A court order could force him to pay the entire $44 billion ($54.20 a share as opposed to Twitter’s current share price of $41.61), which even for someone as rich ($260 billion) as Musk is a pretty big chunk of change.

The bankers say Musk is prepared for that. He’s also prepared to appeal to the Delaware Supreme Court — and that’s where his war of attrition begins. He figures the appeal will take around eight months or maybe a year, but with the overhang of uncertainty, Twitter’s business will continue to crater. Advertisers are already bolting amid Musk’s comments about the bot issues and the looming recession.

Money will be tight, and there are just so many rounds of layoffs any high-tech company can execute to make the numbers work before they start eating into their infrastructure.

Musk believes Twitter will be pressured by shareholders to ­capitulate to a significantly lower price as shares slide into the $30s and below, these people say. An attorney for Musk declined to comment.