X advertisers silent after Grok goes off the rails, CEO resigns

Most advertisers on X are choosing to remain silent on their future plans and relationship with the company after Grok went on a racist and antisemitic spree.

Most major advertisers on X are choosing to remain silent about their plans and relationship with the company after the platform’s AI chatbot, Grok, went on a racist and antisemitic posting spree Tuesday and X’s CEO Linda Yaccarino announced her resignation the next day.

The silence from advertisers following Grok’s praise of Hitler and promotion of antisemitic conspiracy theories stands in a stark contrast to the advertising community’s response in 2023, when companies like Apple, Disney and Warner Bros. Discovery publicly paused their spending on X after owner Elon Musk agreed with a user who posted that Jewish communities had pushed “dialectical hatred against whites.” Many of those companies reportedly resumed running their ads on the platform in 2024 but spending significantly less. The companies, including Disney, Warner Bros. Discovery, Lionsgate and Comcast (NBC News’ parent company) did not immediately respond to requests for comment.

This week, NBC News contacted 31 companies that had reportedly purchased ads on the platform in the last several years, including major businesses like Temu, Robinhood, Shein, Dell, Waymo, Samsung, the NFL, Amazon, Microsoft, the NBA and Apple, and asked whether they had plans to pause their ads. Most did not respond or declined to comment.

But even if no public statements have been made, there are some indications that advertisers are slowing their business with X behind the scenes.

A person familiar with the company DraftKings, which was labeled as one of the platform’s top ad spenders in early 2025, said the company was addressing the matter internally. Amazon declined to comment.