X is rolling out what it calls the most ambitious overhaul of its advertising platform in the company’s 20-year history. The company is rebuilding its Ads Manager from scratch, as Elon Musk pushes the platform deeper into payments, advertising, and AI.
The ad platform rebuild was announced earlier today. According to a post on X, the phased rollout begins this month.
Three pillars of the rebuild
The overhaul centers on three main pillars: simplicity, advertiser control, and AI-powered performance. X says the new system uses modern retrieval and ranking models to understand user behavior in real time. The goal is to improve ad relevance, targeting, engagement, and return on investment.
This gives X a stronger ad tech foundation. The platform has been trying to regain advertiser momentum after years of turbulence under Musk’s ownership. Last year, X was expected to post its first annual ad revenue growth since Musk’s 2022 takeover, but revenue remained below its pre-acquisition peak. X’s ad tools have also long been viewed as weaker than rival platforms, making this overhaul a long-needed reset.
Integration with xAI
The new ad stack ties directly into X’s closer integration with xAI. Monique Pintarelli, head of global advertising at xAI, said the rebuild is designed to allow faster product updates and a regular flow of new features for advertisers. This suggests X wants to move away from its past reputation for slow, clunky ad tools.
Timing and the everything app push
The timing matters because X is pushing on multiple fronts at once. Musk said in March that X Money, the platform’s digital payments system, would enter early public access in April. Reuters previously reported that X had partnered with Visa to support wallet funding, peer-to-peer payments, and transfers back to bank accounts.
Together, the ad rebuild, X Money rollout, and xAI integration show X moving further toward Musk’s everything app strategy. Whether this will bring advertisers back in large numbers remains to be seen, but the platform is at least trying to fix its core ad infrastructure.
