‘More focused on advertising than ever before’: Nearly all of X’s top 100 advertisers returned, ads boss claims

“We are more focused on advertising than ever before,” Pintarelli told Digiday during CES, noting that X’s large clients in the U.S. grew by over 40% in 2025, though she didn’t share specifics. “We have a number of brands that are not just back, they’re spending at or higher than pre-acquisition levels,” she added, without specific figures.

And there is the kicker. What remains unclear is the size of that recovery. Pintarelli did not share dollar figures, baseline or client definitions, leaving the scale of the rebound more implied than proven.  

Nevertheless, the supposed rebound marks the latest turn in a relationship that has been volatile since Musk took over. Advertisers initially fled over concerns their brands would be swept up in the platform’s increasingly divisive discourse, Over time, that posture thawed, helped along by together brand safety controls, a recalibrated sales push, and in some cases the specter of legal pressure from Musk himself.

According to ad spending data from Sensor Tower, six of the top 100 advertisers from 2022 spent more on X ads in the U.S. in 2025. Unsurprisingly, that includes the NFL, which has spent 365% more, Samsung (297% more), NBA (150% more), Dell (95% more), DraftKings (55% more) and Chipotle (10% more). Additional estimates showed that 64 of the top 100 advertising spenders on X in 2022, spent on the platform in 2025. However Sensor Tower estimated these brands spent around 50% less on X ads in 2025 than in 2022. And some of those brands which spent less on ads in 2025 compared to 2022 include Warner Bros, Discovery, Disney, Mondelez, PepsiCo, Comcast, IBM and Apple, per Sensor Tower.

“A lot of times the brands come back and start small,” said Pintarelli. “They typically come back in through the door through sports. We make them feel safe. They are safe. Our safety metrics are at or above industry standard standards, on everything from safety to suitability, over 90% scores, they’re safe. And then we work with them to scale their programs.”

Whether that scaling continues is an open question. In recent weeks, X has been flooded with AI-generated sexual images of real people produced by its Grok chatbot. It’s the latest controversy likely to give marketers pause and complicate the company’s claim that the advertiser exodus is firmly in the rearview mirror. 

Pintarelli said that while X takes these matters seriously, they’re in a unique situation whereby they’re building in public. “We have to ensure we stay vigilant, diligent and we take action immediately, which is what we did,” she said, referring to the removal of illegal content on X, which was addressed by @XSafety’s post. “Behind the scenes, our teams are mobilizing all day everyday to ensure X is a safe experience for our users and brands. The scalability and speed we have with the implementation of Grok into our processes is allowing us to move faster, with more precision than ever before. Hopefully that’s what people are seeing.”

Despite how the scandal might look to marketers, X is betting it can give them more reasons to spend than to stay away. 

Starting next month with the Super Bowl. 

X is partnering again with the NFL on a Super Bowl portal — further building on its long-standing multi-year content partnership with the league, and the more general NFL portal which launched back in 2024.

“It’s going to have a lot more inside it to make it exciting, to represent the totality of the Super Bowl experience,” said Pintarelli. “That includes everything that’s going on in the game, around the game, and the conversations that are happening around it as well.”

Part of that is exclusive, premium content that X has partnered on with the NFL. The NFL’s films division, which produces Quarterback and Hard Knocks has already produced two original series with X, along with its longest running TV show, Inside the NFL, which have been showcased as all season a short-form series on X.

“We have a ton of exclusive, premium content with the NFL around the Super Bowl, where they’re going to have more cinematographers and more miked up players and coaches than they have had all season,” Mitchell Smith, formerly head of X Originals content, who has been promoted to global head of content and partnerships, told Digiday. “That will have premium content offerings for clients as well.”

And, similar to X’s partnership with Fabrizio for this year’s World Cup, the team is already having “a few active conversations” around a similar approach for the Super Bowl.

This year X is launching a Grok-powered product called BrandRanx on Jan. 25 during the NFL Conference Championships, that’ll stay active through to Super Bowl day on Feb.8. 

Through BrandRanx, X users will be able to shape the commercials leadership board by sharing thoughts and reactions. Advertisers can receive prominent on platform placements and visibility, extending their campaign reach throughout Super Bowl weekend.

Then with all that data collected, X intends to crown the top performing brands across four categories on Feb. 9: Most talked about (highest percentage of all brand posts): Most positive sentiment (about their activation): Most disruptive without a TV ad (drove the highest percentage of brand conversation): and Most reposted (most reposts on a single post)

While the award itself doesn’t come with any monetary prizes, winners get bragging rights and a trophy for their efforts.

“X’s role in sports culture and sports viewing has always been one of its biggest strengths, so it’s smart for them to keep raising their own bar, especially around tentpole moments like the Super Bowl,” said Max Willens, principal analyst, social media and the creator economy at eMarketer. “But X also has to keep reaching because it’s facing increasingly stiff competition. The recently announced “preferred platform” deal between TikTok and FIFA for the 2026 World Cup shows that other social networks are eager to muscle in on this turf.”