He privately owns. So he didn’t pay himself, he switched his X equity to xAI equity, but he doesn’t make out of this with cash.
I guess if this hurts the long term health of xAI the investors might be mad they made a poor investment, but I don’t really think this stock merge/swap will have a significant impact on that. And anyway if people with xAI equity lose out on their investment then Musk himself would be the biggest loser in that.