Elon Musk's X is worth less than Donald Trump's Truth Social

Despite being a less busy and less established platform, Donald Trump's Truth Social has reportedly surpassed Elon Musk's X (formerly Twitter) in market valuation.

Whether that's because Truth Social is enjoying a boost from Trump's polls, or because Musk has completely mismanaged X, or because of a third factor isn't immediately clear. However, many things can be true at the same time.

According to the Associated Press, investment firm Fidelity now values ​​Trump Media & Technology Group – which owns Truth Social – at $10 billion and X Holdings at $9.4 billion. The AP notes that the former's stock “moves more with Trump's re-election chances than his own winning prospects,” rising (ominously) nearly 22 percent on Monday and another 9 percent on Tuesday.

The AP reports that TMTG's current valuation also exceeds that of Match Group, the owner of virtually every dating app, and Hasbro, the maker of Monopoly.

All of this seems surprising given the general aura of combat on the platform. Truth Social reportedly lost $73 million in net sales in its first year. In the quarter ended June 30, TMTG reportedly lost $16 million and reported revenue of $836,900. This spring, the app appeared to see a huge decline in users.

Now, The Guardian also points out that recent gains are related to certain betting markets' prediction of a massive Trump victory. Experts believe that at least one of them is manipulated, but almost all polls show that Trump is neck and neck with his opponent, Democrat Kamala Harris. So sure, maybe that all explains the increase.

At the same time, the AP also notes that Musk was worth $44 billion when he took over Twitter two years ago. Surely there must be a connection between the campaign of chaos Musk unleashed after the takeover and the app's staggering decline in value. (As recently as last October, X was worth $19 billion).

Anyway, maybe Musk is totally okay with all of this. The world's richest man has shoveled more than $119 million into the Trump campaign's oven in recent weeks. Glad he sees this has some use?