Who Owns X

X / SpaceX 🐔🐔🐔🐔🐔

Capitulation Rank: Propaganda
Category: Online Platforms & Streaming 
Market Cap: Privately held

In 2024, X owner Elon Musk donated nearly $300 million to Trump’s presidential campaign. This, in combination with Musk’s transformation of Twitter into a toxic megaphone for MAGA propaganda, had made Musk a Trump favorite. 

But Musk’s on-again-off-again bromance with Trump imploded in spectacular fashion in June 2025, and then appeared to be on the mend before it imploded again in a dispute over the federal deficit. By early 2026, the frosty relationship between the two seemed to undergo a new thaw as Musk pledged to “go all in” to help finance the campaigns of many Republicans running for office during the midterms.

It’s hard to stay ahead of these two. When they were on good terms, the Trump administration made Musk a “special government employee,” giving the billionaire vast oversight of federal-agency spending, including spending on programs that involve Musk’s private holdings. Even in the midst of their 2025 feud, Trump admitted that Musk “may get more [government] subsidy than any human being in history.” 

Thanks to the illicit manipulations of Trump’s Commerce Department, Musk’s satellite-internet service Starlink is in position to seize a huge slice of the federal government’s $42 billion rural-broadband affordability program. (Never mind that Starlink’s consumer-setup costs far exceed those of competing land-based options). He’s received an extra boost via Trump’s State Department, which is pitching Starlink overseas. Trump is also pushing Starlink contracts on countries engaging the president in tariff negotiations and other trade deals. Trump FCC Chairman Brendan Carr had gone out of his way to pave a path to billions’ worth of access to the publicly owned radio spectrum needed to expand Starlink’s services. 

Musk’s space-exploration company, SpaceX, is in line to secure billions more in lucrative contracts as NASA’s head administrator may shift the agency’s focus to putting a human on Mars (contracts for which Musk’s company pays next to nothing in federal taxes). Musk’s Boring Company, meanwhile, is in talks to receive a multibillion-dollar contract to dig tunnels for Amtrak. In September 2025, xAI contracted with the General Services Administration to offer its artificial-intelligence models to the government at a nominal cost. Never mind global concerns that xAI — via its retail product Grok — has been used to mass-generate and spread sexually exploitative images of children, for which it’s facing possible prosecution in the EU.

It’s not just federal purchases that benefit Musk. Changes to regulatory oversight — such as the decision to gut the National Highway and Traffic Safety Administration team that assesses the risks of self-driving cars — will also benefit Musk’s bottom line. “Handing [Musk] unchecked influence has allowed him to turn the federal government into an extension of his business empire,” wrote media critic Oliver Darcy.

Musk goes to war
SpaceX has secured billions of dollars’ worth of contracts with the Department of Defense and the U.S. intelligence community. The Musk-owned company is a primary contractor with the U.S. Space Force’s National Security Space program and holds a $1.8 billion classified contract with the National Reconnaissance Agency.

His ties with Russian President Vladimir Putin have compelled some members of Congress to call for an investigation into Musk’s dealings to determine whether this behavior should force a review of his continued involvement in SpaceX’s various defense and intelligence contracts with the U.S. government. SpaceX won launch contracts for five of seven national-security missions with the Space Force for fiscal year 2026. The five missions have a combined value of $714 million, according to Space Systems Command.

Musk’s artificial-intelligence venture, xAI, has been actively pursuing government contracts and in July 2025 secured a deal worth up to $200 million to help the Pentagon adopt advanced artificial-intelligence capabilities.  

DEI Doublespeak:

Musk has stated on X that “DEI is another word for racism.” He claims that DEI programs are a form of discrimination and must end.

What It Owns:

Elon Musk’s private company, xAI Corp., controls X (formerly known as Twitter) and artificial-intelligence applications Aurora, Grok and PromptIDE. Musk also controls SpaceX, parent company of Starlink, the world’s largest Low-Earth Orbit satellite-based broadband-service provider. Starlink does not report subscriber totals, but analysts estimate it was the ISP for 1.4 million subscribers in 2024. Musk is the largest shareholder in Tesla Inc., an electric-automobile and charging firm that has subsidiary companies in numerous industrial sectors across the globe.

Money & Influence Game:

Musk donated nearly $300 million to get Donald Trump elected in 2024. X paid lobbyists $720,000 in 2024, and its employees made $158,106 in contributions to political candidates (2024 cycle). (SOURCE: Center for Responsive Politics)