Musk commits to Tesla CEO role and plans political pullback

Elon Musk said he’s committed to still leading Tesla Inc. five years from now and expects to pare back his political spending, assuaging some investors’ concerns about the future of his most valuable company.

The billionaire offered new details about his plans in a wide-ranging interview with Bloomberg News that also touched on his compensation, Tesla’s sliding sales and a possible spinoff of SpaceX’s Starlink satellite business. Musk repeated his criticisms of a familiar cast of characters, from Bill Gates to the Delaware judge who’s twice ruled against his massive Tesla pay package.

Musk, whose $375.5 billion fortune leads the Bloomberg Billionaires Index, reiterated that he wants to own more shares of Tesla for reasons of authority, rather than wealth.

“It’s not a money thing,” he said during a remote appearance Tuesday at the Qatar Economic Forum in Doha. “It’s a reasonable control thing, over the future of the company.”

Musk has been chief executive officer of Tesla since 2008, one of the longest active stints atop the world’s largest automakers. His level of engagement with the company has come under greater scrutiny as the carmaker has followed up its first annual sales drop in over a decade with steeper declines early this year.

Tesla shares jumped after Musk’s comments about his commitment to staying CEO, trading up as much as 3.6% before paring gains. The stock has declined 14% this year.

Musk, 53, downplayed the extent of Tesla’s challenges, saying that “it’s already turned around.” When pressed about this — the carmaker’s vehicle sales continued to plunge across Europe’s biggest electric vehicle markets in April — the CEO said that the region is the company’s weakest, but that it’s strong elsewhere.

“Our sales are doing well at this point,” he said. “We don’t anticipate any meaningful sales shortfall.”

Musk disputed the extent to which he’s damaged Tesla’s brand, saying that while the company may be losing some sales among consumers on the political left, it’s gained others on the right. He criticized protesters he said have committed “massive violence” against his companies.

“They’re on the wrong side of history, and that’s an evil thing to do,” he said, referring to people damaging Tesla cars and showrooms. “Something needs to be done about them, and a number of them are going to prison, and they deserve it.”

Brand damage

President Donald Trump has rallied to Musk and Tesla’s defense, including by showcasing the company’s cars just outside the White House in March. The Federal Bureau of Investigation later formed a task force to coordinate investigations into vandalism and arson incidents at Tesla stores and charging stations, and Attorney General Pam Bondi announced charges against individuals accused of setting the company’s property ablaze with Molotov cocktails.

State of SpaceX

Musk’s SpaceX has been relatively resilient during Trump’s second term. Governments around the globe have been opening up to Starlink, the closely held company’s satellite internet service, since its founder spent more than a quarter of a billion dollars to help Trump retake the presidency.

Musk said that while it’s possible Starlink may go public at some point in the future, he’s in no rush. Although listing the company could be a way to make more money, he said it would be at the expense of additional overhead and “very annoying” lawsuits.

“Something needs to be done about the shareholder derivative lawsuits in the US,” Musk said, adding that law firms are seeking out “a puppet plaintiff with a few shares” to initiate litigation against companies.

On the attack

The comments were consistent with Musk’s critique of the shareholder lawsuit that led Delaware Chancery Court Judge Kathaleen St. J. McCormick to rule in January of last year that his Tesla pay package should be rescinded. The company has appealed to the state’s supreme court, and the board disclosed last month that it’s established a special committee to consider compensation matters involving Musk.

Musk referred to McCormick as “the activist who is cosplaying as a judge in a Halloween costume.”

Musk also fired back at Gates, who criticized him last week for the role he’s played in the Trump administration slashing tens of billions of dollars in assistance the US has provided to developing nations. The Microsoft Corp. co-founder told the Financial Times last week: “The picture of the world’s richest man killing the world’s poorest children is not a pretty one.”

“Who does Bill Gates think he is to make comments about the welfare of children?” Musk responded.

When asked whether he’d checked if Gates is right that cuts to USAID might cost millions of lives, Musk challenged his fellow billionaire to “show us any evidence whatsoever that that is true. It’s false.”

Election spending

When the conversation turned to elections — including the upcoming US midterms in 2026 — Musk said he thinks he’ll spend “a lot less” on politics in the future.

“I think I’ve done enough,” he said.

Asked if this is because of the blowback he’s been getting, Musk demurred.

“If I see a reason to do political spending in the future, I will do it,” he said. “I do not currently see a reason.”

The government of the State of Qatar is the underwriter of the Qatar Economic Forum, Powered by Bloomberg.

This story was originally featured on Fortune.com