Elon Musk and the chair of Tesla’s board strongly denied a Wall Street Journal report that said the carmaker’s board began a search for a new CEO to take over from Musk amid concerns about the company’s plunging stock price while the billionaire was heavily involved in President Donald Trump’s administration to cut down the size of the federal government.
Key facts
On Wednesday evening, the Journal reported that Tesla’s board members had been in touch with recruitment firms to find a successor to Musk, as investors were “irritated” about the amount of time Musk was spending in Washington.
Citing unnamed people familiar with the discussions, the report said the board met with Musk during this period and its members informed him that he needed to devote more time to Tesla and publicly say so.
Tesla Chair Robyn Denholm issued a statement on the company’s official X account, dismissing the report as “absolutely false” and said the paper had been told this before the story was published.
Denholm said Musk remains the CEO of Tesla and that “the Board is highly confident in his ability to continue executing on the exciting growth plan ahead.”
Musk also chimed in from his personal X account in a post attacking the Journal and accusing the outlet of publishing a “deliberately false article,” calling it an “extremely bad breach of ethics.”
The Journal’s report mentioned that Musk did not respond to requests for comment, but the billionaire claimed the paper failed to “include an unequivocal denial beforehand by the Tesla board of directors.”
What did Musk say at Tesla’s recent earnings call?
After Tesla released a brutal Q1 2025 earnings report, Elon Musk told investors on the company’s earnings call, “Starting next month, I’ll be allocating far more of my time to Tesla.” However, Musk did not fully commit to exiting his government role and told investors that he would “continue to spend a day or two per week on government matters for as long as the President would like me to do so.”
