KUALA LUMPUR (Nov 17): Billionaire Twitter Inc owner Elon Musk testified in court that he does not want to be the CEO of any company.

In a report on Wednesday (Nov 16), CNBC quoted Musk, who appointed himself as the CEO of Twitter, on top of his responsibilities as the CEO and “technoking” of electric vehicle maker Tesla, as saying that the arrangement at Twitter is temporary.

“I expect to reduce my time at Twitter and find somebody else to run Twitter over time,” he said.

Musk and Tesla are in the midst of a trial in Delaware over the 2018 CEO pay package the company granted him, an unparalleled compensation plan that has made Musk a centi-billionaire and the richest person on the planet.

Shareholder Richard J. Tornetta has sued Musk and Tesla alleging that the CEO compensation was excessive and that its authorisation by the Tesla board amounted to a breach of its fiduciary duty.

Musk explained during the testimony that CEO is not necessarily an apt description for the work he says he does at his companies.

“At SpaceX it’s really that I’m responsible for the engineering of the rockets and Tesla for the technology in the car that makes it successful,” Musk said.

“So, CEO is often viewed as somewhat of a business-focused role but in reality, my role is much more that of an engineer developing technology and making sure that we develop breakthrough technologies and that we have a team of incredible engineers who can achieve those goals.”

He also said, “It’s my experience that great engineers will only work for a great engineer. That is my first duty, not that of CEO.”

Meanwhile, Attorneys for Tornetta asked Musk about a CNBC report that he had authorised at least 50 Tesla employees, mostly Autopilot engineers, to help with his work at Twitter, now that he owns the social media company.

Musk said he only called on Tesla employees to assist him at Twitter on a “voluntary basis” and to work “after hours” at Twitter. He said that no Tesla board member had called him to say it is not a good idea to use Tesla resources for one of his other, privately held companies.

“This was an after hours — just if you’re interested in evaluating, helping me evaluate Twitter engineering ... that’d be nice. I think it lasted for a few days and it was over.”