Elon Musk’s Irish X unit pays €680m dividend last year despite huge losses

Irish arm of X company records pre-tax loss of €240m in 2024

X's Irish unit recorded a pre-tax loss of €240 million in 2024. Photo Anna Barclay/Getty
X's Irish unit recorded a pre-tax loss of €240 million in 2024. Photo Anna Barclay/Getty

The Irish arm of Elon Musk’s X, formerly Twitter, recorded a pre-tax loss of €240.5 million in 2024 mainly due to a €120 million provision concerning a fine imposed by the European Commission last December.

New accounts filed by the Dublin-based X Internet UC show that the €240.5 million pre-tax loss for 2024 was a 19 per cent increase on the pre-tax loss of €202.5 million for 2023.

The directors state that “the increased loss is primarily attributable to a €120 million provision recognised in respect of the fine imposed by the European Commission on December 5th 2025”.

The commission imposed the €120 million fine on X Internet UC after an investigation into X’s blue checkmark, the advertisement repository and data access to researchers.

The directors state that the company “intends to challenge the commission’s decision in the Court of Justice of the European Union”.

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Revenues at X Internet UC - formerly Twitter International UC - slumped by 10 per cent from €1.17 billion to €1.05 billion in 2024, and this followed a 21 per cent decline in revenues in 2023.

The directors state that “our advertising revenue decline is primarily driven by a reduction in spend from large brand advertisers due to concerns about brand safety, reputation and/or content moderation”.

They state that “the business continues to take corrective measures to build brand safety tools, invest in platform safety and content moderation and then educate advertisers about these initiatives”.

The directors state that excluding the effect of €120 million regulatory provision, “the underlying operating result improved year-on-year, driven mainly by restructuring programs that delivered significant cost reductions”.

“However, the company continued to report a loss, reflecting a decline in revenue that outpaced the reduction in operating costs associated with maintaining and operating the platform, and data hosting services”.

The loss takes account of non-cash amortisation costs of €527.48 million in 2024.

The firm incurred a further €700,000 redundancy cost charge in 2024, which followed combined redundancy costs of €13.1 million over the previous two years.

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Numbers declined further with the net loss of 79 jobs in 2024, from 187 to 108, as staff costs declined from €23 million to €17.4 million that year.

Musk took the business private after his $44 billion purchase in October 2022, a year in which the Irish unit employed 375 people and staff costs totalled €59.9 million.

In 2024, X Internet UC recorded post-tax losses of €250.68 million after incurring a corporation tax charge of €10.1 million.

In a post balance sheet event, the company declared and paid an interim dividend of €468 million to its parent, Lorikeet Inc, last June. In November 2025, the company declared a further interim dividend of $250 million (€216 million), which was paid to Lorikeet on December 4th.

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Gordon Deegan

Gordon Deegan

Gordon Deegan is a contributor to The Irish Times