DOHA: Elon Musk said he's committed to still leading Tesla Inc. in five years and expects to pare back his political spending, assuaging some investors' con-cerns about the future of his most valuable company. During a remote appearance on Tues-day at the Qatar Economic Forum in Doha, Musk told Bloomberg News that he should be compensated for doing "something incredible" at Tesla.
He criticised the Delaware judge who's twice ruled against the massive pay package the company awarded him in 2018 and reiterated that he wants to own more shares of Tesla for reasons of authority, rather than wealth. "It's not a money thing," Musk said. "It's a reason-able control thing, over the future of the company."
Musk, whose $375.5 billion fortune leads the Bloomberg Billionaires Index, has been chief executive officer of Tesla since 2008, one of the longest active stints atop the world's major automakers. His level of engagement with Tesla has come under greater scrutiny as the company has followed up its first annual drop in vehicle sales in over a decade with steeper declines early this year.
Musk, 53, downplayed the extent of Tesla's challenges, saying "it's already turned around." When challenged on this the carmaker's vehicle sales contin-ued to plunge across Europe's biggest electric vehicle markets in April -the CEO said that the region is the company's weak-est, but that it's strong every-where else. "Our sales are doing well at this point," he said. "We don't anticipate any meaningful sales shortfall."
Tesla shares jumped after Musk's comments about his commitment to staying CEO, trading up as much as 3.6% in intraday trading before paring gains. The stock has declined 14% this year.
Musk disputed that he's dam-aged Tesla's brand, saying that while the company has lost some sales among consumers on the political left, it's gained others on the right. He criticised protesters he said have commit-ted "massive violence" against his companies.
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