It’s hard to say which is the bigger train wreck: the tit-for-tat feud between the president of the United States and the world’s richest man, or the free-fall of Tesla shares as its founder Elon Musk unleashes a figurative chainsaw on his own business empire.
If you’ve been under a rock, or sensibly avoiding social media, the news is that Donald Trump and his one-time “First Buddy,” and election campaign funder Musk, are over; properly over – and it is as unpleasant and unbecoming as anyone could have imagined.
But as Musk drops Epstein “truth bombs” and calls for Trump to be impeached, stock in the electric vehicle, battery energy storage and artificial intelligence business he built with long-since abandoned honourable intentions is sprialing down.
According to Reuters, Tesla’s shares ended the day down by more than 14 per cent, wiping roughly $US150 billion off its market value “on a day absent other news about the company.”
Needless to say, the fallout is not expected to end there. The big concern now facing Tesla and its shareholders is not being at the mercy of the whims of Musk, but being at the mercy of the whims of Trump, who has power beyond nasty Tweets to hurt his former favourite billionaire.
One of the biggest concerns is the impact the feud could have on Musk and Tesla’s push to self-driving vehicles and all sort of other AI-driven autonomous technologies.
“Tesla’s stock is under major pressure … as investors fear that this Musk/Trump battle will stop their friendship and change the regulatory environment for Tesla on the autonomous front over the coming years under the Trump administration,” Wedbush Securities managing director Dan Ives said in a note to investors.
Ives, remarkably, believes there is scope for the “high school friends feud” to resolve and the relationship to mend, but says “this must start to be calmed down on the Musk and Trump fronts, and it’s not good for either side.”
“This feud does not change our bullish view of Tesla and the autonomous view but clearly does put a fly in the ointment of the Trump regulatory framework going forward,” Ives said.
“It’s another Twilight Zone moment in this Musk/Trump relationship which now is quickly moving downhill.”
