Elon Musk says X saw all-time high usage amid US elections frenzy

Billionaire Elon Musk said his social media platform X has registered record usage amid the US electing Republican candidate Donald Trump as president for a second time.

Musk posted a graphic showing that X recorded 434.1 billion global user seconds, a metric used to measure the total amount of time spent on a platform by users globally.

There has been a 15.5% increase in new user sign-ups and an estimated 43% sign-ups on X during the US election vote count, Musk said in his posts. He also claimed that X is now the top news app on AppStore in Canada and number 2 on the news app ranking in Norway.




Musk’s Trump campaign

On election day, Musk cheered on Donald Trump’s presidency and encouraged his 203 million followers on X to vote red (Republican). Although, according to Forbes, more billionaires backed Kamala Harris compared to Donald Trump, Musk, being one of the richest and most influential men in the world, has been the topic of discussion during the US election week, especially on online media.



Musk shared a photo of himself wearing a leather jacket adorned with a voting sticker. "Just voted in Cameron County, Texas, home of Starbase!" he added, referring to a facility for his rocket company, SpaceX. After voting, Musk flew to Florida to watch the election results alongside Trump at Mar-a-Lago, the former president's private club.


Monetary support

The Tesla and SpaceX CEO became a key proponent for the ‘Make America Great Again’ (MAGA) campaign not just via his online support but also by donating $120 million. Musk thus became the second highest financial backer for the Republican Party’s candidate, only preceded by billionaire Timothy Mellon.

Musk, who proved his influence by bouying up Trump throughout the campaign using his social channels, stands to gain a lot. Trump may also give him an official role to cut government spending, with which comes the power to influence policy and federal agencies.

Musk’s companies gaining

Elon Musk's net worth surged by $20.9 billion to reach $285.6 billion following Trump’s victory. His flagship company Tesla’s stock soared 14.8% while that of its competitors waned. Along with Musk, other tech giants like Jeff Bezos and Larry Ellison, too, saw a remarkable increase in their net worth.