Twitter’s Future Is a Return to Elon Musk’s Past

Elon Musk's rebranding of Twitter to X, a hoped-for "one-stop-shop" for finance and social media, may have seemed sudden to many. But for those familiar with Musk's history, it was a revival of a long-held dream. In this deep dive originally published one year ago, Every columnist Gareth Edwards uncovers the story of Musk's first attempt to build a financial "super-app" in the late 1990s. It's a tale of ambition, boardroom battles, and ultimate defeat that haunted Musk for over two decades. Gareth meticulously reconstructs the rise and fall of the original X.com, revealing how its collapse shaped Musk's approach to company control ever since. Read this to understand the historical context behind Musk's moves at X and gain insight into the relentless drive that has defined his career. It's a reminder that the past is nearly always prologue—and that some dreams never die.—Kate Lee

Was this newsletter forwarded to you? Sign up to get it in your inbox.

---

When Elon Musk announced that Twitter would become X—a “one-stop-shop” for finance and social media—many commentators were surprised. The idea seemed to come from nowhere. For those familiar with Musk’s history, however, both the name and the idea would have sounded familiar. 

Musk is usually credited as one of the founders of PayPal. The story of the payments company’s rise and eventual sale to eBay for $1.5 billion is often elided in Musk’s own personal history. But behind that sale is a tale of obsession, ambition, and a series of brutal boardroom coups—one of which was sprung on him by Peter Thiel during his honeymoon—that, in Musk’s eyes, robbed him of both the company he originally founded and a chance to change the world. 

That company was X, and the world-changing idea was to create a “global financial nexus,” as Musk would describe his vision. Throughout his career, it has remained the one great idea that he feels got away. Far from being a surprise, Musk’s Twitter pivot is an attempt to revive, and finally build, that dream.