Tesla's Advertising Spending and Financial Dealings with Elon Musk's Companies

Tesla's Advertising Spending Decline on X and Other Platforms

Tesla's Ad Spending Decline: Tesla's advertising expenditure on the X platform, owned by Elon Musk, is experiencing a notable decline, with figures becoming almost negligible. After reaching $400,000 in 2024, estimates suggest that Tesla will spend only $60,000 on X ads throughout 2025, unless its advertising strategies significantly change during the remainder of the year.

Investment in X Ads for 2025: At the beginning of 2025, data showed that Tesla invested only $10,000 in X ads during the first two months, a very small amount compared to the $200,000 it spent in the same period of the previous year (2024). It's worth noting that Tesla's ad spending significantly slowed down after the first two months of 2024, concluding the year with an additional $200,000.

Tesla's Historical Advertising Approach: It's important to note that Tesla historically did not rely on advertising campaigns. Elon Musk only began adopting this approach in 2023, in response to shareholder pressure. Since then, ads for Tesla vehicles have spread across Google search results, YouTube, and also on X during late 2023 and early 2024. While the spending on X since February remains undefined, Google's ad transparency database shows that Tesla still runs about 700 active ads across various Google properties such as Search and YouTube. The company has not issued any comment regarding these figures.

Tesla's Payment to SpaceX for Private Jet Use

Financial Relations with SpaceX: In a related context to the financial relations between Elon Musk's companies, Tesla revealed its payment of approximately $800,000 to SpaceX in 2024. This amount was for the use of SpaceX's private rocket jet, an arrangement that allows Musk to travel between his various company headquarters. However, this expenditure is expected to decrease in 2025, as Tesla paid SpaceX only about $40,000 until February of this year for the jet's use.

Elon Musk's Personal Security Costs

Musk's Security Costs: The costs of protecting Elon Musk during his travels are not insignificant; Tesla announced it paid $2.8 million to a security company owned by Musk in 2024, an increase from the $2.4 million paid in 2023 when the contract began. As of February 2025, this security company received $500,000 from Tesla, stating that this amount represents "only a portion of the total cost for Mr. Musk's security services."

Tesla's Deal with xAI and Megapack Products

The Major xAI Deal: The deal with xAI, Elon Musk's artificial intelligence company, was the largest among his companies last year, with xAI paying Tesla $198.3 million. The vast majority of this amount was for Tesla's "Megapack" energy storage products, which xAI uses in its data center in Tennessee. It's worth noting that "Megapack" (Megapack) is a large-scale, rechargeable lithium-ion battery product designed for utility-scale energy storage, used by power companies to meet demand during peak periods or grid outages (Source: Wikipedia, updated August 2025). As of August 2025, xAI also paid an additional $36.8 million to Tesla for "Megapack" products during the first two months of this year.

Tesla's Payment to Nova Sky Stories

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Drone Show: Furthermore, Tesla revealed its payment of $300,000 to "Nova Sky Stories," a drone company owned by Kimball Musk, Elon Musk's brother. This amount was for the show provided by the company at Tesla's "We, Robot" event in October 2024.