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Musk Is Holding Tesla To Ransom
What is his real motivation?
Elon Musk is an odd character, to say the least. His erratic behaviour, megalomania and the constant stream of bullshit promises should, by all merit, destroy any company he is attached to. But the opposite is true; these career-ending attributes have created an air of mystique around him, painting him out to be a misunderstood genius years ahead of his time, and as such, a fever pitch of hysteria surrounds him, Tesla, SpaceX and all his other forgotten side projects. But occasionally, this fog clears, and we get to see the true Elon. Such a mask-off moment happened recently when Musk effectively threatened to dramatically devalue Tesla unless he is given $81 billion worth of Tesla stock for free… Yeah, let’s unpack that.
In a recent Tweet (or Xeet? Change it back Elon, X is a dumb name), the Tesla CEO said that he would be “uncomfortable growing Tesla to be a leader in AI & robotics without having ~25% voting control. Enough to be influential, but not so much that I can’t be overturned. Unless that is the case, I would prefer to build products outside of Tesla. You don’t seem to understand that Tesla is not one startup but a dozen. Simply look at the delta between what Tesla does and GM.” Why this demand? Well, Musk also stated that the current structure leaves Tesla vulnerable to a “takeover by dubious interests”…
