Elon Musk has vowed to resume his grueling “24/7” work schedule following a widespread outage on X, formerly known as Twitter, that left tens of thousands of users without access and exposed infrastructure vulnerabilities at the social media giant.
In a decisive response to the technical failure, Musk declared his return to round-the-clock oversight across all his companies—X, Tesla, SpaceX, and xAI. His announcement came shortly after the disruption was traced back to a fire at a critical data center in Oregon, which affected platform performance globally and revealed flaws in X’s failover redundancy protocols.
“I’m back to sleeping at the office,” Musk reportedly said, reaffirming his hands-on approach to crisis management. “We are addressing all system weaknesses. This will not happen again.”
Major Outage Sparks Operational Overhaul
The outage, which struck on May 24, sent shockwaves through X’s global user base. At its peak, over 25,000 outage reports were filed, as users across the United States, Europe, and Asia reported difficulties in accessing posts, sending messages, and updating feeds.
Technicians later revealed that the root cause was a fire in a third-party data center located in Oregon. Though no injuries were reported, the fire caused severe interruptions to backup systems and exposed a lack of failover capacity that could have prevented total service disruption.
While service was restored within a few hours, the incident raised serious concerns over X’s readiness to handle large-scale infrastructure failures.
Musk’s 24/7 Comeback
In a move reminiscent of his earlier days at Tesla and SpaceX, Musk declared that he would be “returning to a 24/7 work cycle,” including nights spent in office conference rooms and factory floors. His goal is to oversee immediate improvements not only to X’s digital architecture but also across his business empire.
With a Starship launch scheduled in the coming weeks and Tesla under pressure from falling sales figures, Musk emphasized the need for hands-on leadership during a period of transition and technological advancement.
Observers note that Musk’s commitment to “sleeping at the office” is not just symbolic—it signals a heightened focus on innovation, agility, and crisis preparedness at a time when investors and customers are looking for reassurance.
Scaling Back Government Engagement
Simultaneously, Musk announced a step back from his role in the Department of Government Efficiency (DOGE), a federal initiative aimed at slashing $2 trillion in government waste. Musk had been volunteering with the program, leading teams that have so far identified and implemented $160 billion in budgetary savings.
Going forward, he will reduce his involvement in DOGE to one or two days every two weeks. He framed this decision as necessary to ensure full focus on his business ventures during a time of increased demand for his leadership.
“I remain committed to DOGE, but business stability comes first,” he said. “Our country needs efficient government—and it also needs resilient, forward-looking industries.”
Tesla Sales Pressure and Strategic Realignment
Tesla, once the clear leader in the electric vehicle market, has recently seen its market share eroded by increasing competition and shifting consumer preferences. Some analysts have pointed to Musk’s divided focus—between space exploration, artificial intelligence, social media, and government—as a contributing factor.
By doubling down on Tesla’s innovation roadmap, including the development of autonomous driving technologies and new battery architectures, Musk is aiming to restore the company’s edge.
Stakeholders across Musk’s various companies are hoping this renewed executive attention will translate into more stable performance and accelerated progress on key milestones.
The Road Ahead
Musk’s re-engagement with day-to-day operations signals a recalibration of priorities. As he steps back from public-sector engagements and returns to his roots as a hands-on innovator, the tech mogul appears ready to steer his empire through a period of challenges and opportunities.
In the days following the outage, internal teams at X were reportedly ordered to reevaluate all redundancy systems and stress-test new recovery protocols to ensure continuity. Meanwhile, engineers at SpaceX and Tesla have begun accelerating their project timelines to capitalize on Musk’s active oversight.
This moment marks another chapter in Elon Musk’s high-intensity leadership style—one driven by urgency, ambition, and an unwavering desire to control every lever of progress.
