Earlier this week, following the widely publicized Grok meltdown, Linda Yaccarino announced she is stepping down as CEO of X. The news, fittingly, broke on X.
Elon Musk, the platform’s owner, thanked her for her work.
Now, as X enters its next chapter, the company is facing something of an identity crisis. The app is rapidly expanding into new areas beyond digital advertising—job postings, video calling, and a deal with Visa, among them. Musk has long stated his goal of turning X into an “everything app.” He also sees X as a valuable firehose of real-time data to train Grok, which is owned by his AI company xAI. In fact, this “data oil” could be among X’s most valuable assets, especially as LLM companies like OpenAI reportedly begin to hit limits on high-quality training data (even as platforms like ChatGPT continue to generate massive proprietary datasets).
X, like Meta and Google, sits on a uniquely rich source of behavioral data—one that Musk likely views as core to his AI ambitions.
Why This Matters:
Let’s return to the ad business for a moment—and why X might be seeking to diversify. Despite Linda Yaccarino’s visible efforts to rebuild advertiser trust, launch new capabilities, and improve and expand inventory, ad revenue in the U.S. remains fairly weak. This is according to brand-new data from MediaRadar, which shows that ad spend continues to lag well behind historical levels.
While it’s possible Yaccarino helped soften the decline, it’s also clear the ad business hasn’t rebounded—and may not return to its pre-2022 highs.
That raises the question: does new leadership better align with X’s future ambitions?
Experts React:
Brett House, MediaRadar’s SVP of Product GTM and Growth, says spending on X has seen a “precipitous decline over the last 3 years,” and continues that “it doesn’t look like big brand advertisers are coming back w/out big changes.”
Our Take:
Linda’s departure may mark the start of a new chapter for X. In recent months, the company has quietly strengthened its ad leadership bench. Ads may still remain the primary revenue driver, followed by subscriptions and emerging features.
But as X tries to become more than a social platform, and provide “everything” (or at least something for everyone), it’s not necessarily surprising to see its leadership shift as its business evolves.
