Elon Musk is continuing his career-long fascination with the letter X as he announces a dramatic rebranding of Twitter.
The change, revealed in a series of tweets from the Tesla and SpaceX leader, serves as the latest in a series of shake-ups to the social media platform since Musk, 52, purchased it late last year.
Musk’s affinity for the letter in both his professional and personal life has been growing for 25 years, though he has rarely ever given a reason.
Now, it looks like one of the largest social media apps will soon be known by the singular letter that has long been a Musk obsession.
‘Looking forward to working with Linda to transform this platform into X, the everything app,’ Musk recently wrote on Twitter, referencing new CEO Linda Yaccarino.
One of Musk’s first ventures was known as X.com, first launched by Musk as an online banking and financial services platform in 1999. A year later, he was forced to step down from his role as CEO of the firm.
‘Everyone tried to talk him out of naming the company that back then because of the sexual innuendos, but he really liked it and stuck with it,’ said Ashlee Vance, the author of Elon Musk: Tesla, SpaceX, and the Quest for a Fantastic Future, about the X.com domain, according to NPR.
Three years later, he made $165 million when the site, by then merged with PayPal, was bought by eBay.
Musk would later buy the domain X.com back from PayPal in 2017. That site now directs people to Twitter.
‘Thanks PayPal for allowing me to buy back X.com! No plans right now, but it has great sentimental value to me,’ Musk wrote on Twitter in 2017,
That domain was Musk’s first major use of the letter X, but not his last.
Musk is also the founder and CEO of SpaceX, which is formally known as Space Exploration Technologies Corporation.
He founded the company in 2002 and it recently launched its $3 billion – a test flight which was deemed a great success even after it burst into a spectacular ball of flames.
SpaceX and even NASA all hailed the mammoth new rocket’s maiden flight as ‘exciting’ and a success. Musk was particularly buoyant in the aftermath — vowing to launch again ‘in a few months’.
