Elon Musk’s recent purchase of Twitter (now X) has been a bit of a debacle, and now something fishy looks like it’s going on at the bird app. A large, arguably wasteful number of accounts have emerged related to Musk’s other company, Tesla, which could cost the automaker as much as $20,000 a year.
It should hardly come as a surprise that Tesla has more than one account on X, that’s a practice as old as the internet. However, the amount that these accounts are likely paying to be on the app (combined with their lack of activity) is a bit scandalous.
After angering just about every one of Twitter’s advertisers, Elon Musk rolled out X Premium, and the related “Verified Organizations” subscription services. These allow users to have a blue checkmark that verifies that they are who they say they are, and offers them increased visibility.
Read: Tesla Investigated Elon Musk For Using Company Funds To Build Giant Glass House
Whereas this costs $8 a month for regular users, it rises to $1,000 per month for businesses. Spin-offs then add another $50 per month to be “affiliated accounts.” Electrek reports that Tesla has so many of these, that it is likely paying $1,650 per month, or $20,000 a year to be on X, a company with which it shares an owner.
While that’s a relatively small amount to an organization like Tesla (or the richest person on earth, Elon Musk), it looks distinctly wasteful when accounts like @Tesla_Optimus (for the humanoid robot) have posted just once since being created in January.
In addition, Tesla appears to be paying for the accounts of some of its executives, such as Franz von Holzhausen, its head of design, Drew Baglino, its head of powertrains, and Tom Zhu, its VP of automotive, who also rarely use their boss’s other app.
Beyond being an apparent waste of money, Elon Musk is using that money on his own bad decision to goad Twitter into selling itself to him against his will. Generally, investors aren’t fond of that kind of wastefulness.
