Tesla is denying a report that it has started the search for a new CEO to replace Elon Musk as the company struggles with declining earnings and Musk's controversial government role.
The Wall Street Journal cites anonymous sources familiar with the Tesla board's decisions, who say board members have begun formal processes to vet candidates for a new CEO. A plunging Tesla stock price and Musk's focus on his government involvement have amplified investor concerns in recent months, the report states.
Scripps News has not yet independently verified the reporting.
Tesla chair Robyn Denholm wrote on X, a social media platform owned by Musk, that the report is false.
"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," she said in a statement, adding that the board has confidence in Musk.
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Musk has held a high-profile temporary role with the federal government for months at the behest of President Donald Trump. As the head of the unofficial Department of Government Efficiency, Musk has spearheaded an unprecedented and sometimes wholesale culling of government agencies and workforces.
DOGE has cut positions and resources everywhere from the Internal Revenue Service to the National Park Service. It has shuttered the flagship foreign aid program USAID and made deep cuts to the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration and Securities and Exchange Commission—raising concerns over potential conflicts of interest with regulatory bodies that scrutinize Musk's companies.
Many of the department's actions are now the subject of legal challenges.
According to the most recent estimates, the effort has also fallen far short of the $2 trillion in savings that Musk originally promised. Musk said in April that savings may amount to just $150 billion, and some analyses indicate that the workforce turmoil may end up costing $135 billion during this fiscal year.
Musk also garnered a firestorm of criticism after he gave a stiff-armed, flat-handed gesture to a large crowd at a rally for President Trump in January, with some linking it to antisemitism and European fascists like Adolf Hitler and Benito Mussolini.
