Tesla and Elon Musk are pushing again in opposition to a report claiming the corporate’s board launched a seek for a successor to the mercurial CEO final month as he frolicked away from the corporate main President Trump’s Division of Authorities Effectivity.
The Wall Road Journal reported late Wednesday that the board had reached out to government search corporations to provoke a proper course of to determine potential replacements for Musk as the electrical automotive maker grapples with slowing gross sales, shrinking income and a bruising 12 months on the inventory market.
The report, which cited sources acquainted with the matter, triggered a direct response from traders and despatched Tesla’s inventory down as a lot as 3% in after-hours buying and selling on Robinhood earlier than recovering a few of the losses.
Musk reacted to the Journal report, writing on X: “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!”
In a subsequent submit, Musk wrote: “WSJ is a discredit to journalism.”
Tesla board chair Robyn Denholm, who has bought greater than $150 million in firm inventory since December, additionally took to the social media platform X to denounce the story.
“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,” Denholm wrote on Tesla’s official X account.
“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.”
The Journal offered an announcement to The Submit which learn: “We stand by our reporting. Tesla was given the opportunity to provide a statement before publication, which they did not do.”
The Journal, like The Submit, is a subsidiary of Information Corp.
The timing of the report comes at a difficult second for Tesla.
The corporate just lately reported a major drop in each income and web revenue for the primary quarter of 2025, falling wanting Wall Road expectations.
Tesla’s whole income for the January-March interval fell 9% year-over-year to $19.34 billion, properly beneath the $21.11 billion forecast by analysts, in line with LSEG information.
Income from Tesla’s core automotive enterprise fell much more sharply — down 20% to $14 billion.
The corporate attributed the decline to a number of elements, together with decrease common promoting costs, elevated gross sales incentives and non permanent manufacturing unit shutdowns as Tesla prepares to launch a refreshed model of its in style Mannequin Y SUV.
In the meantime, web revenue plunged 71% to $409 million, or 12 cents per share, in contrast with $1.39 billion, or 41 cents per share, throughout the identical interval final 12 months.
For the reason that begin of 2025, Tesla shares have tumbled greater than 30%, reflecting investor considerations in regards to the firm’s margins, slowing demand for electrical autos and Musk’s divided focus.
Final week, Musk revealed on Tesla’s earnings name that he plans to spend simply “a day or two per week” heading up DOGE, an initiative tied to the Trump administration that has raised questions on his dedication to Tesla.
Musk has acknowledged that his more and more overt political presence could also be having an adversarial impact on Tesla’s inventory, although he has remained defiant about his management and long-term imaginative and prescient for the corporate.
Regardless of the volatility, Denholm’s assertion bolstered the board’s confidence in Musk’s management, signaling that — at the least for now — there are not any plans to seek for a brand new chief government.
