Sasha Rogelberg
5 min read
In This Article:
-
As Elon Musk prepares to leave the U.S. government, Tesla investors are pleading with the EV maker to make sure the CEO refocuses on the company and to disclose how the board would replace him in an emergency or if he loses interest. In a letter sent to Tesla board chair Robyn Denholm on Wednesday, shareholders demanded Musk work at least 40 hours a week at the company.
Elon Musk’s departure from the Department of Government Efficiency has done little to quell the grievances of Tesla investors regarding the CEO’s absence from the EV maker.
Musk said Wednesday he would leave the government following the end of his “scheduled time” as a special government employee. The move comes amid renewed pleas from Tesla’s investors for Musk to refocus on his role as chief executive and for the company to give investors more information about how it will eventually replace Musk when he moves on from Tesla.
“DOGE is just one of many outside time commitments that Musk has been sort of prioritizing over Tesla, Tejal Patel, executive director of SOC Investment Group, told Fortune. “Just because he’s leaving DOGE doesn’t mean he’s focusing on Tesla.”
SOC Investment Group, part of trade union coalition the Strategic Organizing Center, worked with a group of pension funds to send a letter to Tesla board chair Robyn Denholm on Wednesday, demanding the board address the ongoing “crisis” at the company. The letter’s 12 signees are long term investors who own or oversee investments of approximately 7.9 million of Tesla’s 3.2 billion shares.
“Mr. Musk’s outside endeavors appear to have diverted his time and attention from actively managing Tesla’s operations, as any other chief executive officer of a publicly traded company would be expected to do,” the letter said. “For many years, the amount of time CEO Musk has devoted to managing Tesla has been constrained because of his multiple privately held companies and other outside endeavors.”
Since Musk joined President Donald Trump’s administration, Tesla stock is down more than 14% as vehicle registrations plummet due to increased Chinese competition and souring consumer opinion of the company over Musk. His contentious group DOGE has upended U.S. bureaucracy and cost 260,000 federal workers their jobs, Reuters calculated.
Illinois State Treasurer Michael Frerichs, one of the letter’s signees, told Fortune Musk had gotten himself into even more political hot water after he criticized Trump’s spending bill.
“It’s impressive that he angered about half the U.S. by cozying up to Trump, and now he’s picking a fight with Trump over his awful, ugly bill, and is likely angering the other half of the country,” Frerichs said.
