Elon Musk isn't leaving. The Tesla CEO says he's committed to staying on as the head of the company for at least another five years. The announcement comes just a few weeks after the Austin, Texas-based automaker dismissed reports that its board had approached executive search firms about finding Musk's successor.
Musk told the crowd at an economic forum in Qatar that having control of Tesla was the most important factor in him staying on. When someone asked him if he planned to stick around as CEO, Musk replied, "Yes, no doubt about that at all," according to Reuters. Earlier this month, Tesla's chair — Robyn Denholm — denied a report that said board members had reached out to a number of executive search firms to find a replacement for the increasingly divisive and distracted CEO.
Tesla is going through a tough time right now with its brand image at an all-time low. Still, Musk said at the event that the automaker had already turned around sales and that demand was strong everywhere other than Europe, Reuters reports. I don't know how true that is, but Tesla's first-quarter results don't really back up what Musk is saying. It reported a 13% drop in Q1 deliveries, and that has caused some investors to brace for another year of decline in 2025. I suppose we'll have to wait for Q2 to wrap up in the next couple of months to really know which way things are headed.
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During the event, Musk said his internet service Starlink could go public at some point in the future, but there's no set date for that, according to Reuters. The company has expanded to over 70 countries so far, focusing on emerging markets like India.
His artificial intelligence company, xAI, is also ramping up its data center capacity to train more advanced models to create AI garbage slop. It has raised billions of dollars so far and has a supercomputer cluster in Memphis, Tennessee called "Colossus." Like all Musk properties, though, xAI is a mess. Its AI data centers — which allegedly will power Tesla's theoretical robotaxis — are a pollution nightmare. We recently reported that the Memphis facility is already leading the state in emergency department visits for asthma. None of the 25 methane gas turbines that help power xAI's supercomputer are equipped with pollution controls that are typically required by federal rules.
There's also a suggestion that he's going to take more of a backseat politically. A new report from the New York Times says Musk will spend "a lot less" on political donations in upcoming elections after spending over a quarter billion dollars in 2024. He added, "I think I've done enough." We live in hell.
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