A group of pension funds has asked Elon Musk to work a 40-hour week at Tesla. It’s a modest request, given Musk himself once scoffed that “nobody ever changed the world on 40 hours a week”, recommending a pain threshold of 80+, “peaking above 100 at times”.
If you believe Musk, his White House exit means he’s now “back to spending 24-7 at work and sleeping in conference/server/factory rooms”. Wedbush’s Dan Ives, a Tesla bull, says Musk is again “laser focused” on Tesla’s autonomous future.
Such assertions sound more hopeful than factual. Musk’s 24-7 schedule covers Tesla and his other four companies (X, xAI, Neuralink and the Boring Company). Sleeping in the factory is a fine photo op; still finding time to fire off memes and far-right fanfare on X makes the maths harder. Not even Musk can give 40-plus hours to each of five companies.
Still, shareholders know the reality: Musk is the product. Without his visions – however delayed or discredited – Tesla would be just another carmaker, not a company valued like a trillion-dollar tech start-up.
Shareholders may grumble, but they’ll take a distracted Musk over any dutiful alternative.
Tesla’s share price has always been about belief, not numbers. Perhaps the truth is what matters isn’t how many hours Musk works – it’s how many people still believe the story.
