Musk isn’t leaving any time soon, says Board Chair
A key executive at Tesla has hit back on social media in response to a scathing Wall Street Journal report that alleged the worst fate for its CEO, Elon Musk, calling the report published late on April 30 “absolutely false.” In the report, “people familiar with the discussions” told the Journal that Tesla’s board of directors initiated a search for a successor for Elon Musk as CEO as recently as “about a month ago.” The same sources also stated that the company reached out to “several” executive search firms and even narrowed down to one firm to lead the search.
In a post on X (formerly known as Twitter), Tesla Board Chairman Robyn Denholm wrote using Tesla’s account to reiterate that “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,” adding that the boards is “highly confident” in Musk’s ability to lead Tesla and that their denial of a CEO search “was communicated to the media before the report was published.”
In addition, in a post from his personal X account, Musk himself accused the paper of an “EXTREMELY BAD BREACH OF ETHICS,” and also called the report a “DELIBERATELY FALSE ARTICLE” that failed to “include an unequivocal denial beforehand by the Tesla board of directors!”
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WSJ: Board asked Musk to spend more time at Tesla
According to the Wall Street Journal report, the plans to potentially replace Elon Musk as CEO came as his time with the Department of Government Efficiency (a.k.a. DOGE) and the greater Trump Administration had become material. They noted that since the election, most of his time was spent in D.C., while weekends were spent at Trump’s Mar-a-Lago residence in Florida.
Sources who spoke with the Journal noted that Tesla’s board began the supposed replacement process around the same time it reportedly told Musk that he needed to spend more time on Tesla and less on Beltway happenings, and “needed to say so publicly.” Nonetheless, during Tesla’s Q1 2025 earnings call last week, Musk promised that he’d be “allocating far more” of his time to Tesla beginning in May, adding that “the major work of establishing the Department of Government Efficiency is done.”
Wall Street remains confident about Tesla
Despite Tesla’s top executives refuting the details of the Journal’s report, Wall Street analysts point out that this is an example of how Musk and Tesla are virtually inseparable. In a note to investors published shortly after the WSJ report on April 30, UBS analysts led by Joseph Spak noted that the report showed how “perhaps no other company has as large a key man risk,” adding that “finding a CEO who can captivate the market and investors as much as Musk is a tall task.”
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In addition, Tesla Bull and Wedbush Securities analyst Daniel Ives wrote in a note to investors that while the WSJ report painted a “very tense situation” between Musk and the Tesla board, he and other Wedbush analysts “believe Musk will remain CEO for at least five years at Tesla.” During an appearance on Bloomberg Surveillance on May 1, Ives denoted that Musk’s “days at the White House are done” and that “Musk is Tesla and Tesla is Musk.”
Final thoughts
I feel that Tesla should be motivated to make miracles and focus on cars now that it is under the most powerful microscope, especially in the wake of this WSJ report. It needs to deliver, whether it be the robotaxis or the lower-cost cars. It’s also been eight years since Tesla revealed the second-generation Roadster. At this moment, other established manufacturers are catching up to Tesla’s coattails, and if Musk and other Tesla executives aren’t careful, it won’t be long before Tesla is no longer the sales leader.