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Tesla CEO Elon Musk announced Wednesday that his time with the Trump administration as a special government employee has come to an end, and his departure will allow him to refocus his attention on the electric vehicle maker.
Musk wrote in a post on X that he appreciated the opportunity to create the Department of Government Efficiency (DOGE) in his role as a special government employee, which was limited to 130 days by law.
His departure from the Trump White House comes as a welcome development for investors in his various companies, including Tesla, which has faced blowback against Musk’s political activism amid sluggish consumer demand for EVs in the last year.
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Dan Ives, managing director and head of global technology research at Wedbush Securities, wrote in a note to investors that Musk leaving the White House is “music to the ears of Tesla shareholders with Musk now laser focused on Tesla and the autonomous vision ahead.”
Ives said that aside from it being the “scheduled time” for Musk to wind down his work with the administration, the billionaire entrepreneur “has been critical of Trump’s spending bill and tariffs,” so the move was unsurprising.
| Ticker | Security | Last | Change | Change % |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| TSLA | TESLA INC. | 358.43 | +1.53 | +0.43% |
He said that Tesla’s focus on autonomous vehicles and robotics powered by artificial intelligence (AI) will drive the company’s future and that the “brand damage and black cloud” over Tesla that was related to political blowback is in the rearview mirror.
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“We believe Tesla remains the most undervalued AI play in the market today. Rome was not built in a day… and neither will Tesla’s autonomous and robotics strategic vision,” Ives wrote.
“There will be many setbacks… But given its unmatched scale and scope globally we believe Tesla has the opportunity to own the autonomous market and down the road license its technology to other auto players both in the U.S. and around the globe,” he continued.
Musk’s departure coincided with a renewed call from shareholders to focus on his duties at Tesla.
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A group of Tesla shareholders, including state treasurers and pension managers, sent a letter on Wednesday to Robyn Denholm, the chair of Tesla’s board of directors, urging the board to require that Musk spend at least 40 hours a week working at Tesla.
The letter said that “Musk’s outside endeavors appear to have diverted his time and attention from actively managing Tesla’s operations, as any other chief executive officer of a publicly traded company would be expected to do.”
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They requested that any new compensation plan for Musk “should include a commitment to spend at least 40 hours per week to the management of the company.”
The letter added that “Tesla deserves a CEO whose time and attention align with the scale of the responsibilities at hand – particularly in light of recent performance challenges, strategic uncertainties, and the company’s evolving competitive landscape.”
They also requested that Tesla adopt and disclose a CEO succession plan as well as appoint “at least one new truly independent director with no personal ties to other Board members.”
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