Elon Musk’s growing involvement with DOGE (a spending reform initiative) is troubling some of his biggest backers that he’s getting too distracted from his core businesses—especially Tesla.
“I hope his involvement with DOGE is temporary so that he can focus more on his companies,” investor Chris Tsai said in an interview with The Guardian over the weekend.
Tsai, who owns Tsai Capital, is a major owner of Tesla. His company owns 69,700 shares of Tesla—almost 20% of its $137 million portfolio, according to a recent SEC filing. Representatives for Tesla and Tsai, despite multiple requests, would not comment further.
Elon Musk’s obsession with DOGE
Musk’s DOGE obsession, and his efforts to slash the government budget, have not come without a price. Activists have begun vandalizing Tesla showrooms across the country, showing their frustration at Musk’s political agendas over his business acumen.
Tesla shares initially received a kick after Donald Trump’s November election victory, but the rally lost steam. Shares have since dropped over 50% from their highs in recent months, and sales have been falling in key markets including Europe and China.
And it’s not just Tsai warning of trouble.
Ross Gerber, another early Tesla investor, in February explained that he feels Tesla stock could fall another 50% this year—primarily because Musk has too many other things he is working on, particularly artificial intelligence.
“His entire focus is on AI now,” Gerber said. “It’s harming Tesla more than it’s benefiting his other endeavors. Seriously, he doesn’t appear to work at Tesla anymore.” Gerber continued to explain that he’d be a lot more optimistic if Musk were investing his time making Tesla’s Full Self-Driving software better instead.
Most recently, Gerber echoed his doubts, saying that he can’t see Tesla stock recovering this year—part of that has to do with Musk’s political stunts alienating segments of the company’s customer base.
Even Musk himself appears to know that managing so many businesses isn’t as easy as it sounds.
In a recent interview with Fox Business’ Larry Kudlow, Musk admitted it’s been difficult juggling DOGE and his other business endeavors. “I’m attempting to make the government more efficient and cut back on waste and fraud,” he said. “And to be frank, we are making some actual progress—but it is not easy.”.
However, for the majority of Tesla shareholders, the hope is that Musk will return his focus to the firm that catapulted him into prominence—soon.
