Hillicon Valley — Musk actively looking for new Twitter CEO

Elon Musk signaled he is actively looking for a new CEO to helm Twitter after a poll he created showed a majority of respondents in favor of him stepping down.

Meanwhile, President Biden’s top cyber adviser is exiting his role as head of the Office of the National Cyber Director, a position he’s held since last July.  

This is Hillicon Valley, detailing all you need to know about tech and cyber news from Capitol Hill to Silicon Valley. Send tips to The Hill’s Rebecca Klar and Ines Kagubare. Someone forward you this newsletter? Sign up here or in the box below.

Musk to step down after finding Twitter replacement

Elon Musk on Tuesday said he’ll step down from his role as CEO of Twitter once he finds someone to replace him, an announcement that comes after a majority of users said he should resign in a poll held on the social media platform.

“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,” Musk tweeted.  

With more than 17.5 million total votes cast, 57.5 percent of users responding to Musk’s poll said he should step down as Twitter’s head, just weeks after Musk acquired the company and took on the position.  

Musk had vowed in posting the poll that he would abide by the results. Another 42.5 percent of users said Musk should not leave the role.

CNBC reported that the search for a new chief executive began before the poll.

Read more here.  

Top White House cyber official to step down

White House cyber czar Chris Inglis is set to resign as head of the Office of the National Cyber Director in the next coming months, CNN reported.

Inglis was appointed last year to lead the office as the first national cyber director. In his role, he also serves as the principal adviser to the president on cybersecurity policy and strategy. 

Kemba Eneas Walden, who serves as the principal deputy national cyber director, will serve as acting director until the administration finds a replacement, sources told CNN.

Walden, a former counsel at Microsoft, joined the office in May along with other senior hires. 

Read more here. 

FTX FOUNDER AGREES TO EXTRADITION

Former FTX CEO Sam Bankman-Fried said in a Bahamian court on Wednesday that he has agreed to be extradited to the U.S., according to The Associated Press. 

Bankman-Fried was arrested last week in the Bahamas after a U.S. federal court in Manhattan indicted him on eight counts, including wire fraud, conspiracy to commit securities fraud and conspiracy to commit money laundering, following the collapse of his cryptocurrency platform. 

A lawyer for Bankman-Fried was quoted on Monday as saying his client had agreed to be extradited, and Wednesday’s court appearance paves the way for Bankman-Fried to head to the U.S. 

Read more here.

👾 BITS & PIECES

An op-ed to chew on: Funding the CHIPS and Science Act is a national security imperative 

Notable links from around the web: 

How Tory Lanez trial bloggers are shaping the conversation around Megan Thee Stallion (NBC News / Kat Tenbarge and Char Adams) 

Elon Musk’s future as Twitter CEO is suddenly in question (Vox / Shirin Ghaffary) 

A New Chat Bot Is a ‘Code Red’ for Google’s Search Business (The New York Times / Nico Grant and Cade Metz) 

One more thing: More money for space research

Congress’ $1.7 trillion spending bill includes a nearly $1 billion boost in funding for NASA.

As The Hill’s NotedDC points out, $7.5 billion — an increase of $677 million — has been slated for helping the U.S. return astronauts to the moon.

Other funding includes $7.8 billion for science missions, including those to explore Mars, and billions for the Space Launch System and Orion spacecraft.

All told, the spending package allocates more than $25 billion for the space agency.

That’s it for today, thanks for reading. Check out The Hill’s Technology and Cybersecurity pages for the latest news and coverage. We’ll see you tomorrow.