Tesla breaks silence on launching search for Elon Musk replacement as CEO

Is his 17-year reign coming to an end?

With the state of the world right now, it sometimes feels like we’re in some Shakespearean tragedy, with Elon Musk being a controversial Macbeth-like figure.

The world’s richest man has come a long way from his PayPal days, and with his business portfolio including SpaceX, X, and Tesla, he’s also made a move into politics by heading up the Department of Government Efficiency.

As Elon Musk continues his various ventures and sets his sights on Mars (could he be the first Martian president?), his involvement with Tesla proves to be a poisoned chalice for the electric vehicle giant.

Even though Musk wasn’t officially the founder of Tesla, his position as CEO since October 2008 has seen him become a figurehead of the company.

That’s come at quite the cost, and due to Musk’s involvement with the DOGE and slashing thousands of jobs while gutting funding to whole government departments, there have been vocal calls to boycott Tesla.

Tesla and Musk deny claims he's stepping back from the company (FREDERIC J. BROWN / Contributor / Getty)

Tesla and Musk deny claims he’s stepping back from the company (FREDERIC J. BROWN / Contributor / Getty)

President Donald Trump is trying to counter this by turning the front of the White House into an EV showroom, and while Tesla apparently won’t be hit as hard with Trump’s tariffs as others, rumbles of unease among the public mean Tesla profits have plummeted.

There’s been a lot of noise about Tesla severing ties with Musk, as even one top investor suggested he be fired as CEO.

Musk is due to take a step back from politics, and with it, should be spending more time trying to get Tesla back on track.

This counters claims that the company is currently using headhunters to try and find someone to replace him as Tesla CEO.

The Wall Street Journal claimed that the Tesla board had been in touch with executive placement firms in March 2025, citing multiple unnamed sources and reports that it was scouting for someone to take over from the tech billionaire.

In a series of defiant statements, Musk’s side has debunked the claims that he’s moving on from his EV baby. Posting through the company’s X account, Tesla Chair Robyn Denholm reiterated: “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.

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

“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 delivered his own charged barb and slammed the WSJ as 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.”

He then reposted a comment that referred to the outlet as ‘trash’.

In the recent earnings call where the board was forced to acknowledge the nosedive in Tesla profits, Musk promised: “I’ll be allocating far more of my time to Tesla.” Even as the Tesla troubles continue, it doesn’t sound like its controversial CEO is going anywhere yet.