Tesla shareholders are unfazed by Elon Musk’s new role at the Department of Government Efficiency (D.O.G.E). With the CEO already enlisted to co-run the agency alongside Vivek Ramaswamy, the new role adds to the billionaire’s roles with Tesla and the microblogging platform, X.
According to a recent Business Insider survey of Tesla shareholders, most of them do not see the need to be worried. Most Tesla investors believe Musk is a capable multitasker.
The issue of the time he spends at Tesla caused a stir when it became a topic of interest at the last annual shareholders meeting. Presently, aside from Tesla and X, Musk is involved with The Boring Company, SpaceX, xAI, and Neuralink.
Stakeholders believe Tesla could benefit from Musk’s work at DOGE
Elon Musk and Vivek Ramaswamy have been efficient with starting their work at DOGE: slashing the United States federal budget and eliminating wasteful spending. They also have plans to increase efficiency by merging some agencies, while cutting others off totally. However, the job at hand is no small task and would need their full concentration.
Tesla shareholders believe that Musk’s work in the Trump administration will help Tesla. They feel that regulations that the company must navigate will greatly reduce, opening the path to technological advancements. For instance, Long Island-based Tesla shareholder Anthony Gurino believes Musk’s work could help reduce the red tape around autonomous driving.
Currently, states have discretionary authority to approve the technology. However, Musk has promised to push for a national approval process for autonomous vehicles.
Other investors also echoed the same sentiment, with most of them hoping that the new administration translates into goodwill for the company due to Musk’s affiliation with incoming President Donald Trump.
Decline in car sales highlights Tesla’s underwhelming year
According to one of Tesla’s shareholders from Denmark, Philip Engberg, there were lots of challenges under the Biden administration. He noted that the company’s technologies faced political hurdles. His comments stemmed from Tesla’s snub at President Joe Biden’s EV Summit in 2021, despite being one of the top EV sellers in the country.
Tesla, on the other hand, wrapped up an underwhelming year in 2024 after battling increased competition and stagnating growth in the EV market. These challenges caused the company to witness its first car sales decline, according to its January report.
Notably, the decline spread across the EV market. Still, Tesla ended the year outselling Audi globally for the first time.
Wall Street is also optimistic about Tesla’s chances under the Trump administration, with its shares up by 70% since the election. Analysts from various firms are confident in its ability to rise even further, with Morgan Stanley analyst Adam Jonas raising its target to $430. Others, like Roth Capital’s managing director and senior analyst Craig Irwin, also changed his Tesla buy status from neutral to buy.
Debates about Musk’s multitasking ability
During the second shareholder vote, Musk’s pay package was approved, with some shareholders noting that it reaffirmed support for him as their leader. Some of the shareholders were also confident in his ability to multitask. While others were worried that his involvement with the government could eventually impact his job at the company, they are still confident he can get the job done.
Meanwhile, not all shareholders are convinced about Musk’s affiliation with Trump leading to a positive spell for the company. According to shareholder John VonBokel, who voted against Musk’s second pay package, he is at a loss on why the share price has risen that much. VonBokel talked about the company’s Full-Self-Driving beta software, which requires drivers to be ready to take over driving at any moment. “Certainly, Trump is not going to go in there and write code to make FSD better,” VonBokel said.
One shareholder, Charlie Redmond, also went as far as predicting that Musk’s relationship with Trump will not last more than six months. He highlighted that the only benefit that the company could enjoy is Musk eventually convincing Trump to keep the EV tax break, which Trump has said he will remove.
Another shareholder noted that when the relationship eventually falls apart, it could affect the stock, even though it could recover in the long term.
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