Elon Musk is not a chief executive officer like the others.
Tesla’s (TSLA) Boss is atypical.
He refuses to follow the rules often imposed on executives of public companies.
The billionaire didn’t hesitate to restart the showdown with the US Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) despite a 2018 settlement with the regulator.
In September 2018, both sides agreed to drop an investigation into a tweet by Musk published on August 7, 2019 that caused Tesla shares to fall.
“I am considering privatizing Tesla for $420. Funding secured,” the billionaire wrote at the time.
Ongoing tensions with the SEC
The tweet rocked Tesla stock. The SEC filed a complaint against Musk.
An agreement was reached and announced on September 29, 2018. Musk has had to resign as Tesla chairman. Tesla and Musk agreed to pay $40 million in penalties. Tesla also agreed to have tweets containing material information about the company pre-approved by the company’s lawyers.
Last April, a New York federal judge told the billionaire in a ruling that he would not end the agreement, which required him to have his social media posts approved by a company attorney, if they contained material information about Tesla.
Musk pushed back, saying the previous agreement restricted his freedom of speech. He said the SEC used the agreement to launch “endless, limitless” investigations into his public statements.
“None of the arguments hold water,” Justice Lewis J. Liman of the US District Court for the Southern District of New York wrote in a ruling.
Few CEOs would risk attacking the SEC the way Musk does. Those tensions also suggest the billionaire values his uniqueness, and has just proved it once again.
On Oct. 2, Tesla shareholder Ross Gerber Musk wrote on Twitter asking how investors should view Tesla after the company unveiled advances in Optimus, the company’s humanoid robot, on Sept. 30. Musk’s response was scathing.
“I don’t care about adding to the stock”
“Hey @elonmusk – excited to discuss the long-term global economic impact of Optimus and how investors should view Tesla’s development. $tsla,” Gerber posted on Twitter.
“I don’t care about adding to the stock,” the billionaire replied. “But the economic impact is obvious.”
Few CEOs would dare to make such a statement, fearing reprisals from their board of directors and sanctions from the markets. Not Musk, who sees himself as a visionary, not just an entrepreneur. He made it his mission to change civilization the way it is today.
The tech tycoon presented a dancing Optimus on September 30, gesturing with one of his hands and bending his knees during Tesla AI Day. He promised mass production of his robot soon.
Optimus costs less than $20,000.
“Our goal is to create a useful humanoid robot as quickly as possible. We also designed with the same discipline that we use when designing the car, namely design for manufacture, so it is possible to manufacture the robot on a large scale at low cost with high reliability,” said the billionaire.
Optimus will herald a “future of abundance,” Musk said. It will be “a future where there is no poverty, where people can have what they want in terms of products and services. It is truly a fundamental transformation of civilization as we know it.”
However, the robot remains a work in progress.
Tesla will work on various use cases including cooking and gardening. Musk wants to replace human labor with humanoid robots made from the artificial intelligence software that Tesla uses for its cars.