特斯拉公司是一家混乱的公司。裁员越来越多。士气受挫。它的库存正在减少，销售也不景气。一些投资者说，它的掌舵人心不在焉。
除了世界上最大的电动汽车制造商，埃隆·马斯克还经营着另外五家公司:太空探索技术公司，最大的私营火箭和卫星供应商；x，前身为Twitter的社交媒体网站；钻探公司隧道公司；脑机创业Neuralink以及人工智能风投xAI。
马斯克在世界各地监管着超过13万名员工，这家公司已经发展成为一家不断转型的企业集团，很少有人拥有传统头衔，但每个人都清楚自己最终要向谁负责。当马斯克在他的公司宇宙中心光芒四射的时候，一个由顾问、中间人、董事会和家族成员组成的不太显眼的小圈子围绕着他。
Tesla Inc. is a company in disarray. Layoffs are mounting. Morale is shattered. Itsstock is cratering and sales are anemic. And, some investors say, it’s got adistracted leader at the helm.
Elon Musk runs five other companies in addition to the world’s largest electric carmaker: SpaceX, the biggest privately held rocket and satellite provider; X, thesocial media site formerly known as Twitter; the Boring Co. tunnel company; brainmachine startup Neuralink; and artificial intelligence venture xAI.
Musk oversees more than 130,000 people around the world under what hasmorphed into Elon Inc., a shape-shifting conglomerate where few people havetraditional titles but everyone knows exactly to whom they ultimately answer.While Musk burns brightly at the center of his corporate universe, a less visiblecoterie of consultants, fixers, board and family members orbits around him.
Muskrelies on this inner circle to handle urgent tasks across his stable of companies,though it’s often unclear how and when they are getting paid.When times were good, many investors looked past the complexities of oneperson simultaneously running several companies. But now, there’s troublebrewing everywhere in Elon Inc. Tesla has gone from being a high-flying stock toone of the year’s worst performers. SpaceX’s Starlink business has come underscrutiny as a growing black market for its terminals takes its internet service to USfoes like Sudan and Yemen. Meanwhile, Musk was recently deposed as part of anarbitration case related to Twitter layoffs.
Musk’s personal wealth dropped by roughly $27 billion this year through May 28,according to the Bloomberg Billionaires Index. He stands to lose even more of hisfortune unless Tesla’s board is able to navigate its way around a judge voiding theunprecedented pay package directors arranged for him six years ago.“
It’s a very high-wire act for a part-time CEO with conflicting interests,” said IvanFrishberg, the chief sustainability officer for Amalgamated Bank, which ownsroughly 600,000 Tesla shares and recently penned a letter opposing Musk’s pay.
“In the case of Tesla, the performance over the last year and the departures ofkey members of the executive team all suggest that this is not going to plan andthat investors face increasing risk.”
The 52-year-old billionaire’s distractions are at the center of a fight for investors tore-approve his $56 billion pay package from 2018 at Tesla’s annual shareholdermeeting in June. The payout was struck down in January after a DelawareChancery Court judge ruled that the largest compensation package in US historywasn’t in the best interests of shareholders.Musk, as well as others named in this story, didn’t respond to queries fromBloomberg.
Double Dip
Musk has become one of the richest people on the planet by making big bets inindustries others shunned. He’s run toward risks, and he claims he spentcountless hours sleeping on factory floors, crafting a management style that hasdrawn equal parts awe and ire.But Musk has another secret to simultaneously running six disparate companies:He double dips.
Since 2015, Tesla and SpaceX have shared a vice president of materialsengineering, Charles Kuehmann. When Tesla’s Autopilot software team neededhelp, SpaceX’s then-VP of software, Jinnah Hosein, jumped in to pull double dutyand run the team temporarily. In 2020, Musk directed Tesla management to sendtheir “smartest micro grid designer with a bunch of Powerpacks” to SpaceX, asDelaware Chancery Court Judge Kathaleen St. J. McCormick noted in her opinion.Antonio Gracias Jared Birchall Larry EllisonOne of Musk’s most senior employees at Tesla, Omead Afshar, who helped leadthe electric vehicle maker’s Gigafactory project in Texas, also showed up in asenior role at SpaceX. And Shivon Zilis, director of operations and special projectsat Neuralink, worked on AI projects at Tesla. She is also the mother of some ofMusk’s children.
His money manager, Jared Birchall, is listed on incorporation documents as anexecutive officer of Neuralink despite his multiple roles as a fundraiser for SpaceXinvestment. He also advises on X’s business dealings and runs Musk’s nonprofitfoundation.“Musk regularly uses Tesla resources to address projects at other companies heowns,” McCormick said in the ruling striking down Musk’s pay package.
Antonio Gracias, a SpaceX board member and former Tesla director, has raked inbillions of dollars personally and for his firm, according to the Delaware courtdecision. Ira Ehrenpreis, a venture capitalist who chairs Tesla’s compensationcommittee, has not only made hundreds of millions of dollars via his directinvestments in Tesla and SpaceX, but has used his ties to Elon Inc. to raise moneyfor his own firm.Most Likely to Succeed? Biggest Class Clown? Listen to the latest episode of Bloomberg's Elon Inc.podcast for a closer look inside Elon's orbit. Subscribe to Elon, Inc. on on Apple , Spotify , iHeart and theBloomberg Terminal.
Twitter Deal
Musk’s penchant for deploying resources across his empire was perhaps moststarkly on display when he bought Twitter for $44 billion.When he showed up at the social media site’s San Francisco headquarters inOctober 2022, he brought along Gracias, who helped carry out companywidelayoffs. Steve Davis, president of Musk’s tunneling business, was so focused onslashing the site’s expenses that he moved his family into the company’s offices.
Musk’s longtime attorney, Alex Spiro, advised the legal and policy teams. Birchallwas there, too, overseeing the company’s business and executive transition.
Musk fired Twitter’s executive team and cut thousands of jobs, sometimesreplacing them with employees from his other businesses. Droves of engineersfrom Tesla and SpaceX showed up to review Twitter’s code and help manage theengineering team. SpaceX’s human resources department was tapped to helpplan the staff cuts. It’s unclear whether these people got paid for their work at thesite, which Musk referred to as “voluntary.”
In late 2023, X CEO Linda Yaccarino said the social media site wasn’t astandalone business, but rather “part of a constellation of companies.” X madeapproximately $200,000 in advertising revenue from Tesla, according to theautomaker’s proxy. The ads are meant to boost car sales, but they also helpsupport the social network as it struggles to keep its biggest advertisers.
Musk’s bet is that operating his many ventures as part of one big universe canhelp improve the credibility of each of the businesses. A slide deck that recentlycirculated among some prospective xAI investors listed X and Tesla as strategicpartners, seeking to highlight a major selling point: access to the “Muskonomy,” aterm increasingly used in reference to his array of companies.
While it’s easy to see why Musk’s smaller companies can benefit from access toTesla’s resources, the advantages are becoming less clear to the EV maker’sinvestors. “The amount of time Musk spent on the Twitter acquisition wasundoubtedly a concern at Tesla,” the Delaware judge said in her ruling. Thoseworries are only rising.New from Bloomberg: Get the Business of Space newsletter, a weekly look atthe inside stories of investments beyond Eart
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