Category Archives: Elon Musk

The White House just said it agrees with Elon Musks point about Apples secret 30% tax on everything. And dont forget Google  Fortune

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The White House just said it agrees with Elon Musks point about Apples secret 30% tax on everything. And dont forget Google - Fortune

For Elon Musk, two cases about his tweets, and two victories | Mint  Mint

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For Elon Musk, two cases about his tweets, and two victories | Mint - Mint

Twitter CEO Elon Musk has become the first human being in history to lose a mammoth $200 billion in net worth, Bloomberg reported.

It wasnt too long ago that Musk became the second individual ever to amass a personal fortune of more than $200 billion. That happened in January 2021, just months after Amazon founder Jeff Bezos accomplished the same feat.

Much of Musks lost billions have been swallowed up by the plummeting value of his shares in Tesla, the electric vehicle company of which he is CEO. That value has dropped 65% this year, and dove 11% last Tuesday alone, as Bloomberg noted Friday.

Musks fortune to date peaked in November 2021 at $340 billion, according to Bloombergs Billionaires Index. Hes now worth a not-too-shabby $137 billion, per Bloomberg, but thats still a steep dive from 2021.

Musk was the worlds richest person until earlier this month, when he was surpassed by European fashion magnate Bernard Arnault, the powerhouse behind LVMH.

Musks challenges include huge controversies over his hands-on management of a struggling Twitter, for which he paid $44 billion. The self-described free speech absolutist has repeatedly come under fire for arbitrarily booting journalists over actions he disapproves of, while allowing previously banned neo-Nazis back on the social media platform.

The billionaire has described the financially challenged Twitter as basically ... a plane that is headed toward the ground at high speed with the engines on fire and the controls dont work.

The company is apparently so strapped for cash that Musk recently shut down the servers supporting a Twitter data center in Sacramento. He has also fired janitors at Twitters San Francisco headquarters, reportedly forcing some staffers to bring in their own toilet paper.

Tesla investors fear Musks over-involvement in Twitter is distracting him from responding to serious issues at Tesla amid mounting competition.

In a dramatic move, Tesla has been offering American consumers a $7,500 discount on certain car models before the end of the year. The company is also reportedly reducing production at its Shanghai plant.

The worlds billionaires collectively lost nearly $2 trillion in 2022, Forbes reported earlier this month. American billionaires lost a combined $660 billion, more than in any other country, Forbes noted, and Musk lost the most of all.

(The loss occurred, however, after the worlds billionaires added $5 trillion to their collective wealth between March 2020 and November 2021.)

Forbes attributed the losses in America to a dive in tech stock value, rising interest rates, inflation and a weakening economy.

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Elon Musk Becomes First Person In History To Lose $200 Billion: Report ...

1. Tom Zhu: Elon Musk's right-hand man at Tesla  CNN
2. Tesla stock drubbed: Elon Musk looking to stabilize EV maker  Axios
3. Tesla makes China boss Tom Zhu its highest-profile executive after Elon Musk  CNBC

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Tom Zhu: Elon Musk's right-hand man at Tesla - CNN

1. Teslas ugly Q4 deliveries miss is the first hard proof that Elon Musk has a growing demand problem  Fortune
2. The best thing Elon Musk can do is be more focused on Tesla: Analyst  Yahoo Finance
3. Tesla's Troubles Go Beyond Elon Musk: What You Need to Know  The Motley Fool

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Teslas ugly Q4 deliveries miss is the first hard proof that Elon Musk has a growing demand problem - Fortune

Musk takes on US govt in Twitter Files, then says I was Person of the Year  Hindustan Times

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Musk takes on US govt in Twitter Files, then says I was Person of the Year - Hindustan Times

South Korea fines Elon Musks Tesla to the tune of $2.2 million for false advertising  Firstpost

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South Korea fines Elon Musks Tesla to the tune of $2.2 million for false advertising - Firstpost

SpaceX owner and Tesla CEO Elon Musk speaks during a conversation with legendary game designer Todd Howard (not pictured) at the E3 gaming convention in Los Angeles, California, June 13, 2019.

Mike Blake | Reuters

After shares of Tesla dipped by more than 10% on Tuesday deepening a year-long selloff, CEO Elon Musk told employees not to be "too bothered by stock market craziness."

Musk circulated the comments on Wednesday in a companywide email, which CNBC obtained. He told staffers that Tesla needs to "demonstrate continued excellent performance," and that "long-term, I believe very much that Tesla will be the most valuable company on Earth!"

Electric vehicle blog Electrek reported earlier on the email.

Tesla shares have declined about 68% for the year, though they rose 3.3% on Wednesday to $112.71. The stock is down 42% in December, and is poised to close out its worst month, quarter and year on record.

Musk has blamed Tesla's declining share price in part on rising interest rates. But critics point to his Twitter takeover as a bigger culprit for the slide, which has wiped out about $675 billion in market cap this year as of Wednesday's close.

In the email, Musk thanked Tesla employees for their work in 2022, encouraged them to push hard for a strong fourth-quarter finish, and asked them to "volunteer to help deliver" cars to customers before midnight on Dec. 31, if at all possible.

During the last days of most quarters, Tesla enlists employees from all over the company to bring new cars to customers in order to hit or exceed stated delivery goals, work that in normal times is limited to people on the sales and delivery teams. The company has been aiming for 50% year-over-year growth in vehicle deliveries but has cautioned investors it may not meet that target every year.

Musk's attention has been focused on Twitter of late. The Tesla and SpaceX CEO sold tens of billions of dollars worth of shares in his electric vehicle company in 2022 to finance the $44 billion buyout of the social media company.

Here's the text of the email Musk sent to Tesla employees on Wednesday:

From: Elon Musk

To: Everybody

Subj. Final Few Days

Date: Dec. 28, 2022 [Time Stamp removed]

Just a quick note to thank you for your hard work and congratulate you on exceptional execution in 2022!

Since we have a lot of cars arriving at the last minute, it is important to rally hard and do everything we can to get our cars to customers who have ordered them before midnight on Dec. 31. Also, every incremental car we produce that can be delivered in time also matters.

Please go all out for the next few days and volunteer to help deliver if at all possible. It will make a real difference!

Thanks,

Elon

Btw, don't be too bothered by stock market craziness. As we demonstrate continued excellent performance, the market will recognize that. Long-term, I believe very much that Tesla will be the most valuable company on Earth!

WATCH: Musk's vision has always been greater than just automobiles

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Elon Musk tells Tesla employees to ignore stock market craziness

From Elon Musk's Twitter romp to Mukesh Ambani's succession plan, here are the top business stories of the year 2022  Times of India

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From Elon Musk's Twitter romp to Mukesh Ambani's succession plan, here are the top business stories of the year 2022 - Times of India

Twitter

PHOTO ILLUSTRATION BY FIVETHIRTYEIGHT / GETTY IMAGES

Welcome to Pollapalooza, our weekly polling roundup.

Twitters new owner, Elon Musk, might not have any credibility as a pollster in FiveThirtyEights rating system, but hes a pollster nonetheless. Kinda.

Soon after he took control of Twitter in October, the once-richest person in the world implemented a new management style that allowed users to make key decisions via polls. Should former President Donald Trump be allowed to rejoin the platform after supposedly being permanently banned last year? A slim majority of users said yes, so Vox Populi, Vox Dei, as Musk wrote he was back. Should Musk bring back Vine, the short-form video app which shut down in 2016? Sure! Maybe! The people have spoken!

The stakes of the polls escalated quickly. On Sunday, Musk put his own job security on the line, vowing to abide by the results of his own, unscientific poll. Should I step down as head of Twitter? he asked users. By Monday, he had an answer: By a 15-point margin 57.5 percent to 42.5 percent respondents said he should resign from his post atop the social media giant. Musk said on Tuesday he plans to honor the polls results as soon as he finds someone foolish enough to succeed him. Its unclear when that will happen, or how much power he will actually be relinquishing.

Its too bad for Musk that he didnt take a more scientific approach, though, because according to a number of professionally conducted polls, Americans still have a somewhat favorable opinion of him although they do hold negative views of social media companies generally.

Lets kick things off with Musks own question of whether he should quit. Though a majority of respondents in his own survey said yes, an overnight poll conducted by HarrisX in mid-December found that a whopping 61 percent of U.S. Twitter users and 53 percent of U.S. adults actually want Musk to stay at the helm. Meanwhile, another December poll, this one from Quinnipiac University, found that Americans were almost evenly split on their feelings toward how Musk runs the social media giant: 37 percent said they approved of the way hes operating Twitter, 37 percent disapproved and 25 percent offered no opinion.

And poll after poll shows that Musk isnt overwhelmingly unpopular with the American public, either. According to that same Quinnipiac survey, 36 percent of Americans said they viewed Musk positively versus 33 percent who viewed him negatively. (Another 26 percent said they hadnt heard enough about him to make an opinion either way.) A YouGov/The Economist poll, fielded in November, found that 41 percent of U.S. adults had a very or somewhat favorable view of Musk compared with 37 percent who viewed him somewhat or very unfavorably. These findings come despite evidence showing that, generally, Americans hold negative opinions about social media companies. Quinnipiac, for example, found that 70 percent think that social media giants like Twitter and Facebook do more harm than good, while 18 percent disagreed. Another spring 2022 survey from the Pew Research Center, which polled citizens in 19 advanced economies about their views on social media, technology and their influence on society, found that 79 percent of U.S. respondents believed that access to social media and the internet has made people more divided in their political opinions.

The fact that Musk isnt overwhelmingly disliked might come as a surprise to people who have been closely following Twitters fate. In a matter of months, he gutted the companys staff, drove away major advertisers and suspended (then unsuspended) the accounts of several prominent journalists among many other things. And its worth underscoring that not everyone is over the moon with Twitters newest CEO. Per Quinnipiac, among U.S. adults, Republicans (63 percent) and white men (51 percent) were the most likely to view Musk favorably. Democrats (9 percent), Black respondents (17 percent) and women (25 percent) were the demographic groups least likely to harbor positive opinions toward Musk.

And, to be sure, it does look like Musks overall favorability numbers have ticked down since purchasing Twitter. Back in April, YouGov found that closer to half of U.S. adults (49 percent) had a very or somewhat favorable opinion of Musk compared with 31 percent who viewed him somewhat or very unfavorably.

Unfortunately, most polls that ask respondents their opinions toward Musk dont ask why people feel the way they do. Is his wealth impacting peoples views of him? Is his high name ID giving him an added advantage? Did his suspension of journalists (which a majority of respondents in a December CivicScience poll viewed negatively) depress his favorability ratings? Topline survey findings dont give us a lot of clues. What we do know, however, is that people view Musk as an influential and successful businessman and maybe someone whos a bit quirky, too. And that might be why, despite his many flubs at Twitter, Americans dont have overwhelmingly negative views of him.

For example, YouGovs April survey asked respondents how influential they felt Musk was in the tech world and the overwhelming majority of respondents (80 percent) said he was very or somewhat influential. Another question on the same polls asked the same sample to select terms that they felt described Musk. The winners were: rich (60 percent), an entrepreneur (49 percent), an innovator (39 percent) and eccentric (37 percent). Meanwhile, a December YouGov survey found that 58 percent of U.S. adults believe that Musk is a successful business person versus 22 percent who said he wasnt.

So have Twitter users actually seen the last of Musk, then? It doesnt seem like hes planning to bow out entirely or even partially. After announcing that he would resign as CEO once he could find a sufficiently foolish successor, he said that his next steps would be to just run the software & servers teams. So the main change to Twitter at least in the short-term might be the way Musk conducts his polls (he seemed to agree with a users comment which suggested that, from now on, only Twitter blue subscribers should be allowed to vote in policy related polls). Or maybe Musk actually will step back and open the door for someone else hello, Snoop Dogg and Dionne Warwick to take over at Twitter in 2023. Your guess is as good as mine.

According to FiveThirtyEights presidential approval tracker,2 43 percent of Americans approve of the job Biden is doing as president, while 51.6 percent disapprove (a net approval rating of -8.6 points). At this time last week, 43.0 percent approved and 51.3 percent disapproved (a net approval rating of -8.3 points). One month ago, Biden had an approval rating of 41.5 percent and a disapproval rating of 53.5 percent, for a net approval rating of -12.0 points.

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How Americans Really Feel About Elon Musk | FiveThirtyEight