He had the good fortune to cut just as AI was beginning to mean you needed fewer software engineers for the same level of output. And yes, software companies across the industry had accumulated in many instances people whose business was not, and was sometimes orthogonal to, building software.

Elon was well on top of what AI was capable of. That sounds less luck and more well played.

How is this guy who keeps starting or taking over and fixing wildly successful companies always this lucky?