Elon Musk says he will step down as chief executive of Twitter – but only after finding “someone foolish enough” to take over.

“I will resign as CEO as soon as I find someone foolish enough to take the job! After that, I will just run the software & servers teams,” Mr Musk tweeted on Tuesday (US time).

It is the first time he has mentioned stepping down as chief of the social media platform. It was also his first public comment since Twitter users voted decisively in a poll for him to step down, which the billionaire launched on Sunday night.

Tweet from @elonmusk

Wall Street calls for Mr Musk to step down have grown for weeks. Recently, even Tesla Inc bulls have questioned his focus on the social media platform and whether it was distracting him from properly steering the electric vehicle business, where he is central to product design and engineering.

Mr Musk has himself admitted he had too much on his plate, and said he would look for a Twitter CEO.

He said on Sunday, though, that there was no successor and that “no one wants the job who can actually keep Twitter alive”.