Elon Musk said he will step down as CEO of Twitter —as soon as he finds someone else "foolish enough to take the job.”

Musk plans to keep control of the software and servers teams at the social media company, key areas that will allow him to control product decisions.

Musk tweeted his decision on Tuesday night in response to a poll he launched two days ago, which asked users whether he should step down as head of the company.

More than 10 million people, or 57.5 percent of respondents, voted that he should leave the position.

Musk did not directly respond to the results of the poll for more than a day after it closed, but he did react to several tweets that suggested the poll could have been infiltrated by bots or that it wasn’t a representative sample of what people wanted.

His tepid response to the poll Tuesday night leaves the door open to him holding on to the top spot for an undetermined amount of time.

For weeks, investors have called on Musk to step down from running the social media platform, saying he has been distracted from properly running Tesla.

Shares in the electric car company have plummeted more than 65 per cent over the past year.

According to BBC, Musk sold billions of dollars’ worth of Tesla shares to help fund his purchase, which helped to push the shares down.

"Finally a good step in the right direction to end this painful nightmare situation for Tesla investors," said Dan Ives from investment firm Wedbush Securities after Musk's tweet on Tuesday.

"Accurate assessment!” Musk responded to a tweet that asked why "offering to take over that thankless job” would make people upset.

Musk has used Twitter polls to make critical decisions several times since he took over the company, including on whether he should reinstate Trump.

He also asked users whether the company should offer "general amnesty” to suspended accounts, many of which then began reappearing on the site.

The billionaire launched another poll Tuesday night, this time asking users whether Congress should approve a $1.7 trillion deal to fund the government.