Elon Musk reveals his biggest fear for Tesla as reports of putsch at EV giant gather
UPDATE: Robyn Denholm, the chair of the board at Tesla, said in a statement on Tesla’s social media account on X: "Earlier today, there was a media report erroneously claiming that the Tesla Board had contacted recruitment firms to initiate a CEO search at the company. This is absolutely false (and this was communicated to the media before the report was published). The CEO of Tesla is Elon Musk and the Board is highly confident in his ability to continue executing on the exciting growth plan ahead."
On his part Elon Musk wrote on X (caps are in the original post): It is an EXTREMELY BAD BREACH OF ETHICS that the @WSJ would publish a DELIBERATELY FALSE ARTICLE and fail to include an unequivocal denial beforehand by the Tesla board of directors!
Washington D.C.: Tesla's board reportedly initiated a secret CEO search in March to replace Elon Musk as the electric vehicle maker grappled with plunging sales, protests, and stock declines, according to a Wall Street Journal investigation.
The search began as Tesla's stock tumbled 45% this year and first-quarter profits collapsed 71%, with Musk dividing his time between Tesla, SpaceX, X, and a controversial White House advisory role at DOGE.
While Musk announced in April he would reduce his government work, Tesla reported its worst quarterly sales drop ever, which executives partially attributed to "vandalism and unwarranted hostility" toward the brand.
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The CEO search's status remains unclear following Musk's promised return, as does his awareness of the effort. Meanwhile, Musk appears increasingly disenchanted with Tesla — confidants told the Journal he's considered stepping down, fearing a successor might abandon his autonomous vehicle vision but feeling constrained after a Delaware court voided his record $56 billion pay package twice.
Musk owns 410 million shares of Tesla stock outright, equal to 12.8% of the company’s outstanding shares. He has also been granted options to buy an additional 304 million shares as his compensation for running the company since 2018.
It is also unclear if Musk, who is also a Tesla board member, was aware of the search effort, the Journal said.