After recent statements, I am surprised that the board has not decided to remove him, immediately.
He has built a $150 billion company from the ground up, is 5-7 years ahead of his competitors, in a sector where it is nearly impossible to survive.
The company has dramatically accelerated the shift to electric vehicles.
You don't like him? Don't follow him on twitter or buy the stock or products. Otherwise, he seems not to dissimilar from most neuro-atypical founders I know
Yeah, but what has he done lately? Also, his tweets.
Um... He won a contract to carry astronauts to the moon?
That's a bit of a stretch.
The company was founded by other folks (Martin Eberhard and Marc Tarpenning) in 2003, he invested in 2004, joined the board of directors, ousted the CEO in 2007, and was then only able to refer to himself as a cofounder after settling a lawsuit.
Musk didn't build anything "from the ground up," he took control of a company that already existed and grew it into something larger - still admirable, but let's not rewrite history. Musk didn't create Tesla and he wasn't one of the original cofounders.
The first roadster shipped in 2008. The first Model S in 2012.
If you're saying Tesla would exist let alone be where it is without Elon, we're living in different realities. They would have never shipped a single vehicle without him.
Are we talking about Tesla? Because Elon didn't fund Telsa.
Yes, Elon Musk did all this, not the 48000 some employees at Tesla, not the chemical engineers, not the mechanical engineers, not the assembly line workers, not the software engineers. It was all Elon. I mean, come on, when does the absurdity end? Tesla will be fine without Elon, and probably better off as he becomes more unhinged.
However, I would experience a great deal of schadenfreude at his downfall at this point, because he's become one of those larger-than-life people who think they are entitled to destroy anyone who gets in his way. It could be that the local official that he's fighting with has some faults, has made some mistakes. But she represents functioning civil society to me and he represents all the powerful people that are heedlessly trying to destroy it.
That is a real problem, and it could risk him being sent to jail, fined billions, or removed from the executive position.
The man is a certified loon. From falsely claiming the rescue diver that helped free the people from the cave in Thailand a "child rapist" to saying he was taking Tesla private as some insane joke because, well, $420 everyone! Get it? Marijuana! 420! Do you get it? SEC wasn't laughing. I'm sure they aren't amused by his recent tweet that TSLA is overpriced. The guy has firsthand knowledge and is as insider as can possibly be and is carelessly tweeting that the investment is too high. If this isn't ringing some major alarm bells, nothing will. And I'll believe Tesla leaves California when I see it.
Call me old fashioned, but I still believe the CEO of a public company has a fiduciary responsibility to the company's investors. Crazy, right?