Tesla Board Moves to Oust Elon Musk—Will the ’Technoking’ Survive the Coup?
In a boardroom shocker, Tesla’s directors have initiated proceedings to remove Elon Musk as CEO—just as the company’s stock dips below its 2021 crypto-fueled hype levels.
Behind the scenes: Insiders whisper about Musk’s ’distraction premium’—those billions wasted on vanity projects (Dogecoin, anyone?) while competitors ate Tesla’s lunch.
The irony? This comes days after Musk pledged to ’go all-in on AI.’ Guess the board decided their AI future works better without its most erratic human node.
Wall Street’s take: ’Finally—a chance to value Tesla as a car company, not a meme stock with four-wheeled accessories.’
Elon’s absence triggered leadership crisis inside Tesla
No one knows if Elon was aware of the CEO search or whether his promise to return to Tesla made a difference. But some board members already picked a search firm. Elon didn’t respond to questions. The company hasn’t shared anything publicly.
If a new CEO is named, it would be the end of Elon’s two-decade reign running the electric car maker. He gave up the chairman seat in 2018 but stayed in charge of everything else.
The eight-person board also wants to add a new independent director. JB Straubel, the company’s co-founder, has been meeting big investors to convince them that Tesla isn’t collapsing. But Elon’s political shift came at the worst time.
In 2024, Tesla’s car sales dropped for the first time in more than ten years. Price cuts destroyed profit margins. The Cybertruck rollout was a disaster. It became a joke on late-night shows for its design.
President Trump with Elon Musk at the White House to talk up the company’s vehicles in March. Source: WSJ
After Trump won re-election, Tesla’s value shot up to $1.5 trillion. Then it crashed to $900 billion. Elon texted someone last year that he was tired of nonstop work, especially after a Delaware judge rejected his huge pay deal.
He reportedly said he didn’t want to be CEO anymore, but he was scared nobody else could push Tesla’s idea that it wasn’t just a car company but the future of automation and robotics.
Elon also complained that even though he owns 13% of Tesla, he hasn’t been paid in seven years. The board made a new compensation committee to deal with that. More than 20 execs report directly to him, based on company records.
Since the election, he’s mostly lived in D.C. and spent weekends at Mar-a-Lago. When he did talk to his staff, it was remote. Employees said the first time they saw him in months was at a March meeting streamed live.
Tesla investors question leadership as product issues mount
At first, employees were glad Elon was away because they said he micromanaged too much, per the Journal’s report. But things changed fast.
Some workers wanted confirmation that Elon still believed in Tesla’s mission. In November, Mike Snyder, who leads the solar and energy team, told his staff, “It’s obviously been a turbulent and emotional season, I acknowledge that. I’d rather have Elon next to Trump than an enemy of Trump.”
He told them Elon still responded to messages. “People concerned that Elon is not engaged or interested, I can assure you that’s not true.”
Executives also reportedly say Tesla is now focused on artificial intelligence and robots. The company is pivoting away from its old growth model. The new Cybercab has no pedals or wheel. The Optimus robot is the center of Elon’s next pitch: a $30 trillion company. But the CORE EV business is falling apart.
Instead of rolling out a low-cost model this year, Tesla made cheaper versions of existing ones. The Model Y got a facelift in March.
Meanwhile, the company is telling investors that self-driving ride services are coming soon. Tesla plans to launch its ride-hailing app in Austin by June. Customers will be able to take driverless rides in Model Ys. That puts them up against Waymo and Zoox.
Cryptopolitan Academy: Coming Soon - A New Way to Earn Passive Income with DeFi in 2025. Learn More
