Is Elon Musk Overextending Himself?
As the new owner of Twitter, Elon Musk has a lot on his plate. Will it prove to be too much for the richest person in the world?
News of
Tesla
CEO Elon Musk’s takeover of Twitter monopolized headlines in April. The richest person in the world made his stake in the social media platform known on April 4. The media has largely focused on the impact Musk’s $44 billion deal will have on the company he bought, but the implications run throughout the life of the richest person in the world—including his job as leader of Tesla.
Tesla stock dropped after Twitter took Musk’s deal
The day after
Musk
bought Twitter, Tesla shares fell by 12%, a dramatic drop in a downward trend that started when Musk announced his interest in the transaction at the beginning of April. Yahoo! Finance
says two fears triggered investors
to sell: Musk’s own dump in Tesla stock to pay for his new business, and growing concerns that the man has too many projects on the go.Besides Tesla and Twitter, Musk is also digging transport tunnels in California as the Boring Company, improving brain function in paralysis patients with Neurolink, funding OpenAI’s goals to create artificial intelligence, and trying to reach Mars with SpaceX.
The Twitter variable “will be a concern for investors until they are proven otherwise,” according to Dan Ives, an analyst for Wedbush Securities. Yahoo! quoted Ives saying that many see the deal as a distraction and are worried about Tesla’s financial role in the transaction.
It’s too early to tell if Twitter was one pie too many for Musk
For almost anyone else on earth, the burden of six multifaceted projects would be far too much to manage, but Musk’s immense wealth gives him access to all the resources he needs to get his jobs done.
As of April 30,
Bloomberg
says Musk is worth about $249 billion. That’s nearly $22 billion less than he was worth this time last year, but it still sets him $101 billion ahead of the second-richest person in the world, Amazon founder Jeff Bezos. The concern isn’t whether Musk can afford his new digital product but whether he has the time and brainspace to balance it with his other ventures. We still don’t know how active Musk will be as Twitter’s solitary owner, but it will no doubt affect his performance as a leader.
Tesla still going strong
No matter what side of the argument you land on when it comes to Elon Musk, it’s hard to argue with the success of his most valuable company, Tesla.
Worth more than any other automaker in the world now, the EV builder still has 14% of the global electric car market, according to
Forbes
. Its managed to lead the shift away from fossil fuels despite increasing material costs, controversies over its self-driving tech, and spats with the
car insurance
industry over the high premiums charged for covering Tesla models.The waiting list for Tesla deliveries is long, but if you manage to get the keys to one, make sure to shop for car insurance with Jerry.
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