Could be he will retain ownership but appoint somebody else as CEO while he tends to other matters, such as SpaceX and Tesla.
At any rate, an interesting comment from from Common Dreams
A possibility is that he will reverse course and turn Twitter into a publicly held corporation. This could involve issuing stock in order to pay off some of the debt incurred in buying the company. As I understand it, currently massive payments are coming due periodically to pay off the debt and or interest payments on loans taken out as part of his purchase of Twitter. He could be trying to cut his losses and either unburden himself of Twitter completely or surrendering some control in exchange for a sharing of the benefits of Twitter ownership. He could also sell off the corporation as a privately held to some other entity.As of this writing (on December 19, 2022) the results were approximately 58% in favor of him stepping down and 42% saying he should stay on...
If Musk steps down as CEO there's no telling who he would choose to replace him.
As he ominously tweeted subsequent to posting the user survey, "As the saying goes, be careful what you wish, as you might get it."
He has also floated the possibility of a declaration of bankruptcy. Such a move would unburden him from payback of debt or at least restructuring his debt to make it more manageable. Whether Twitter would keep operating under this option is in question. I would think a complete shut-down would represent a tremendous loss to him and his backers given how much was paid for the purchase of Twitter, so I don't think the actual shutting down of Twitter is highly likely. Still, this all has the marks of being such a fiasco...