Elon Musk, CEO of five companies, doesn’t want to be in charge of any of them

Elon Musk, the world's richest person and currently the CEO of five companies, told lawyers in the court of Delaware that he does not want to be the CEO of any company, The Verge reported. Musk was testifying in a trial where the Tesla board has been accused of being too compliant.

The trial which kicked off on Monday this week is looking into whether the Tesla board acted appropriately back in 2017 when it set easy-to-achieve performance targets for Musk, the CEO. Musk was allegedly awarded a hefty pay package, which by recent stock prices is worth US$52 billion.

Musk was among the people who were asked to testify to determine if the Tesla CEO had undue influence on the decision. Former Tesla board member, James Murdoch also testified later on Wednesday, The Verge report said.

How Musk sees himself as the CEO

Musk's testimony went into areas beyond the executive decision made in 2017 and how he spends his time at the helm of affairs in his companies. Musk told the lawyers in the court that he does not view himself as a conventional CEO who has a business-focused role.

Instead, he views his role as that of an engineer who is developing breakthrough technology, and the companies where he is the CEO have incredible teams of engineers who can achieve those goals.

This leaves Musk plenty of time to spend "where the crisis is". Back in 2017, Musk said he was largely splitting his time between SpaceX and Tesla but as the year came to an end, he dedicated all of his time to fighting the production hell of Model 3 at Tesla.

With the recent acquisition of Twitter, investors in his other companies are worried about how well Musk will multitask and split his attention between his ventures.

Structural reorganization at Twitter

After reluctantly acquiring Twitter for $44 billion, Musk has spent most of his time at the social media company of which radical product changes and mass layoffs have been the highlights.

Musk defended the initial burst of activity at the social media company following the acquisition, where he fired Twitter's top brass and assigned himself the position of CEO, a Reuters report said. In his testimony, he also clarified that the Tesla engineers helping him out at Twitter were doing so on a "voluntary basis" and "after hours" and he expected to reduce his own time spent at Twitter.

Musk added that he was hopeful of completing a structural reorganization at Twitter this week and eventually finding a new leader to run the social media company. As per his testimony, Musk is also looking to step down from the position of CEO at Tesla and his other companies.

According to Murdoch's testimony, Musk has already identified a successor for himself at Tesla, although he did not reveal the name, The Verge said in its report.

What might Musk do after stepping down? Become an influencer, run for office or Occupy Mars?