WSJ report: With CEO Musk’s attention diverted, Tesla’s board opened a search for his potential successor
With Elon Musk playing a big role in the government and Tesla’s stock dropping, the company’s board started thinking about who might be Tesla’s next CEO, according to a report from The Wall Street Journal late Wednesday night.
The report, citing anonymous sources, said Tesla board members reached out to “several executive search firms to work on a formal process for finding Tesla’s next chief executive” about a month ago.
Any change at the top of Tesla would be monumental, given that Musk is often cited as the reason the stock trades at a serious premium to its fundamentals. And frankly, the move reads like this might have been a scare tactic. The Journal’s report says:
“Around that time, Tesla’s board met with Musk for an update. Board members told him he needed to spend more time on Tesla, according to people familiar with the meeting. And he needed to say so publicly.
Musk didn’t push back.”
More from the Journal, which has gotten other notable scoops on the Tesla board, here:
“The board narrowed its focus to a major search firm, according to the people familiar with the discussions. The current status of the succession planning couldn’t be determined. It is also unclear if Musk, himself a Tesla board member, was aware of the effort, or if his pledge to spend more time at Tesla has affected succession planning. Musk didn’t respond to requests for comment.”
It seems pretty clear that if Musk were to be out at Tesla, the stock would drop. After all, investors and the board itself have been clamoring for more Musk, not less.
It’s unclear whether it’s related, but just before the report published, Musk somewhat cryptically posted on X:
Been wearing many hats for a long time pic.twitter.com/daQk6JJyec
— Elon Musk (@elonmusk) May 1, 2025
Hours after the report came out, Tesla posted on X:
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.
— Tesla (@Tesla) May 1, 2025
This is absolutely false (and this was communicated to the media before the report was published).
The CEO of Tesla is…
Weird for a company that has a notorious record of not even replying to requests for comment to say “this was communicated to the media” beforehand! (As a reminder, another Musk-run company once staffed its press line with an auto-reply of a poop emoji.)
Typically, company statements like these are worded in very specific and nuanced ways. (Note that it took Tesla nearly 4.5 hours to publish a 68-word statement after the report came out.) That alone is worth attention, on top of the fact that the WSJ hasn’t changed its story since the statement was released.
Any change at the top of Tesla would be monumental, given that Musk is often cited as the reason the stock trades at a serious premium to its fundamentals. And frankly, the move reads like this might have been a scare tactic. The Journal’s report says:
“Around that time, Tesla’s board met with Musk for an update. Board members told him he needed to spend more time on Tesla, according to people familiar with the meeting. And he needed to say so publicly.
Musk didn’t push back.”
More from the Journal, which has gotten other notable scoops on the Tesla board, here:
“The board narrowed its focus to a major search firm, according to the people familiar with the discussions. The current status of the succession planning couldn’t be determined. It is also unclear if Musk, himself a Tesla board member, was aware of the effort, or if his pledge to spend more time at Tesla has affected succession planning. Musk didn’t respond to requests for comment.”
It seems pretty clear that if Musk were to be out at Tesla, the stock would drop. After all, investors and the board itself have been clamoring for more Musk, not less.
It’s unclear whether it’s related, but just before the report published, Musk somewhat cryptically posted on X:
Been wearing many hats for a long time pic.twitter.com/daQk6JJyec
— Elon Musk (@elonmusk) May 1, 2025
Hours after the report came out, Tesla posted on X:
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.
— Tesla (@Tesla) May 1, 2025
This is absolutely false (and this was communicated to the media before the report was published).
The CEO of Tesla is…
Weird for a company that has a notorious record of not even replying to requests for comment to say “this was communicated to the media” beforehand! (As a reminder, another Musk-run company once staffed its press line with an auto-reply of a poop emoji.)
Typically, company statements like these are worded in very specific and nuanced ways. (Note that it took Tesla nearly 4.5 hours to publish a 68-word statement after the report came out.) That alone is worth attention, on top of the fact that the WSJ hasn’t changed its story since the statement was released.
