For Tesla To Fire Elon Musk, Here's What Has To Happen

Elon Musk has been the cause of a lot of controversy over the last few years. The former Democrat was once loved by the masses for furthering the future of sustainable energy through the development of electric vehicle technology through his company, Tesla. However, due to his shifting political affiliations and actions in recent years, the tides have turned. Not only are people selling off their Teslas in large numbers — as a means of protesting Musk's recent controversial actions — things aren't looking great for the future of the once renowned electric car company. That said, in order for Tesla to fire Elon Musk, and potentially return the brand into the good graces of the masses, the company's shareholders would have to act. The reason the responsibility for this would have to fall on shareholders is that the current board of Tesla, which also has the power to remove him as CEO, is largely under Musk's control.

That said, in order for the shareholders to remove Musk, they would have to mobilize a majority vote in order to replace the current pro-Musk board members. Outside of that, the only other options are to convince the board — mainly through mounting pressure from larger investors — that Musk is putting the Tesla brand at serious risk or hope Musk leaves for one of his other more lucrative projects. With that said, if Tesla's stock continues to suffer significantly as a result of Musk's actions, the board could reconsider firing him.

If you invested in Tesla at any point last year, you may have noticed the company's stock price has been suffering in recent months. Despite the argument that this is Musk's fault, the likelihood of him getting fired as CEO, as of March 2025, remains low. Although certain people believe it's likely Musk will be fired if Tesla's stock continues to crash due to negative sales growth (at the hand of people protesting against the company), the reality is less simple. While Musk's recent controversial public actions could arguably have led your typical CEO to be ousted from his position, Musk isn't your typical CEO — and he's largely delivered on company growth targets up until this point.

Generally speaking, it's rare for a company to fire a CEO, as it tends to have negative financial consequences for the company and its shareholders. However, according to CNN, the reality is that only half of CEOs quit, with the other half getting fired. The reason being that companies will rarely admit when a CEO was fired. However, given the fact that Musk is such a high profile figure, if he was ever fired from Tesla that information would likely leak to the public.

Interestingly, a 2023 study published in the Global Strategy Journal found that foreign-born CEOs faced a 15% likelihood of getting fired compared to the 4% likelihood that domestically-born CEOs faced. That said, seeing as how Musk was born in South Africa, he is technically four times more likely to get fired from his position as CEO than an American running Tesla would be.

Another thing to consider is that shareholders only meet once a year to vote. And, during the June 2024 meeting, nobody was vocalizing any concerns regarding Musk as CEO, despite the fact he was already shrouded in political controversy at the time. That said, negative public perception of him has greatly accelerated in 2025, and the company — we well as the finances of shareholders — appear to be suffering as a result. Due to this, some shareholders have already started to call for his resignation. However, if Tesla's stock recovers, it is likely that shareholders will ultimately back down. Either way, we will have to wait until the June 2025 shareholder meeting  to have any solid information about Musk's future with the company