Musk advances plans to turn X in "everything app" with X Money

Elon Musk says X Money will launch in a limited external beta within one to two months.

The payments system is already running in a closed beta inside the company.

He framed it as the backbone of his everything app strategy, the place where all money flows inside X bundled with AI.

During an all hands presentation, Elon Musk said X Money will integrate directly into X, which he claims has one billion installs and 600 million monthly active users. The ambition is simple. Make X the default app for communication, content, AI via Grok, and now financial transactions. As we know X also plans "Smart Cashtags" linking crypto and stock tickers to live prices.

The payments push is not random. Musk started X.com in 1999, which evolved into PayPal before being acquired by eBay. He is going back to his roots, but this time with a built in distribution channel hundreds of millions strong. The initial rollout will likely focus on fiat currencies through a partnership with Visa. Crypto support, possibly including Dogecoin, may come later. A month ago we also reported why Smart Cashtags are a big deal...

Musk also used the event to flex xAI’s scale, pointing to a Memphis data center packed with 220,000 GPUs. xAI is betting that raw compute wins the AI race. The facility in Memphis is central to that claim.

The disruption behind the news: X Money collapses the distance between conversation and transaction.

Right now, attention lives on social platforms and money moves elsewhere.

That separation powers entire industries.

Stripe, PayPal, Block, and traditional banks all monetize the gap between intent and payment. Musk wants to erase it.

Here is the so what.

X already has 600 million monthly users. If just 10 percent adopt X Money in year one, that is 60 million active financial accounts. PayPal took nearly five years to reach that scale. Distribution is the adoption mechanism. Musk does not need to buy users. He can prompt them with a button inside the feed.

For creators and small businesses, embedded payments mean lower friction and potentially lower fees. If X undercuts standard card processing fees of roughly 2.9 percent plus 30 cents per transaction by even 50 basis points, that is meaningful margin for high volume sellers. It also pressures incumbents. Payments is a scale game. Volume drives cost curves down. If X subsidizes transactions to drive usage, competitors either match pricing or lose flow.

For regulators, this is a new kind of concentration risk. A platform that controls speech, distribution, AI tools, and money in one stack is not just a tech company. That invites scrutiny around licensing, compliance, and systemic risk.

And for users, convenience wins. China’s WeChat proved that when messaging and payments merge, behavior changes fast. People stop thinking about apps and start living inside one.

What to watch next?

First, watch licensing.

Payments at scale require state by state approvals in the US and partnerships globally. Any delay there slows rollout.

Second, watch incentives.

Cashback, zero fees, or creator bonuses could spike early adoption. If X spends $200 million to subsidize transactions in year one, that would be cheap customer acquisition compared to fintech norms.

Third, watch how deeply Grok and payments intertwine.

AI that can recommend products and execute purchases inside the same interface is powerful. It shortens the path from suggestion to sale to a single tap. AI is one of the 7 disruptive technologies that will change the world.

If Musk pulls X Money off, X stops being a social network and becomes a financial app. When money and attention merge, power concentrates fast. Anyone building a business on top of someone else’s payment rails should be paying very close attention.