Elon Musk's Twitter takeover math has changed

I really hate Axios' format, but they're not wrong.

Elon Musk overpaid for Twitter when he bought it for $44 billion in late 2022, after unsuccessfully trying to renegotiate or renege.

Now a new conventional wisdom is emerging: Twitter is a loss leader for the rest of Elon Inc.

The argument is that Musk bought Twitter for power, not profit. And that the gamble paid off.

• Musk used the platform to help shape public opinion during the election, artificially amplifying his political messages and giving him- influence with Donald Trump that money alone wouldn't have bought.
• Trump's victory means that Musk has become the most powerful unelected American ever — and that could be a boon for SpaceX and Tesla, whose fortunes are heavily dependent on federal government contracts and policies.-
• Those two companies also are much larger than Twitter/X, even at $44 billion, and more core to Musk's lifelong goals.