Elon Musk has said that he no longer wants to be the CEO of Twitter, Tesla or any other company
On Wednesday, Musk testified in court about his giant compensation package at Tesla, and during the speech he said he does not want to serve as CEO of his companies.
“I honestly don’t want to be the CEO of any company,” Musk said.
The court is now debating whether Tesla’s board acted properly in approving the nearly $52 billion payment to Musk, and whether Elon himself influenced that decision.
Musk’s testimony also touched on his self-appointed ‘titles’ — specifically, whether he was drunk when he described himself as the ‘Techno King of Tesla’ in a 2021 filing with the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission (Musk said he was sober, but his reprimand demonstrated the opposite).
"You were stone cold sober when you came up with the title "Technoking" for yourself, correct?"
"Yesssss????" Elon responds skeptically lol
/28
— The Chancery Daily (@chancery_daily) November 16, 2022
Musk explained why the title ‘CEO’ annoys him, noting that he doesn’t see his role in companies as that of a traditional chief executive.
“At SpaceX, I’m actually responsible for rocket development, and at Tesla, for car technology. The CEO is often seen as just a person focused on the business. In fact, my role is an engineer who creates technologies and oversees their development and a team of incredible engineers,’ said Elon.
He also emphasized that he does not plan to remain CEO of Twitter in the future. Musk took over the company two weeks ago and has since laid off half its full-time and 80% freelance staff, launched and withdrawn several new product ideas, and watched several big-name advertisers leave the platform.
‘I hope to reduce my time at Twitter and eventually find someone else to run the company,’ he said. (Musk has previously told investors that he plans to serve as CEO of Twitter on an interim basis.)
According to James Murdoch, a former member of the Tesla board, Musk is thinking about eventually leaving the position of CEO of the automaker. Later that day, Murdoch testified that Elon had specifically named who he wanted to see as Tesla’s CEO.
Asked how he spent his time in 2017 while the pay package was coming together, Musk said he was dividing his attention between Tesla and SpaceX, spending less time building tunnels with the Boring Company and Neuralink chips.
Investors have expressed concern about Musk’s ability to multitask and wonder whether the billionaire is taking on too much to legitimately run so many companies. Musk said that he spends most of his time ‘where there is a crisis.’
When asked about his aggressive stance on regulators, including the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC), Musk said:
“Overall, I think the mission of the SEC is good, but the question is whether it is being carried out properly. In some cases, I think it is not. The SEC is unable to investigate the things it should be investigating, and it is paying too much attention to things that have nothing to do with it.’
At the same time, Musk mentioned FTX, a cryptocurrency exchange that recently declared bankruptcy.
‘Why was FTX not paid attention to? Investors lost billions. But the SEC continues to go after me, even though the shareholders are getting a big reward. It doesn’t make sense.’
He also emphasized that no one approves his tweets before he publishes them, despite a 2018 settlement with the SEC that established oversight of his public communications after Musk’s failed attempt to take Tesla private. Later, Musk went to court to cancel the agreement and claimed that he was forced to sign it.
“The agreement was entered into under duress, so it has no effect,” Musk said in court.
Musk was also asked about a 2020 tweet offensive to the SEC, in which he wrote: ‘SEC, three letter acronym, middle word is Elon’s.’
Musk said under oath that he meant ‘Save Elon’s Company’ but was misunderstood.
Elon has previously repeatedly stated his reluctance to perform the role of SEO. So, in December 2021, Musk sold another block of Tesla shares and accompanied the event with a humorous tweet about his resignation — where he wrote that he was thinking of becoming a full-time… influencer.
thinking of quitting my jobs & becoming an influencer full-time wdyt
— Elon Musk (@elonmusk) December 10, 2021
