Translated from Chinese
When Musk was young, he was removed as CEO of two companies he had founded.
The first was Zip2. The investors thought he was too green and brought in an outsider as CEO, demoting him to a CTO with little say.
The second was PayPal. He had poured in most of his net worth, but several executives took advantage of his honeymoon to join forces and oust him.
Twice removed in three years, Musk finally learned his lesson. Later, when he bought Twitter, they invited him onto the board, but he refused. He insisted on buying the whole company. On closing day, all nine directors were gone, leaving just him 
In 1995, 24-year-old Musk and his brother founded Zip2. The two brothers were flat broke at the time.
So the following year, venture capitalists showed up with $3 million. As usual, they wanted to bring in an experienced person as CEO. Musk was happy to go along—he hadn't wanted to be CEO anyway and was glad to step back and focus on the product.
But it wasn't long before he realized that, as CTO, he had no real say. The new CEO and the board decided everything about the company's direction.
In 1998, he tried to reclaim the CEO position, but the board not only refused but stripped him of power.
So with his second company, X.com, he made himself CEO and put in $12 million. It later merged with Thiel and the others' PayPal, and he remained CEO and the largest shareholder.
But several co-founders had never gotten along with him and thought he would eventually run the company into the ground.
In September 2000, Musk flew to Australia to make up for his missed honeymoon. While he was away, these people staged a coup, getting the board to remove him as CEO.
Musk was so upset that he stayed up all night playing games. He just couldn't understand it: he had put up almost all the money, so what right did they have to remove him just like that?
After being removed twice in three years, he finally understood: being CEO wasn't enough, and putting up the most money wasn't enough either. He had to control the board's votes.
In early 2022, Musk quietly bought a 9% stake in Twitter, becoming its largest shareholder. Twitter immediately invited him onto the board, on the condition that his stake not exceed 14.9%.
Musk refused and simply offered $44 billion to buy the entire company.
Tesla had long since gone public, so he couldn't buy the whole thing. To buy Twitter, Musk also sold a substantial amount of stock, diluting his voting power.
He publicly told shareholders that without around 25% of the voting power, he wouldn't develop AI and robots at Tesla.
In 2025, shareholders voted to approve his trillion-dollar compensation package. His voting power at Tesla has now returned to nearly 20%.
SpaceX is Musk's largest business, and xAI and Twitter have now been folded into it. There, he has absolute control.
In June 2026, SpaceX went public in the largest IPO in history, with a market value exceeding $2 trillion on its first day.
It used a dual-class share structure: public shares carried one vote each, while Musk's carried ten. So he held only 42% of the shares but controlled 82% of the voting power.
Everything requiring a shareholder vote, including every board seat, was decided by Musk. He was also CEO, CTO, and chairman.
Here, no one could remove Musk ever again.
In 1995, 24-year-old Musk and his brother founded Zip2. The two brothers were flat broke at the time.
So the following year, venture capitalists showed up with $3 million. As usual, they wanted to bring in an experienced person as CEO. Musk was happy to go along—he hadn't wanted to be CEO anyway and was glad to step back and focus on the product.
But it wasn't long before he realized that, as CTO, he had no real say. The new CEO and the board decided everything about the company's direction.
In 1998, he tried to reclaim the CEO position, but the board not only refused but stripped him of power.
So with his second company, X.com, he made himself CEO and put in $12 million. It later merged with Thiel and the others' PayPal, and he remained CEO and the largest shareholder.
But several co-founders had never gotten along with him and thought he would eventually run the company into the ground.
In September 2000, Musk flew to Australia to make up for his missed honeymoon. While he was away, these people staged a coup, getting the board to remove him as CEO.
Musk was so upset that he stayed up all night playing games. He just couldn't understand it: he had put up almost all the money, so what right did they have to remove him just like that?
After being removed twice in three years, he finally understood: being CEO wasn't enough, and putting up the most money wasn't enough either. He had to control the board's votes.
In early 2022, Musk quietly bought a 9% stake in Twitter, becoming its largest shareholder. Twitter immediately invited him onto the board, on the condition that his stake not exceed 14.9%.
Musk refused and simply offered $44 billion to buy the entire company.
Tesla had long since gone public, so he couldn't buy the whole thing. To buy Twitter, Musk also sold a substantial amount of stock, diluting his voting power.
He publicly told shareholders that without around 25% of the voting power, he wouldn't develop AI and robots at Tesla.
In 2025, shareholders voted to approve his trillion-dollar compensation package. His voting power at Tesla has now returned to nearly 20%.
SpaceX is Musk's largest business, and xAI and Twitter have now been folded into it. There, he has absolute control.
In June 2026, SpaceX went public in the largest IPO in history, with a market value exceeding $2 trillion on its first day.
It used a dual-class share structure: public shares carried one vote each, while Musk's carried ten. So he held only 42% of the shares but controlled 82% of the voting power.
Everything requiring a shareholder vote, including every board seat, was decided by Musk. He was also CEO, CTO, and chairman.
Here, no one could remove Musk ever again.https://x.com/OtherSideBJ/status/2121174752614027363?a=xFfZXIPry6XHiB2czkU&s=20
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