• Twitter CEO Elon Musk said the company has "a shot" at becoming cash-flow positive next quarter.

• Twitter has been hit by declining advertising revenues since Musk's acquisition.

• Musk said the social-media platform is working to improve ad spend on the platform.

Despite being hit by declining advertising revenues, Twitter CEO Elon Musk said the social media platform has "a shot" at being cashflow-positive the next quarter.

"It's been a very difficult four months, but I'm optimistic about the future," Musk said at a live streamed Morgan Stanley conference in San Francisco on Tuesday. He was interviewed by Michael Grimes, the head of global technology investment banking at Morgan Stanley.

Musk, who acquired Twitter for $44 billion in October, said Twitter got hit by a "massive decline in advertising" due to the cyclical nature of the business and by "political" reasons. Musk did not elaborate on these comments.

However, Musk did say it was "startling" how poorly monetized Twitter is. He added Twitter earns 5 to 6 cents per hour even though users spend a total of 130 million hours of their time per day on the platform. Twitter is now working to serve "relevant and useful" ads to users and aiming to get ad spend up to 15 to 20 cents per hour, he said.

Musk's comments followed a Friday The Wall Street Journal report that Twitter's revenues and adjusted profits slumped 40% in December as advertisers avoided the social media platform after Musk's chaotic acquisition of the company.

After Musk's takeover of Twitter, he instituted sweeping changes to cut costs, including mass layoffs and scaling back on employee benefits like free lunches — which he said cost $400 per meal because there was hardly anyone in the office at the time — but the claim was later disputed by a former employee who said the company spent $20 to $25 for each person per day for breakfast and lunch.

Musk had said in November 2022 that Twitter was losing $4 million a day.