Tesla Chair Robyn Denholm denied a report that the board opened a CEO search to replace Elon Musk. Tesla stock rose Thursday morning.
About a month ago, Tesla's board reached out to search firms to begin a process to replacing Musk as CEO, The Wall Street Journal reported Wednesday night. That reported move came as sales were falling noticeably with Musk focusing on his work with the Trump administration.
Chair Robyn Denholm denied as "absolutely false" the WSJ report, and said the board made that clear before the story ran.
"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," Denholm said Thursday in a statement posted on Tesla's official X account.
Musk himself posted on X that "It is an EXTREMELY BAD BREACH OF ETHICS that the @WSJ would publish a DELIBERATELY FALSE ARTICLE and fail to include an unequivocal denial beforehand by the Tesla board of directors."
Also according to the WSJ report, the board also met with Musk, telling him he had to spend more time with Tesla. On the Q1 earnings call last week, Musk confirmed he would soon spend most of his time at Tesla again
That news, and Musk's optimism about Tesla's self-driving efforts, helped buoyed TSLA stock. One concern with replacing with Musk is that his exit could have a serious negative impact on TSLA stock.
The EV giant's board of directors has traditionally been seen as extremely deferential to the billionaire.
Tesla Stock
Tesla stock rose 2.5% to 289.10 after falling modestly Wednesday night on the WSJ report.
On Wednesday, Tesla stock fell 3.4% to 282.16, back below the 200-day line.
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