Elon Musk said he will continue to serve as CEO of Tesla for the next few years.
In an interview Tuesday at the Qatar Economic Forum in Doha, Elon Musk was asked if he was committed to remaining at Tesla for the next five years. When asked if he had any doubts about the plan, Musk replied: “Well, I could die.”
Musk, who also runs other companies like SpaceX, has spent a lot of time this year on initiatives under the White House’s Department of Government Efficiency (DOGE), raising concerns among investors that he is not spending enough time on Tesla. The company’s car sales also fell 13% in the first quarter of this year, the biggest decline in the company’s history.
However, Musk said in a later interview with CNBC that “the only things that really matter in the long run are autonomy and Optimus” – the humanoid robot project the company is developing. “Those are going to largely determine the financial success of the company in the future.”
Musk is also confident that robotaxis will become widely available within the next five years. However, Musk has previously set ambitious timelines for robotaxis and self-driving cars, but has never achieved his self-imposed goals.
“Obviously my predictions about this were too optimistic,” he said at an event last year.
At the forum, Musk said his massive compensation package at Tesla, which includes stock in the automaker, was intended to help him retain control of the company’s voting power. A Delaware court had previously rejected Musk’s plan to award a $56 billion compensation package at the time, despite the company’s argument that it was necessary to keep Musk focused on the automaker.
“The reward has to be commensurate with achieving something extraordinary,” he said.
Musk also said that this compensation plan was necessary not because of the monetary value, but because he wanted to eliminate the risk of an activist investor trying to oust him from the company.
Musk’s commitment to staying with Tesla comes weeks after the Wall Street Journal reported that the electric carmaker had begun a formal process to find a new CEO, amid serious problems at the company, including declining sales and protests.
However, Musk has denied this information. Previously, he posted on social network X: “For @WSJ to publish an article that is INTENTIONALLY FALSE and fails to include a clear denial from Tesla’s board of directors is a SERIOUS ETHICAL VIOLATION!”
Tesla President Robyn Denholm also confirmed that this information is “completely false.”
Musk told investors in April that he would step down from his leadership role in the DOGE initiative this month to spend more time on the car company. Tesla shares have fallen as much as 45% this year but have recently recovered and are down about 10%. The company’s shares were up 1% in Tuesday trading.