive is that Tesla appears to be launching several new accounts requiring an additional $50 per month payment for every aspect of its business since Musk took over Twitter and launched this new subscription service.
For example, Tesla launched a new “Tesla North America” account last month, a new “Tesla Europe” account in January, a new “Tesla AI” account in May, a new “Tesla Megapack” account in January, and new “Tesla Optimus” account also in January.
This strategy is unique to X as Tesla operates only a single official account on other social media platforms, like Instagram and Youtube.
The Tesla Optimus account has posted a single tweet since it was created in January:
Tesla has been paying $50 per month for this account which has been sitting useless for most of the time.
The automaker has also been paying “affiliate accounts” for executives like Franz von Holzhausen, Drew Baglino, and Tom Zhu, who all rarely use their accounts for anything other than repost Tesla’s own official posts.
Electrek’s Take
Update: Tesla fans seem to be missing the point here. They are focusing on the amount, which everyone agrees is meaningless for Tesla. It’s not the amount the problem, it is the decision-making being a slippery slope. Ironically, I explained it on X:
I think Elon Musk is trying to use Tesla as an example of how he would like companies to use X, but Tesla shareholders should ask themselves if that’s good for Tesla or if it’s just good for X.
Creating a bunch of new accounts, something Tesla doesn’t do on other more popular social media platforms seems excessive to me – especially when you consider that most of these accounts simply repost from other Tesla accounts.
That seems like a waste of $50 per month for each account. Obviously, that’s not much for a $750 billion company, but it does raise eyebrows when that waste goes straight into the pockets of X, which is owned by Elon Musk, who also happens to be the CEO of Tesla.
I think X has the potential to become something great, but you can’t force it like that. It is going to happen or it won’t, but I don’t think doing shady things like that is going to help.
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Environment
U.S. could reach deal with Canada that avoids oil and gas tariffs, energy secretary says
HOUSTON — The U.S. could reach an agreement with Canada that avoids tariffs on imports of oil, gas and other energy resources, Energy Secretary Chris Wright said Monday.
Wright said such a scenario is “certainly is possible” but “it’s too early to say” in response to a question from CNBC during a press conference at the CERAWeek by S&P Global. The U.S. is in “active dialogue” with Canada and Mexico, the energy secretary said.
President Donald Trump has paused until April 2 tariffs on Mexican and Canadian imports that are compliant with the agreement which governs trade in North America. Trump originally imposed broad 25% tariffs on goods from both countries as well as lesser 10% tariffs on energy imports from Canada.
It’s unclear, however, how much of the oil, gas and other energy that the U.S. imports from Canada is compliant with the United States-Mexico-Canada Agreement. Wright declined to provide specifics when CNBC asked how much of those imports are USMCA compliant.
“I’m going to avoid the details for now,” Wright said. The energy secretary said, “We can get to no tariffs or very low tariffs but it’s got to be reciprocal” in an interview with CNBC’s Brian Sullivan.
Canada’s energy minister, Jonathan Wilkinson, warned last week that energy prices will rise in the U.S. if the tariffs on energy imports go into full effect.
“We will see higher gasoline prices as a function of energy, higher electricity prices from hydroelectricity from Canada, higher home heating prices associated with natural gas that comes from Canada and higher automobile prices,” Wilkinson told CNBC’s Megan Cassella in an interview.
The U.S. has been the largest producer of crude oil and natural gas in the world for years. But many refiners in the U.S. are dependent on heavy crude imported from Canada. The U.S. imported 6.6 million barrels of crude oil per day on average in December, more than 60% of which came from Canada, according to the Energy Information Administration.
Wright acknowledged that the tariffs are creating uncertainty in energy markets as negotiations continue.
“We’re in the middle of negotiations for where things are going to go with tariffs, so that feels frightening and gripping right now but this time will pass,” Wright said. “Deals will be made, we’ll get certainty and we’ll have a positive economic environment for Americans going forward.”
U.S. crude oil fell more than 1% Monday to close at $66.03 per barrel, while global benchmark Brent closed at $69.28 per barrel. Crude oil futures have pulled back substantially as Trump’s trade policy creates uncertainty and OPEC+ has confirmed that it plans to gradually bring back 2.2 million barrels per day of production beginning next month.
Apple is rolling out a notable update to Apple Maps EV Routing for Ford drivers. Starting today, Ford Mustang Mach-E and F-150 Lightning drivers can use Apple Maps EV Routing via CarPlay to plan road trips that include Tesla Superchargers – or any station that uses the North American Charging Standard (NACS) connector.
As I’ve explained before, Ford began shipping adapters CCS to NACS adapters that allow Mach-E and Lightning drivers to charge at Tesla Superchargers last year. Until today, however, Apple Maps was unaware of this change. This meant Apple Maps EV Routing would only route Mach-E and Lightning drivers to CCS charging stations, even though a route with Tesla Superchargers might’ve been more efficient.
With today’s change, Apple Maps via CarPlay will now include NACS fast charging stations, such as compatible Tesla Superchargers, in recommended route planning recommendations.
In a blog post, Ford explains:
Apple Maps EV Routing in CarPlay allows drivers to input their route and can view the estimated battery level they will have when they get to a destination, as well as suggested charging stations along the way if charging is needed. Previously, Mustang Mach-E and F-150 Lightning drivers would have to manually open another app, then enter a NACS fast charger as a destination to have it added to their route. Now, with the Apple Maps EV Routing and NACS fast charger integration, the experience will be more seamless.
How to Use Apple Maps EV Routing in CarPlay:
- Connect your Apple iPhone to CarPlay.
- Open Apple Maps, go to Settings, and confirm your preferred charging network(s) – make sure you select a NACS fast charging station, such as Tesla Supercharger. You only have to do this once.
- Enter a destination.
- Apple Maps will then calculate the estimated state of charge you will have when you get to a destination.
- If a charge is required, depending on the fastest route, it will automatically route you to a NACS fast charging station.*
This is a significant update to the Apple Maps EV Routing experience for Ford drivers. Next up on my wishlist is support for battery preconditioning when using Apple Maps EV Routing. Android Auto added this feature last October.
The new feature is available now to iPhone users running iOS 17 or later. No software update is required for your car.
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James Murdoch, a Tesla board member and friend of CEO Elon Musk, has confirmed that he sold about $13 million in stock today as the stock (TSLA) crashed.
There has been a lot of insider trading at Tesla lately, and by trading, we mean selling – cause no insider is ever buying at Tesla.
We recently reported on Kimball Musk, Elon’s brother, and Tesla’s Chief Financial Officer Taneja Vaibhav recently selling ahead of a recent drop in the company’s stock price.
Tesla’s chairwoman, Robyn Denholm, also sold $33 million worth of Tesla shares last week and over $100 million in the last 3 months.
Now, it’s James Murdoch’s turn. The Tesla board member just confirmed, through a required SEC filing, that he sold 54,776 Tesla shares for just over $13 million today:
He sold as Tesla’s stock crashed 15% today. It is now down more than 50% from its all-time high just a few months ago.
Murdoch was appointed to Tesla’s board in 2017.
He is better known as the son of media mogul Rupert Murdoch and the former CEO of 21st Century Fox from 2015 to 2019.
Murdoch was one of the Tesla board directors who was forced to return almost $1 billion in cash and stock options to Tesla as part of a settlement for over-compensation.
Electrek’s Take
Tesla insiders are unloading, and those are just the ones we know about. Public companies only have to report insider trading for board directors and listed top executives.
For the latter, Tesla purposefully only lists 3 people: Elon, Vaibhav Taneja, Tesla’s CFO, and Tom Zhu, whose role at Tesla has bit quite fluid in recent years.
Therefore, we don’t know about the dozens of other top executives potentially selling their shares right now amid a giant correction.
It’s really suspicious because there are clear top leaders at Tesla who are often on Tesla’s earnings calls, and they are not even listed, like Lars Moravy, for example.
But it’s par for the course at Tesla, which has some of the worst corporate governance I have ever seen. It’s truly shameful.
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