Tesla board denies report it wanted to replace Elon Musk
- Tesla’s board has denied a report that they initiated a search for a new CEO to replace Elon Musk, calling it “absolutely false”.
- The Wall Street Journal reported that Tesla’s board began searching for a successor about a month ago, but the company has since rejected this claim.
- Tesla’s board chair, Robyn Denholm, stated that the directors are “highly confident” in Musk’s ability to lead the company and denied any plans for a CEO search.
- Musk himself accused the WSJ of an “EXTREMELY BAD BREACH OF ETHICS” and claimed that he had been sent an “unequivocal denial” beforehand, which was not made public at the time.
- Despite Denholm’s confidence in Musk, she has sold over $32 million worth of Tesla shares in recent months, raising questions about her loyalty to the company.
Tesla has hit back following a Wall Street Journal report that its board had initiated a search for a new CEO to replace Elon Musk, taking to Musk’s social platform X to call the claim “absolutely false.”
According to the WSJ report, about a month ago Tesla’s board began the process of hunting for a successor to Musk, reaching out to “several” executive search firms and getting as far as narrowing down to one firm to lead the search.
Around the same time the board reportedly told Musk he needed to spend more time on Tesla, and less on DOGE, and say so publicly. In an earnings call last week he did exactly that, promising that from May he’d be “allocating far more” of his time to Tesla. The auto company has suffered from slumping sales, declining revenue, and a major brand crisis since Musk took on a closer role with Donald Trump and led efforts to slash government spending. There’s good reason to think Tesla and Musk’s other companies stand to benefit from that work too, though.
Tesla moved quickly to reject the Journal’s report, publishing a rebuttal on X from board chair Robyn Denholm, who said the directors are “highly confident” in Musk’s ability to lead Tesla. She both denied that the board had initiated a CEO search, and claimed that “this was communicated to the media before the report was published.” The WSJ has not yet updated its story or responded to Denholm’s statement, though notes in its original report that it reached out to Musk for comment and didn’t receive any.
Musk himself later tweeted his thoughts, accusing the paper of an “EXTREMELY BAD BREACH OF ETHICS,” and suggesting that it had been sent an “unequivocal denial beforehand.”
Tesla’s board has eight members, including Musk himself along with his brother, Kimbal Musk, and James Murdoch, son of Rupert Murdoch. The group has been accused of being “full of sycophants,” and “overly beholden to CEO Musk,” especially in the wake of last year’s efforts to secure Musk a record-breaking pay package.
As for Denholm? Despite that high confidence in Musk, she just sold over $32 million worth of Tesla shares, her third major sale in three months, and appears to be liquidating her position in the company.