Major Tesla investors instruct board to keep ‘overcommitted’ Elon Musk on short leash

Major Tesla investors have issued an open letter demanding that the board of directors hold Elon Musk short of the straw as the company faces a slew of discrimination lawsuits and its value plummets by 15 percent.

It continues to be a terrible week for the ‘Chief Twit’ as a SpaceX Starship rocket exploded in mid-air on its first test flight, Twitter launched its new blue check system to mostly ridicule and his wealth dropped dramatically by $13 billion in just 24 hours after the entrepreneur suffered a series of business blunders.

Tesla reported disappointing first-quarter results, with shares falling 9.75 percent and earnings plummeting more than 20 percent.

This has resulted in a letter signed by investors who say their share holdings exceed $1.5 billion.

They believe the company, as it is currently run, is “jeopardizing its long-term value” by taking on “substantial legal, operational and reputational risks” and are concerned about Musk’s involvement.

Tesla appears to be embracing a broader culture of being “above the law,” they wrote, according to CNBCciting several lawsuits accusing them of racial discrimination, sexual harassment, unsafe working conditions and union fraud.

“Instead of working to address issues with regulators, CEO Musk has been making derogatory tweets and comments, fueling tensions,” they added, referring to Musk as “overcrowded” between multiple companies.

Kristin Hull, one of the shareholders who signed the letter, said: “We want the board to take their job seriously – we don’t see them doing well as Elon Musk’s boss.”

Despite his disastrous week, Musk still has a net worth totaling $164 billion, according to the Bloomberg Billionaire Index. His fortune ranks him second in the global rich list, behind only French luxury brand magnate Bernard Arnault.

According to an internal email seen by the outlet, Musk told his Space X employees that he is optimistic about the venture despite his high-profile rocket launch going up in flames.

The largest rocket ever to take off, the 395-foot behemoth consisted of a Super Heavy booster and a starship.

But just four minutes after liftoff at 9:33 ET, the rocket exploded dramatically, abruptly ending its first orbital launch.

Space X has claimed it purposefully activated the flight termination system to wipe out the missile after the Super Heavy craft failed to separate, which began to cause an uncontrollable deadly spin before exploding.

Musk’s high-profile rocket launch was watched by thousands of people as they watched the 395-foot behemoth manage to lift off the launch pad

SpaceX’s launch ended in disaster when the Starship spacecraft exploded in a ball of fire after just four minutes

Despite the unideal optics of the rocket exploding as thousands of people watched from the ground in South Texas, NASA, Musk and SpaceX hailed the launch as a success after achieving their main goal of lifting the spaceship off the launch pad.

But Musk will have a harder time claiming success with its recent Tesla quarterly report, after shares of the electric car giant fell nearly 10 percent on Thursday.

The drop came just a day after the company also reported a more than 20 percent drop in net profit, compared to the same quarter a year ago.

Musk worried analysts when they discussed the poor returns, which helped the company earn a net profit of $2.51 billion in the first quarter of 2023, down 24 percent from the previous year.

“We believe that the pursuit of higher volumes and a larger fleet is the right thing to do here, versus lower volume and higher margin,” the billionaire said during an earnings call following the report.

Musk also admitted that it was “difficult to say what the margin will be” before Tesla’s falling earnings turn ominous.

Musk’s net worth took a huge plunge after Tesla reported poor first-quarter results on Thursday

While most of his net worth decline is reportedly tied up in his gargantuan stake in Tesla, Musk suffered further setbacks in his latest unpopular decision with Twitter.

Since acquiring the company a year ago, the billionaire has threatened to remove the blue tick verification.

And after receiving a muted response to its “Twitter Blue” rollout, Musk finally followed suit through Thursday, ridding the site of “legacy” checkmarks.

The decision was widely panned online, especially by those who lost their verification, with megastars like Oprah Winfrey, Justin Bieber and Kim Kardashian now without their prized blue check marks.