Elon Musk issues fierce response after claims Tesla board launched search to replace him as CEO

Elon Musk and the Tesla Chair have furiously snapped back against reports that the billionaire is looking to be replaced in his role.

Elon Musk has been spending a significant amount of time at the White House helping Donald Trump through his work with the Department of Government Efficiency as of late, and this seemingly hasn’t been ideal for his many other ventures.

Musk has remained the CEO of car company Tesla, but has been criticised by investors for not dedicating enough time to the company in recent months.

Back in March, Ross Gerber - one of Tesla’s earliest investors - called for Musk to step aside as CEO as he took issue with Musk not giving the business enough attention.

Speaking on Sky News, he said: “The company's reputation has just been destroyed by Elon Musk. It's time for somebody to run Tesla. The business has been neglected for too long.

Elon Musk has had a lot on his plate since Donald Trump began his second term back in January (BRENDAN SMIALOWSKI/AFP via Getty Images)

"There are too many important things Tesla is doing, so either Elon should come back to Tesla and be the CEO of Tesla and give up his other jobs or he should focus on the government and keep doing what he is doing but find a suitable CEO of Tesla."

Following this, the Wall Street Journal reported this week that Tesla’s board contacted executive placement firms in March to look for Musk’s replacement as CEO, citing multiple unnamed sources.

However, this has now been dismissed by both Musk and the company’s Chair.

Tesla’s Chair, Robyn Denholm, rubbished the claims made by the outlet, and insisted it was incorrect about its assertions about the board’s actions.

Speaking through Tesla’s official Twitter account, Denholm issued a statement saying: “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.”

Musk has insisted he will be focussing more of his time with Tesla (Jamie Kelter Davis/Bloomberg via Getty Images

Elon Musk also denounced the report and appeared more frustrated by the article.

He has recently made it public he will be soon stepping back from his work in Trump’s administration and focusing more of his time on the Tesla company.

Taking to Twitter, he wrote: “Musk denounced the Wall Street Journal report on X on Thursday. He wrote: “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!”

UNILAD has contacted the Wall Street Journal for comment.