Musk, Tesla board chair deny report on search for new CEO

Elon Musk and Tesla are pushing back on a report that the company launched a search for its next CEO, calling it “absolutely false” and an “extremely bad breach of ethics.” 

The Wall Street Journal reported Wednesday night that Tesla’s board members reached out to numerous executive search firms around a month ago to work on a formal process to finding Musk’s successor. 

It attributed the development to people familiar with the discussions and noted that it happened as Tesla’s stock was sinking and some investors were getting irritated with Musk’s role at the Department of Government Efficiency (DOGE). 

The board ultimately narrowed its focus to one top search firm, according to the report. Tesla’s board also met with Musk around that time and told him he needed to spend more on the company and to say so publicly – something he didn’t push back on, the Wall Street Journal said, citing people familiar with the meeting.  

However, Robyn Denholm, the chair of Tesla’s board of directors, wrote on X this morning that “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.” 

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“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,” she wrote on X, a platform Musk also owns.  

“This is absolutely false (and this was communicated to the media before the report was published),” she continued. 

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Musk himself said “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!” 

“WSJ is a discredit to journalism,” he added in a follow-up post. 

Last week, Tesla revealed in an earnings release that it generated $13.97 billion in automotive revenue in the first three months of 2025, marking a drop of nearly 20% from the same quarter last year. 

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During an earnings call, Musk said his “time allocation to DOGE will drop significantly.” 

FOX Business’ Aislinn Murphy contributed to this report.