Sorting Tesla’s Reality from Bullshit
$55B for what?
Musk’s hand-picked Tesla Board of Directors have been desperately trying to syphon $55B of the company’s minimal available cash directly to Little Elon. Even though the company’s income statement is nothing to brag about and their price vs. earnings ratio (312.31 as of 1/1/2026) is a wild gamble even for an overvalued tech stock, Musk’s board still want to dump billions into the man who has made the company synonymous with international fascism and corruption. This is not in any way an “independent board of directors: Elon Musk: CEO and Director (what a surprise that he wants to bury himself in the company’s hard-won cash), the grossly overpaid Robyn Denholm (Chair, who was hand-picked by Musk in 2018 to lead the board and was paid $682 million in cash & stock, 5X more than the next best-paid board chair, since joining the board in 2025), James Murdoch (of the infamous Murdock misinformation media conglomerate), Kimball Musk (Elon’s brother, how’s that for “independence?”), J. B. Straubel (Straubel and Musk, hilariously, had themselves declared Tesla “founders” after the actual founders, Martin Eberhard and Marc Tarpenning were driven out in 2008 ), and Jack Hartung (whose “experience” is with mismanaging Chipotle’s finances and who is a personal friend of Kimball Musk). While Tesla’s market cap is an insane $1.5T, the company’s revenue for 2025 was about $93.63B with a 5.31% profit margin and a net income of about $5B. Even crazier, the company has $41B cash on hand, so squandering $55B on Musk’s dismal and erratic “leadership” is a picture of fiscal “irrational exuberance.” Also known as insanely stupid and very likely criminally corrupt.
Tesla has a long list of engineering problems that burning the company’s cash on an erratic, drug-addicted, politically polarizing, and irrational CEO will only exacerbate. Tesla vehicles that already suffer erratic build quality (panel gaps, paint), numerous software glitches (touchscreen freezes, Autopilot malfunctions), and mechanical/electrical problems like suspension failures, malfunctions from Elon’s infamous door handles, and battery/charging port issues. Not to mention the many recalls.
Add to the engineering problems, the company is infamous for long service wait times and poor service. Their first “fix” was to force owners to sign NDAs to receive warranty repairs. Now that’s innovation for you! For those few long term owners, ugly and expensive problems like early suspension wear and battery degradation are common. If Tesla is going to survive against US, European, Japanese, and Chinese electric car competition, the company is going to have to do a lot more than promote vaporware and hype features that it can’t deliver or that don’t work. The only vehicle Musk and his “leadership” group can legitimately claim was their design is the unbelievably awful Cybertruck (aka the “Wankpanzer”). With his “engineering expertise,” Musk managed to find a formula for the Swastikamobile’s stainless steel that actually rusts! There are signs that the company is going to abandon that ridiculous vehicle. Good riddance.
The company’s political problems aren’t going away, either. Tesla’s European sales have tanked in late 2025, although as soon as Musk linked himself with Trump and the US withdrawal from international relationships that trend went viral. Tesla sales took double-digit hits in monthly registrations (~34% in November 2025) and year-to-date sales declines (around 30-40% down) compared to 2024. The overall European EV market has been on a steady growth curve during that period. Musk’s ties to Trump haven’t done him any good domestically, either. US sales dropped in late 2025, partially due to the expiration of the federal EV tax credit in September, to a 3-year year-over-year sales low of 23% in November.
Remind me, again, why does Tesla’s board of directors think there is a good reason to spend billions to keep Musk around? With “leadership” like that, they might as well toss all that money into the ocean.