Move aims to boost X’s struggling ad business after leadership shake-up
The plan
Elon Musk, owner of X (formerly Twitter), said the platform will soon introduce ads within Grok’s AI chatbot responses, according to the Financial Times.
- Marketers will be able to pay to appear in Grok’s suggestions.
- Ads will be placed contextually — e.g., if a user asks for a solution, the AI could recommend a paid product or service.
Why now
X’s ad business has been under pressure since the departure of former CEO Linda Yaccarino.
- Musk said the priority so far was to make Grok “the smartest, most accurate AI in the world.”
- Now the focus is on covering the high cost of GPUs needed to run the AI.
Targeting technology
- Musk plans to integrate xAI technology — from his AI startup — to improve ad targeting on X.
- xAI acquired X earlier this year for $45 billion.
Musk’s pitch to advertisers
“If a user’s trying to solve a problem [by asking Grok], then advertising the specific solution would be ideal at that point.”
