Tesla co-founder and CEO Elon Musk was in court on Monday testifying in a lawsuit over Tesla’s $2.6 billion purchase of SolarCity. Musk was defending the acquisition against several investors who argued the deal was essentially a bailout of Musk and his cousins.
SolarCity, which was founded by two of Musk’s cousins and partially owned by the Tesla founder, was running out of cash when Tesla announced its purchase of the company.
Musk defended himself by saying that the decision to acquire SolarCity was made by the board; however, the plaintiffs argued that Musk has a tendency to steamroll the Tesla board in order to have his will carried out.
In one of the more shocking parts of his testimony, Musk also said that he would rather not be the CEO of Tesla, but he feels that the automaker would “die” if he wasn’t chief executive.