Tesla Chair Denies Report Of CEO Search To Replace Elon Musk

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(RTTNews) - Tesla Inc. chair Robyn Denholm has denied a Wall Street Journal report that its board was searching for a replacement for Chief Executive Officer Elon Musk.

On the social media platform X, she called the report as "absolutely false."

Shares of Tesla had fallen around 3 percent on Wednesday's trading following the news. However, with the denial of the report, the stock is currently gaining around 1 percent in the pre-market activity.

The WSJ report, citing sources familiar with the discussions, had said that Tesla's board members reached out to several executive search firms to work on a formal process to find a new CEO for the luxury automaker.

In response to the report, Denholm wrote, "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. This is absolutely false (and this was communicated to the media before the report was published). The CEO of Tesla is Elon Musk and the Board is highly confident in his ability to continue executing on the exciting growth plan ahead."

The developments are in the backdrop of the electric automaker recording a 71 percent cut in its first-quarter profit, below market estimates, with 9.2 percent drop in revenue to $19.335 billion as vehicle deliveries declined.

Last week, during the company's first-quarter earnings call to discuss the weak performance, Musk had announced that he would reduce time with President Donald Trump's Department of Government Efficiency or DOGE significantly, starting in May. Musk, a supporter of Trump and a prominent public face of the DOGE initiative, stated that with the major work of establishing the DOGE was done, he plans to allocate probably more time to Tesla.

Musk added then that he plans to continue to spend a day or two per week on government matters for as long as the President asks and as long as it is useful.

Musk, who spent almost $300 million in the 2024 campaign to help Trump return to the White House, was appointed as special government employee, who then created DOGE with a view to cutting down the size and unwanted expenses of the federal government.

Meanwhile, Musk's ties to Trump had affected Tesla significantly with severe protests and brand damage. The shares of the company also were severely hit since Trump took office.