Elon Musk to pull back in Doge role starting May amid 71% dip in Tesla profits
The Tesla chief executive, Elon Musk, said he will start pulling back from his role at the so-called “department of government efficiency” starting in May,Musk’s remarks came as the company reported a massive dip in both profits and revenues in the first quarter of 2025 amid backlash against his role in the White House,On an investor call, Musk said the work necessary to get the government’s “financial house in order is mostly done”,“Starting probably next month, May, my time allocation to Doge will drop significantly,” he said,That said, he expects to spend one to two days a week continuing to do what he referred to as “critical work” at Doge “for as long as the president would like me to do so and as long as it is useful”.
Musk is scheduled to leave Doge on May 30, a strict 130-day cap on his service as a special government employee.Tesla saw a 9% drop in revenue year over year in the first quarter of 2025.The company brought in $19.3bn in revenue, well below Wall Street expectations of $21.45bn.
The company reported an earnings per share of 27 cents, also well under investor expectations of 43 cents in earnings per share,Tesla profits also slid 71% to $409m compared with $1,39bn in net income the previous year,The company suffered a 13% drop in vehicle deliveries, making it the company’s worst quarter since 2022,Tesla closed the quarter with 336,681 vehicles delivered.
Though Musk has acknowledged there have been “rocky moments” of late, he remained optimistic about the company’s future.“The future for Tesla is better than ever,” he said.“The value of the company is delivering sustainable abundance with our affordable AI-powered robots.If you say, what’s the ideal future that you can imagine, that’s what you’d want.You’d want abundance for all in a way that’s sustainable, that’s good for the environment.
Basically this is a happy future, this is the happiest future you can imagine.”That “happy future” includes the company’s plans for fully self-driving cars, said the billionaire CEO as he laid out an ambitious timeline for when he expects the vehicles to hit US roads in some cities – “by the end of the year”.Tesla has historically struggled to meet timelines Musk has publicly set for the launch of new products, especially when it comes to self-driving.“The acid test is, can you go to sleep in your car and wake up in your destination and I’m confident that will be available in many cities in the US by the end of this year,” he said.This would be on top of the Robotaxi service the company plans to roll out in June.
“I predict that there will be millions of Teslas operating fully autonomously in the second half of next year,” Musk said,Despite missing Wall Street expectations on the top and bottom line, initial analyst reactions are optimistic given many had significantly lowered their expectations after the company reported a massive dip in vehicle deliveries,“Against the backdrop of catastrophic expectations, with everything from sales to margins projected to continue the slump, the less-than-bad numbers have been received as welcome news by Tesla investors,” said Thomas Monteiro, senior analyst at Investing,com,“In a curious turn of events, it’s as if numbers show that even at the worst moment, Elon and the team’s operation can still bring a robust $19.
3bn in revenue, with total revenue partly making up for the huge drop in auto revenue,“If this is the worst it gets for Tesla, then certainly there must be some upside for the stock once tailwinds, such as the highly awaited cheaper model and the Robotaxi, finally hit the market later this year,” Monteiro continued,Analysts attribute the company’s overall difficulties to a number of factors, but ultimately conclude Musk’s role in the White House has caused a branding crisis for Tesla,The company is at a major crossroads, analysts say, that will only be remedied if Musk leaves his role in Doge and returns to Tesla as CEO full time,In addition to a drop in sales, a 50% dip in share prices, existing Tesla owners are looking to sell their vehicles in droves, Teslas have been vandalized across the country and in response to ongoing protests of the automaker, the Vancouver International Auto show removed the electronic carmaker from its March lineup.
The company also recalled 46,000 Cybertrucks – nearly all that had been sold.Musk said that the drop in demand is due to the macro economic trends – not branding.“Tesla is not immune to the macro demand for cars,” Musk said.“When there is economic uncertainty, people generally want to pause on doing a major capital purchase like a car.Absent macro issues we don’t see any reduction in demand.
”Analysts are not convinced.“If Musk leaves the White House there will be permanent brand damage…but Tesla will have its most important asset and strategic thinker back as full time CEO to drive the vision and the long term story will not be altered,” read a Wedbush Securities analyst note.Wedbush remained bullish on the company’s chances of turning its financials around.“IF Musk chooses to stay with the Trump White House it could change the future of Tesla/brand damage will grow.”The company declined to provide forward-looking guidance for the next quarter citing “shifting global trade policy on the automotive and energy supply chains”.
“While we are making prudent investments that will set up both our vehicle and energy businesses for growth, the rate of growth this year will depend on a variety of factors, including the rate of acceleration of our autonomy efforts, production ramp at our factories and the broader macroeconomic environment,” the earnings report reads.“We will revisit our 2025 guidance in our Q2 update.”The company did warn, however, that “changing political sentiment” could meaningfully impact short-term demand for Tesla products.
China ‘may exempt some US goods’ from tariffs; British retail sales beat forecasts – business live
Good morning, and welcome to our rolling coverage of business, the financial markets and the world economy.Hope is swirling this morning that China might relax some of the tariffs it has imposed on US goods as part of Donald Trump’s trade wars.With the economic costs of the tit-for-tat trade war hurting Chinese companies, Beijing appears to be seeking to mitigate the economic fallout from the conflict.According to Bloomberg, this means China’s government is considering suspending its 125% tariff on some US imports – a sign that policymakers are worried about the damage caused by its trade war with Washington.Bloomberg say:Authorities are considering removing the additional levies for medical equipment and some industrial chemicals like ethane, the people said, asking not to be identified discussing private deliberations
Drax needs a better policeman
Even government ministers sounded embarrassed in February when they threw yet more subsidies at Drax, recipient of £6.5bn to date, to keep its wood-burning power plant open until 2031. Few people think the biomass industry can survive in the long term unless as-yet-untested carbon capture technology can be installed.But the bizarre business of importing wood pellets from the US and Canada for incineration in North Yorkshire was given an extension because the UK’s power system, now more reliant on wind and solar generation, also needs firm “dispatchable” power that can be turned on and off in a hurry.At least Drax would have a “much more limited role” in future, explained the energy minister Michael Shanks, and 100% – not 70% as in the past – of the “woody biomass” would have to come from sustainable sources
Elon Musk’s xAI accused of pollution over Memphis supercomputer
Elon Musk’s artificial intelligence company is stirring controversy in Memphis, Tennessee. That’s where he’s building a massive supercomputer to power his company xAI. Community residents and environmental activists say that since the supercomputer was fired up last summer it has become one of the biggest air polluters in the county. But some local officials have championed the billionaire, saying he’s investing in Memphis.The first public hearing with the health department is scheduled for Friday, where county officials will hear from all sides of the debate
Google reports strong earnings amid DoJ antitrust lawsuits and Trump tariffs
Google’s parent company Alphabet reported strong first quarter earnings on Thursday, despite being embroiled in antitrust lawsuits brought by the US government and seeing a 17% drop in its stock price since the beginning of the year. This is the company’s first earnings report since Donald Trump levied tariffs on trade partners around the world.Despite the upheaval for Alphabet, it exceeded Wall Street’s expectations, reporting revenue of $90.23bn, up 12% since the same time last year, and $2.81 in earnings per share
Chess: Carlsen scores record nine out of nine at Grenke Freestyle Open
Magnus Carlsen, the world No 1, soared to a new landmark in chess history last weekend, when the 34-year-old won all his nine games in the Grenke Freestyle Open at Karlsruhe, Germany.It was a result comparable to the great historical performances. Bobby Fischer won the 1963-64 US Championship with an 11/11 “picket fence”, then defeated both Mark Taimanov and Bent Larsen by 6-0 in the 1971 Candidates. Anatoly Karpov triumphed at Linares 1994 with a 11-2 total, while further back the yardstick performance was Alexander Alekhine’s 14-1 at San Remo 1930.However, Fide does not officially rate Freestyle chess, in which the back rank pieces have randomised starting positions
NFL draft 2025: Jaguars trade up to get Travis Hunter as teams pass on Shedeur Sanders – as it happened
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