rewrite this title Tesla board denies report it wanted to replace Elon Musk

Tesla has hit back following a Wall Street Journal report that its board had initiated a search for a new CEO to replace Elon Musk, taking to Musk’s social platform X to call the claim “absolutely false.”

According to the WSJ report, about a month ago Tesla’s board began the process of hunting for a successor to Musk, reaching out to “several” executive search firms and getting as far as narrowing down to one firm to lead the search.

Around the same time the board reportedly told Musk he needed to spend more time on Tesla, and less on DOGE, and say so publicly. In an earnings call last week he did exactly that, promising that from May he’d be “allocating far more” of his time to Tesla. The auto company has suffered from slumping sales, declining revenue, and a major brand crisis since Musk took on a closer role with Donald Trump and led efforts to slash government spending. There’s good reason to think Tesla and Musk’s other companies stand to benefit from that work too, though.

Tesla moved quickly to reject the Journal’s report, publishing a rebuttal on X from board chair Robyn Denholm, who said the directors are “highly confident” in Musk’s ability to lead Tesla. She both denied that the board had initiated a CEO search, and claimed that “this was communicated to the media before the report was published.” The WSJ has not yet updated its story or responded to Denholm’s statement, though notes in its original report that it reached out to Musk for comment and didn’t receive any.

Musk himself later tweeted his thoughts, accusing the paper of an “EXTREMELY BAD BREACH OF ETHICS,” and suggesting that it had been sent an “unequivocal denial beforehand.”