Elon Musk is used to facing critics, haters and detractors.
He even likes these battles very much.
Sometimes he even tends to provoke his supposed enemies. The techno king, as he is known in Tesla (TSLA) – Download a free report, likes to turn his opponents’ attacks into counterattacks. A serial entrepreneur is never as deadly as when on the defensive.
He knows these opponents. He knows their angles of attack. Certainly some of these criticisms annoy him, but he always finds a line of reply to repel the detractors.
He can also count on his legion of fans, many of whom are die-hard Tesla fans. They believe in his promises to transform the world beyond our civilization. They applaud his iconoclastic side and don’t hesitate to cry genius when he announces a new product. The billionaire always knew he could count on these fans.
Rebellion of the retail investor
But what he never expected was that some of these fans would come after him. Therefore, he never prepared for it because he always counted on their loyalty to him. Turns out Musk was wrong.
For several weeks, the CEO of Tesla has been the target of repeated criticism from some retail investors. Investor Leo KuGuan, who is the automaker’s third-largest single shareholder after Musk and Oracle (ORCL) – Download a free report co-founder Larry Ellison, went so far as to sound a rebellion against Musk.
“I’m 100% in Tesla bc. I believe in Elon Musk and Tesla,” CoGuan tweeted on January 7. “But he’s killing SH and Tesla. If I had known, I wouldn’t have invested in Tesla.”
“Elon invested ≈200mm but took $40 billion, Larry invested $1 billion, I invested over $3 billion, I have no choice but to act and speak out.” I’m crying out to U for help!”
Criticism from these investors is a consequence of the collapse of Tesla’s stock market. In 2022, Tesla stock lost 65% of its value, meaning more than $600 billion in market capitalization evaporated in a year. Tesla’s market value is currently $357 billion, down from over $1 trillion at the start of 2022. During the first four trading sessions of 2023, Tesla shares have lost 8.2% to $113.06.
While Musk attributes the stock market disaster to macroeconomic factors such as the Federal Reserve’s aggressive interest rate hikes to fight inflation and Europe’s energy crisis, many Tesla shareholders believe his $44 billion purchase of Twitter is a big problem.
They claim that when Musk took to the social media platform, he completely left Tesla behind. Worse, he alienated many Tesla customers by regularly attacking progressives and Democrats on Twitter.
Tesla outperforms its rivals
Retail investors collectively own 41.9% of Tesla shares as of Dec. 5, according to WallStreetZen. Institutional investors hold the largest block with 43.01% of shares. The rest is held by company managers, i.e. 15%.
While Musk once responded to some criticism, he has been quiet lately. This is no doubt due to the fact that he has to observe a standstill period until the company’s earnings release on January 25th. Until that date, Musk’s management team is silent in order not to influence the share price in favor of individual shareholders. or to the detriment of others.
But Musk has just found a subtle and striking way to respond to the criticism, which has turned violent in recent days. The entrepreneur just retweeted a chart showing that of all the major automakers present in the U.S. market, only Tesla and General Motors (GM) – Download a free report managed to increase the sales of light vehicles in 2022 compared to 2021. All other vehicle manufacturers recorded a decrease in sales compared to 2021.
Tesla saw a 44% increase in sales in one year, while GM’s sales only increased by 3%.
Musk said nothing else.
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