Unlock the Editor’s Digest for free
Roula Khalaf, Editor of the FT, selects her favourite stories in this weekly newsletter.
Linda Yaccarino is stepping down as chief executive of X two years into a role where she attempted to claw back advertising dollars while dealing with the mercurial behaviour of the platform’s owner Elon Musk.
In a post on X announcing her decision, Yaccarino said she had “decided to step down” but was grateful to the billionaire entrepreneur, citing “the opportunity of a lifetime to carry out the extraordinary mission of this company”.
“Now, the best is yet to come as X enters a new chapter with xAI,” she added.
Musk’s artificial intelligence start-up xAI acquired X for $45bn in March to combine the data, models, computing power and talent of the two companies.
“Thank you for your contributions,” Musk replied to Yaccarino’s post. The company has not announced a successor.
Yaccarino’s resignation came a day after Grok, xAI’s chatbot that is integrated into X, repeatedly praised Adolf Hitler and shared antisemitic rhetoric on the platform, causing public outrage.
Late on Tuesday, xAI removed some of the posts and announced it was taking “action to ban hate speech before Grok posts on X”.
A Madison Avenue veteran who was formerly NBCUniversal’s head of advertising, Yaccarino was appointed to head up the platform in mid-2023.
However, Musk has remained active in leading X’s decision-making and product development, a role critics have argued revealed the limits of Yaccarino’s power.
The decision to integrate X into xAI “diminished the importance of the legacy ad business” overseen by Yaccarino, said Lou Paskalis, chief executive of marketing consultancy AJL Advisory and a friend of the former X boss. “It’s clear that the priority is subscription revenue,” he added.
Her departure comes at difficult time for Musk’s vast business empire. The billionaire has been under pressure from investors who argue he has become distracted by politics, having served in Donald Trump’s administration and then specularly fallen out with the US president.
One of Musk’s longtime lieutenants, Omead Afshar, left his job at Tesla last month as the electric-car maker suffers a sales downturn and a weakening share price.
Musk in May promised to step back from politics, posting that he would be “super focused on X/xAI and Tesla”. But last week the world’s richest man said he would start a new US political party.
Politics may also have been a factor in Yaccarino’s departure. Even as Musk was having a public spat with Trump, Yaccarino, a committed Republican, remained a strong supporter of the president.
Trump invited her to an event in May at the Rose Garden, where he praised her support of the Take it Down Act, aimed at protecting children from online exploitation. “Thank you, Linda,” Trump said at the event. “You’re doing a great job. It’s a big deal, right?”
One longtime confidante of Yaccarino’s said: “You can’t underestimate the Trump of it all.”
In her time at X, Yaccarino was tasked with bringing back advertisers who had pulled their spending over Musk’s decision to relax moderation on the platform as well as his own provocative and sometimes conspiracy-laced posts.
As chief executive, she sought to improve X’s video features, boost relations with creators and sports leagues, and develop X Money, a digital wallet and peer-to-peer payment service that is set to be released later in the year.
In an interview with the Financial Times last month, Yaccarino said 96 per cent of the company’s advertising clients from before its acquisition had returned to the platform.
However, the advertising business has continued to face challenges, and tensions with marketers have repeatedly flared, with Musk publicly berating those who boycotted the platform.
Multiple advertisers and agency executives have told the FT they remained cautious about running ads on X, citing high levels of hate speech and toxic content, while some were only spending nominal amounts.
Advertiser spending on the platform was boosted by Musk’s initially close relationship to Trump, before they fell out.
Last month, Yaccarino pushed back against allegations that the social media company recently threatened brands with lawsuits if they failed to buy advertising on X.
Speaking to the FT, she dismissed as “hearsay” a Wall Street Journal report that said half a dozen brands, including Verizon and Ralph Lauren, had struck deals to buy ads after receiving the threats.
“It’s unnamed sources, random third-party commenters,” Yaccarino said.
Yaccarino took over the role from Musk, who had bought the company for $44bn in October 2022. He had signalled his time as chief would be temporary after facing concerns from Tesla investors that he was not focused enough on the carmaker.
