Elon Musk says he will not sell more Tesla stock for about two years
Chief executive’s comments come amid concerns over softening demand for electric cars
The Tesla chief executive, Elon Musk, has said he will not sell any more of the electric car company’s stock for about two years.
While speaking in a Twitter Spaces audio chat on Thursday, Musk said he foresaw the economy would be in a “serious recession” in 2023 and demand for big-ticket items would be lower.
His comments came after a Tesla stock sell-off deepened on Thursday over worries about softening demand for electric cars and Musk’s distraction with Twitter and his stock sales.
“I won’t sell stock until, I don’t know, probably two years from now. Definitely not next year under any circumstances and probably not the year thereafter,” Musk said.
Shares of Tesla rose 3% to $129.23 (£107.22) in after-hours trading on Thursday after an 8.9% drop in regular trading hours.
Musk has previously made promises about not selling Tesla stock before subsequently selling it. Last week, Musk disclosed another $3.6bn in stock sales, taking his total near $40bn since late last year and frustrating investors as the company’s shares wallow at more than two-year lows.
“I needed to sell some stock to make sure, like, there’s powder dry … to account for a worst-case scenario,” the billionaire said.
He said Tesla’s board was open to a share buyback but that will depend on the scale of a recession.
On Thursday, Tesla stocks plunged 9%, after Tesla started to offer deep, $7,500 discounts to US consumers, fuelling investor concerns about softening demand as the economy slows.
“I think there is going to be some macro drama that’s higher than people currently think,” he said, adding that homes and cars will get “disproportionately impacted” by economic conditions.
Asked whether he would bring in someone such as the venture capitalist David Sacks to run Twitter to allow him to focus on Tesla, Musk dodged the question and said Twitter was a relatively simple business.
“[Twitter] is maybe 10% of the complexity of Tesla,” Musk said.
Musk said earlier this week that he would step down as chief executive of Twitter once he found “someone foolish enough to take the job”.
In response to concerns that his political views and controversial comments were alienating some people, he said: “I am not going to like sort of suppress my views just to boost the stock price.”
Musk has increasingly used Twitter’s live audio platform to weigh in on his product and strategic decisions at the social media company he took private in October in a $44bn deal.