The $44B Twitter/X buyout was not a failure. For example Fidelity has its $19M investment in the buyout - now xAI common shares - marked at $62M (up over 3X) as of 12/31/25. It was certainly valued even higher on 1/31/26 after xAI had an oversubcribed fund raise in January. All before this merger announcement.

▲

paxys 6 hours ago | parent | next [-]

The fact that it had to be successively bailed out by xAI (which itself was funded by Tesla) and now SpaceX shareholders is exactly what makes the acquisition a failure.

	▲	torginus 6 hours ago \| parent \| next [-]
		He spent other people's money (or maybe even imaginary money) he couldn't have used for himself (since selling off major stakes in your company is a big nono)
	▲	spikels 5 hours ago \| parent \| prev [-]
		A "bailout" is when a company rescued from bankruptcy. Common equity holders take large losses or are wiped out. This did not happen here. We also know the Twitter buyout debt was sold at near par before the merger with xAI which is inconsistent with being near bankruptcy.

▲

cowsandmilk 5 hours ago | parent | prev [-]

> xAI had an oversubcribed fund raise in January

My understanding is that it was not oversubscribed and would not have closed without Tesla’s investment.

	▲	spikels 3 hours ago \| parent [-]
		It was originally for $15B. They raised $20B of which $2B was from Tesla. Your sources might be shady (Elektrek?).