Tesla director finally buys shares after more than 5 years—only to see his own board chair promptly sell $32 million in stock

• Tesla chair Robyn Denholm has now liquidated roughly $150 million in shares since early December, dwarfing the $1 million open market purchase by director Joe Gebbia. "It has become a running joke that insiders only sell, never buy the stock,” wrote Electrek, an EV motoring news publication critical of CEO Elon Musk. Denholm's three-year term is set to end in about 12 months time.

It’s been more than five years, but a Tesla insider has finally invested his own money to buy the company’s shares on the open market. 

The $1 million paid by independent boardroom director Joe Gebbia, the co-founder of AirBnB, was a drop in the bucket next to a board otherwise renowned for cashing in its shares. 

Yet fans of the brand hailed the open market purchase as a sign of confidence the upcoming robotaxi pilot so vital to its equity story will prove a success while the “unexpected bumps this year” that CEO Elon Musk warned of last week would be a minor inconvenience.

Within 24 hours, however, Tesla’s chair Robyn Denholm unloaded another $32 million-plus tranche to add to her recent string of stock sales under her 10b5-1 trading plan, according to a regulatory filing on Tuesday. 

Many people are focusing on the small amount of $TSLA Joe bought ($1M) relative to his net worth ($8B), but instead I think people should focus on the message his small share purchase could be sending.

This is the first Tesla insider $TSLA purchase in 5 years. Tesla’s Robotaxi… https://t.co/0aAto4y1CE— Sawyer Merritt (@SawyerMerritt) April 29, 2025

That means investors’ chief independent delegate to the board has now unloaded nearly $150 million in stock since early December.

Prior to Gebbia, the last Tesla insider to demonstrate his faith in the company’s future was Elon Musk. The CEO bought stock late in 2018 during a period when the company was plagued with production problems around the Model 3 and nearly went bankrupt.

Tesla's running joke — insiders only ever sell

“For Tesla, it has become a running joke that insiders only sell, never buy the stock,” Fred Lambert, the editor-in-chief of EV motoring site Electrek and fan-turned-critic of Musk, wrote on Tuesday.

Denholm, whose term expires in about 12 months, is a controversial figure in the Tesla investor community over her approach to handling Musk, which has been broadly described as hands-off. Both supporters and detractors point to the same evidence to support their argument that she gives her CEO all the freedom he desires to act as he sees fit.

Initially this proved to be a wild success. During the first year of the pandemic, when the government showered Americans with stimulus checks, shares in Tesla gained tenfold their value, rising from $29 to roughly $290. 

Business boomed, with the Model Y that launched that year going on to become the best-selling car of any kind worldwide just three years later — despite its relatively high price.

Tesla's Q1 revealed worst operating profit margin since 2019

But the success didn’t last, with annual vehicle sales declining last year for the very first time since the Y’s launch revolutionized the company. Its 2.1% quarterly operating profit margin plumbed a low not seen since mid-2019, with much of the blame being placed on Musk. 

Instead of developing an all new low-cost entry model for $25,000 as he had originally promised five years ago during Battery Day, the CEO focused instead on launching the troubled Cybertruck. When Cybertruck sales disappointed, he began re-positioning the company as a leader in the fledgling market of real world AI with his upcoming CyberCab robotaxi and Optimus droid. 

Meanwhile he has alienated many veteran Tesla customers with his emphatic support for the current White House administration of Donald Trump, whose popular support at this point is the lowest on record of any presidency in 80 years. 

Denholm, who briefly emerged last year to fight for her CEO’s pay package, has kept to the background during this process even in the face of investors asking her to intervene.

This story was originally featured on Fortune.com