Elon Musk

Musk took TeslaTesla public in 2010, and since then the company's stock has risen, with the company becoming the most valuable carmaker in 2020, before entering the S&P 500S&P 500 that same year. In October of 2021, Tesla reached a market capitalization of $1 trillion, which made it the sixth company in the United States to do so.

Musk is an active user of the social media platform Twitter, where he has over 80 million followers.Musk made the first tweet on his personal account in June 2010.He posts memes, promotes his business interests, and sometimes comments on contemporary political and cultural issues.On April 4, Musk agreed to a deal that would see him appointed to Twitter's board of directors and prohibit him from acquiring more than 14.9% of the company, but Musk decided not to join the board before his appointment became effective on April 9. On April 13, Musk made a $43 billion offer to buy Twitter, launching a takeover bid to buy 100% of Twitter's stock at $54.20 per share. In a letter to Twitter's board, he indicated his desire to take the company private: "[Twitter] will neither thrive nor serve [its free speech] societal imperative in its current form. Twitter needs to be transformed as a private company." In response, Twitter's board adopted a shareholder rights plan to make it significantly more expensive for any single investor to own more than 15% of the company without approval of the board. In a TED interview, Musk showed little interest in fighting internet censorship around the world, saying that "Twitter should match the laws of the country". Instead, Musk's concern about free speech has been directed almost entirely at Twitter's moderation policies.

On April 20, Musk secured funding worth $46.5 billion. The funding included $12.5 billion in loans against Musk's stock in Tesla, and $21 billion in equity financing, such as from selling Tesla shares. On April 25, it was reported that Twitter was prepared to accept Musk's offer. Later that same day, Elon Musk successfully concluded his bid to buy Twitter and bring the company private for approximately $44 billion.