Elon Musk worked through the night and slept at Tesla Inc.’s facilities in California and Nevada in 2018, as the company struggled to increase Model 3 production.
On Monday, Musk said he had worked through the night at Twitter’s San Francisco headquarters and would keep “working & sleeping here” until the social media platform – which he recently acquired for $44 billion – was fixed.
A self-described “nanomanager,” Musk’s penchant for working long hours in moments of crisis has been a well-known part of his brand. But the billionaire’s deep dive into Twitter, after a protracted buyout that he tried to scrap, has some Tesla investors worried about his capacity to focus on his role as CEO of the world’s most valuable carmaker.
“Tesla investors are going to be frustrated,” said Gene Munster, managing partner at venture capital firm Loup Ventures. “He’s probably going to spend more time on Twitter than any Tesla investor feels comfortable about.”
Musk did not respond to a request for comment from Reuters via email. Musk is scheduled to testify in court on Wednesday regarding the justification of Tesla’s $56 billion pay package.
He tweeted on Monday “I have Tesla covered too,” saying he planned to work at the electric vehicle maker for part of this week. Tesla has an office in Palo Alto, California, and a factory in Fremont, California.
Since he revealed he had purchased a stake in Twitter in early April, shares of Tesla have fallen by 50%. The pressure has increased as a result of sales of Musk’s own Tesla shares that have brought in $20 billion since he disclosed his Twitter stake..
Tesla is facing an increasing number of difficulties, including issues with demand in China and a regulatory investigation into the promises it makes about the capabilities of its “Autopilot” driver assistance system in the US.
According to a Reuters count, Musk has posted on the platform he bought in October more than two-thirds of the time this month in tweets about his efforts to revive Twitter.
From November 1 to November 15, only 3% of his tweets mentioned Tesla, a significant decrease from the average of almost 16% over the preceding eight months.
