Elon Musk, the Tesla chief, said Tuesday at a telephone conference on Tesla profits that the time he dedicated to leading the government efficiency department and to work with the Trump administration “will be significantly reduced” from next month, ensuring investors that it will devote more time to Tesla shortly after the electric vehicle manufacturer reported its worst quarterly benefit in years.
Key data
Musk told investors: “From next month, I will dedicate much more from my time to Tesla,” and said he will continue to dedicate one or two days a week to government affairs “during the time the president wants to do so and while it is useful.”
Musk also briefly approached the tariff political radicals of President Donald Trump and said that “I will continue to advocate lower tariffs instead of higher tariffs, but that is all I can do.”
The billionaire defended his work with Doge, criticizing the critics of the agency and the recent protests against Tesla, claiming that the protesters who organized against the manufacturer of electric vehicles last month received payment with “fraudulent money”.
Musk’s comments occur hours after Tesla reported its worst quarterly benefit from 2021 and income 2,000 million dollars below the average of Wall Street estimates.
Tesla shares closed with an increase of 4.6% to $ 237.97 on Tuesday, increasing another 4% in operations off hours, although the price of the shares remains close to its lowest point so far this year.
Large number
The estimated net worth of Musk increased almost 6 billion dollars on Tuesday, reaching 361 billion. Lately, it has remained the richest person in the world by far, although its net assets have dropped more than 100 billion dollars from its maximum in December.
How did Tesla work in the last quarter?
Tesla reported sets adjusted per share of $ 0.27 and $ 19.3 billion in revenues for the first quarter, which marks its less profitable quarter from the same quarter of five years ago. The company’s revenues in the automotive sector fell 20%, up to $ 14 billion, its lowest level from the third quarter of 2021. JPMorgan analyst Ryan Brinkman declared last month: “It is hard for us to imagine something similar in the history of the automotive industry, in which a brand has lost so much value so quickly.”
Key history
Musk, who provided more than 250 million dollars to Trump’s presidential campaign, became Trump’s main advisor and Doge de facto leader in January. Since then, the initiative has been responsible for some 280,000 dismissals, some of which are scheduled to reverse, in 27 agencies, such as the Department of Education, the Department of Agriculture and the United States Agency for International Development. The legislators of both parties expressed concern that the cuts were carried out in a disorganized way. Together with the criticisms that Musk has faced for his role in Doge, the billionaire has also been accused of making Nazi greeting during an inaugural event in January and criticized for making a digital appearance at a rally of the German extreme right -wing party Alternative for Deutschland. The controversy around Musk finally arrived in Tesla, which reported deliveries of vehicles of the first quarter lower than expected last month and has been affected by protests and vandalism since January. The Wedbush analyst Dan Iives, said in a March note that Musk’s government work and his time in the White House “basically turned Tesla into a political symbol”, which is “negative.” Iives, an analyst that covers Tesla and has been mostly optimistic about the company, urged Musk to “retire” from Doge and suggested that the billionaire formally announce plans to “balance” its multiple functions.
This Aerticulum was originally published by Forbes Us.
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