SpaceX and Tesla CEO Elon Musk has rejected long-standing claims that he was fired as PayPal’s chief executive in 2000, pushing back against the narrative that PayPal co-founder and venture capitalist Peter Thiel orchestrated his removal.
Addressing the issue directly in a post on X, Musk said the version of events often repeated in media accounts is factually incorrect and misrepresents the company’s leadership structure at the time.
Why did Musk issue the clarification?
The tech billionaire’s clarification came in response to a podcast clip which claimed that Thiel had fired Musk but suggested that Thiel had handled the situation kindly.
The podcast had framed the leadership change as a difficult but respectful decision by Thiel, noting that Musk left the company with about a 12% stake.
It also highlighted how Musk and Thiel’s relationship later continued in business, pointing out that Musk allowed Thiel’s Founders Fund to invest $20 million for a 10% stake in SpaceX, a deal the podcast described as “perhaps the greatest investment of all time.”
“[My exit from PayPal] was a palace coup by most (not all) of the executive team and most of the board, who were worried that my decisions were too risky…I was the largest shareholder in the company. There was nothing anyone could have done to take my shares away from me,” Musk wrote on X.
Why was Musk ousted as PayPal’s CEO?
Musk was reportedly on his honeymoon with former wife Justine when he was ousted from his CEO position at PayPal, according to his biographer Walter Isaacson.
According to several reports, multiple senior executives and board members moved to replace Musk during his absence, citing concerns about his strategic direction.
Specifically, Musk’s push to shift PayPal’s infrastructure from Unix to Microsoft technology was then seen as a ‘high-risk decision’, according to Business Insider.
The plotters were joined by investor Peter Thiel, board member Reid Hoffman and product chief David Sachs in September 2000, according to Fox Business.