By Abhirup Roy and Bipasha Dey
(Reuters) -Tesla chair Robyn Denholm on Thursday denied a Wall Avenue Journal report that mentioned board members had reached out to govt search companies to discover a new substitute for CEO Elon Musk.
The Journal had reported on Wednesday that Tesla’s board members had reached out a few month in the past to a number of govt search companies to seek out the corporate’s new CEO, citing folks aware of the discussions.
Denholm mentioned on X that the report was “completely false” and mentioned that the EV maker’s board is “extremely assured” in Musk’s means to “proceed executing on the thrilling progress plan forward”. Musk additionally mentioned on X that the report was a “intentionally false article”.
Musk mentioned final week he would in the reduction of considerably on the time he devotes to the Trump administration and spend extra time working Tesla.
Musk’s work at his Division of Authorities Effectivity (DOGE), the place he has led efforts to chop federal jobs, has been probably the most controversial features of the Trump presidency, and his time away from Tesla has been a further concern for traders as gross sales of its getting older EV lineup have been on the decline.
His embrace of far-right politics in Europe has additionally led to protests in opposition to Musk and the corporate in addition to vandalism at its showrooms and charging stations throughout the U.S. and Europe.
The board members met Musk and requested him to acknowledge publicly that he would spend extra time at Tesla, the WSJ report mentioned.
But it surely was unclear if Musk – additionally a member of the board – was conscious of succession planning, or if his pledge to spend extra time at Tesla has affected the efforts, the report added.
Tesla is at a vital juncture.
Amid rising competitors globally, Musk has pivoted from his promise of constructing a brand new inexpensive EV platform to rolling out driverless taxis and humanoid robots, highlighting Tesla’s future as an AI and robotics firm as a substitute of an automaker.
A lot of the corporate’s valuation relies on that imaginative and prescient, and a few traders imagine Trump will assist additional it. Final week, federal regulators eased guidelines for testing autonomous automobiles, boosting Tesla’s inventory.
Some Tesla administrators, together with co-founder JB Straubel, have been assembly with main traders to reassure them the corporate is in good fingers, the WSJ mentioned.
Activist traders have lengthy accused Tesla’s board of missing independence and failing to rein in Musk.
Denholm, hand-picked by Musk whose controversial pay package deal she defended, has additionally drawn criticism for her personal pay package deal together with questions on whether or not that compromised her oversight of Tesla and Musk. Denholm has dismissed the allegations and a spokesperson has mentioned her pay was honest.
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