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Tesla’s (TSLA) Elon Musk is currently the auto industry’s most tenured CEO

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Tesla (NASDAQ:TSLA) might easily be considered as a young, upstart electric car maker, but the company is actually being led by the car industry’s most tenured CEO today. In what could only be described as a twist of fate and a stroke of irony, Elon Musk has become the longest-serving CEO in today’s auto segment, having taken Tesla’s chief executive seat back in 2008. 

Musk emerged as the car industry’s longest-serving CEO in May, when then-Daimler CEO Dieter Zetsche, who had been serving as the German automaker’s chief executive since 2006, announced his retirement after 13 years on the job. And Zetsche was not the only one. The Renault-Nissan-Mitsubishi alliance also saw notable turnovers in the group’s CEO positions this year.

Back in January, Renault attracted headlines following veteran CEO Carlos Ghosn’s resignation over his alleged connection with a high-profile financial scandal. Last month, Mitsubishi, which maintains a notable presence in markets such as Southeast Asia, also announced the departure of its CEO, Osamu Masuko, who has been leading the company for the last five years. Even South Korean automaker Hyundai, which produces the practical and well-received Kona EV, saw some turnover in its executive positions earlier this year, with Chung Eui-sun being dubbed as co-CEO with Lee Won-hee, who also took over the chief executive post this year. 

Following is a list of car company CEOs as well as their tenure as chief executive of their respective companies (H/T to Benzinga). 

  • Tesla: Elon Musk in 2008 
  • Toyota: Akio Toyoda, 2009 
  • General Motors (GM): Mary Barra, 2014 
  • Peugeot: Carlos Tavares, 2014 
  • Honda: Takahiro Hachigo, 2015 
  • BMW: Harald Krüger, 2015 (though he has recently confirmed that he will be stepping down as BMW’s CEO) 
  • Ford: Jim Hackett, 2017
  • Nissan: Hiroto Saikawa, 2017
  • Mazda: Akira Marumoto, 2018
  • Volkswagen: Herbert Diess, 2018
  • Fiat Chrysler: Michael Manley, 2018
  • Suzuki: Toshihiro Suzuki, 2018
  • Daimler: Ola Kaellenius, 2019
  • Renault: Thierry Bolloré, 2019
  • Mitsubishi: Takao Kato, 2019

Tesla gets a bad reputation at times for allegedly being a car company that cannot retain talent. Yet, together with Elon Musk, several of the electric car maker’s key executives have been with Tesla for long periods of time. Among these are CTO JB Straubel and Chief Designer Franz von Holzhausen, as well as President of Automotive Jerome Guillen, who joined Tesla back in 2010, before the first Model S rolled off the line. Other executives that recently rose through the ranks, such as CFO Zach Kirkhorn, have also been with the company since the days of the original Tesla Roadster. 

It is evident from Tesla’s growing pains that Elon Musk is still learning the ropes as the company’s chief executive. This became evident during Tesla’s Model 3 production ramp, a “bet the company” strategy that Musk describes as one of the most arduous points in his career. These experiences ultimately give Musk a certain advantage over his fellow CEOs in the auto market, as it allows him to have a clear vision of Tesla’s strengths and weaknesses. This, in turn, enables him to roll out strategies that benefit the company in the long-term. An excellent example of this is Gigafactory 1 in Nevada, a substantial investment that was once deemed a folly by critics, but is turning out to be an act of remarkable foresight today. 

Musk is recognized for being a disruptive visionary, and he really is. Nevertheless, it should be noted that the Tesla and SpaceX CEO also deserves some credit for being a leader that sticks with a company through every up and down. Part of this is likely due to the fact that he sincerely fights for Tesla and its mission of accelerating the advent of sustainable energy. Ultimately, this could very well be a big difference-maker for Tesla’s chances of survival and potential success. 

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Simon is an experienced automotive reporter with a passion for electric cars and clean energy. Fascinated by the world envisioned by Elon Musk, he hopes to make it to Mars (at least as a tourist) someday. For stories or tips--or even to just say a simple hello--send a message to his email, simon@teslarati.com or his handle on X, @ResidentSponge.

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Elon Musk

Nvidia’s board meets on Jensen Huang, and Elon Musk already has an answer

Elon Musk says it would be an honor to hire Jensen Huang amid Nvidia turmoil.

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Elon Musk says he would welcome Jensen Huang at one of his companies if Nvidia’s board decides to push out its longtime chief executive.

On Wednesday evening, the financial account ZeroHedge posted “Elon please hire Jensen” on X. Musk replied roughly two hours later: “That would be an honor.” Neither Huang nor Nvidia had responded publicly as of Wednesday night.

Musk’s reply came as Nvidia’s board met to decide Huang’s future. The Wall Street Journal reported that directors were preparing to oust him following reports of two extramarital relationships. One involves Alice Huang, a Singapore-based businesswoman whom U.S. intelligence officials reportedly believe was working for China’s Ministry of State Security. The New York Times separately reported a relationship with Kimberly Powell, Nvidia’s vice president of health care. Huang acknowledged being unfaithful in a memo to employees on Sunday but gave no details.


Under Nvidia’s bylaws, a majority of its 11 directors can remove the CEO with or without cause. Bloomberg reported that the board has been working with an outside firm on possible replacements and may name an interim chief, with CFO Colette Kress seen as the likely pick. Nvidia shares fell more than 8 percent in extended trading, according to CNBC, and the company is scheduled to report quarterly earnings on November 17.

Musk has more riding on Nvidia’s leadership than most tech executives. In August, he told investors on SpaceX’s first earnings call as a public company that it would build its AI infrastructure exclusively on Nvidia hardware, calling Vera Rubin “the best architecture.” SpaceX is also working with Nvidia on the compute payload for Starmind, its planned orbital AI constellation. In October, SpaceX said it had a binding commitment for a roughly $40 billion lease of Vera Rubin GPUs and related equipment, with the leases expected to begin in the first half of 2027.

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The scale of that dependence is already enormous. On its Q3 call, SpaceX said it was bringing roughly 200,000 to 220,000 Nvidia GB300 GPUs online each month and expects 2.5 to 3 GW of nameplate compute by the end of the year. That buildout is now reaching new sites like the proposed $24 billion power plant and supercomputer campus at Starbase.

The relationship between the two executives also goes back nearly a decade. Huang has often told the story of personally delivering Nvidia’s first DGX-1 AI supercomputer to Musk in 2016, when no other customer wanted one. “Nobody wanted to be part of it, except for Elon,” Huang said on the Joe Rogan Experience last December.

Musk did not say what role Huang might fill, and his reply stops short of a formal offer. Huang co-founded Nvidia in 1993 and still owns about 3.6 percent of its stock, so any move to a Musk company would depend on whether, and how, he leaves the chipmaker he has run for more than three decades.

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Elon Musk

SpaceX’s Anthropic deal has a catch, and Elon Musk just addressed it

Elon Musk says SpaceX’s Anthropic compute deal cuts both ways after Chamath floats higher prices.

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Elon Musk pushed back on Sunday against the idea that SpaceX’s compute contract with Anthropic is a one way bet, after venture capitalist Chamath Palihapitiya argued the company could use a termination clause to charge the AI lab far more.

“It works both ways, of course. If compute becomes plentiful and cheap, SpaceX revenue will drop. No crying in the casino for either party,” Musk wrote on X Sunday evening, replying to a clip of Palihapitiya’s comments shared by AI commentator Rohan Paul.

On the All-In podcast released Sunday, Palihapitiya said either side can walk away from the agreement on 90 days’ notice. If data center supply tightens, he argued, SpaceX could exercise that option and bring the contract back at two to three times the current price, and Anthropic would have little choice but to accept. He called it “the kingmaking move,” according to BigGo Finance.

The clause itself is not new. SpaceX disclosed in its IPO filings in May that Anthropic would pay $1.25 billion per month for dedicated capacity at its Colossus clusters through May 2029, nearly $45 billion in total, with both companies able to terminate on 90 days’ notice, as Teslarati reported at the time. SpaceX’s later compute deals with Google and Reflection AI carry similar exit terms.

What has changed is the political backdrop. Palihapitiya’s thesis rests on incoming Democratic governors pulling tax incentives for data centers and slowing new construction. In Texas, Gov.-elect Gina Hinojosa campaigned on a moratorium on new data center approvals, and Deutsche Bank analysts warned last week that SpaceX’s Texas compute capacity could face delays. SpaceX and Tesla shares both fell after the midterm results.

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A slowdown would favor companies that already own capacity. SpaceX acquired xAI in February and has been renting data centers to outside AI labs before the space is needed for Grok. At the Baron Investment Conference on Friday, Musk said SpaceX was “getting 50 billion a year for 35 billion dollar investments” and that it can bring a data center online in eight or nine months, compared to two and a half years for competitors. He also said SpaceX is tracking toward an annualized revenue rate above $100 billion in December, with a “best guess” of $500 billion by December 2027.

Musk’s reply points to the other side of the clause. Anthropic has signed large compute agreements with Amazon, Google and Microsoft, and if that capacity comes online faster than new construction slows, the AI lab would have its own leverage to renegotiate or leave. Musk has called Anthropic “obviously currently the leader in AI,” and it remains one of SpaceX’s largest compute customers.

SpaceX shares rose more than 2 percent in overnight trading late Sunday after closing Friday at $134.27, according to Stocktwits.

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Investor's Corner

Musk’s Tesla and SpaceX decline after Democratic Midterm sweep

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Credit: Grok

Tesla and SpaceX shares fell on Wednesday after Democrats swept both chambers of Congress. The decline stood out as broader market securities recovered and turned positive, while both of Musk’s publicly traded companies lagged.

CEO Elon Musk already joked about the unsuccessful campaigning for the Republicans, but now the new party will make pretty drastic changes to how it handles Tesla and SpaceX, and those companies will adjust their outlook.

Elon Musk hilariously comments on Midterm election results

Let’s take a deeper look.

Tesla ($TSLA)

Tesla shares traded lower during the regular session after Democrats secured both the House and Senate. The stock was down 2.32 percent at around 1:45 p.m. on the East Coast, trading at around $389.30.

The pressure is tied to more than the raw scale of Musk’s political spending, estimated at $450–474 million this cycle with roughly $224 million directed at Texas. In that state, Tesla now faces a Democratic governor and a Democratic senator after Gina Hinojosa unseated Greg Abbott and James Talarico defeated Ken Paxton.

The Austin Gigafactory, Robotaxi pilot programs in multiple Texas cities, and any related AI compute expansion sit under a new state executive who campaigned against certain corporate subsidies and floated a moratorium on new data-center construction.

Federally, Democratic control of key committees opens the door to deeper examination of Tesla’s autonomous-driving safety record, federal energy-storage and manufacturing incentives, and the national-security implications of any combination with SpaceX.

Investors are also weighing whether the company’s historically close alignment with the prior Republican leadership will invite slower permitting, additional hearings, or tighter rules on Full Self-Driving deployment.

For Tesla, the political shift adds near-term friction around state permitting and federal regulatory approvals for autonomy and energy storage. A potential merger with SpaceX may face slower review even if it proceeds.

Core growth drivers such as vehicle deliveries, energy deployments, and robotaxi rollout remain intact, yet the stock now carries a higher political-risk premium that could weigh on valuation until the company demonstrates workable relationships with the new Texas leadership and congressional majorities.

SpaceX ($SPCX)

SpaceX shares also declined in live trading on November 4 following the Democratic midterm sweep. The stock traded at $134.97, down 4.49 percent. The drop occurred even as broader indexes stabilized, highlighting a company-specific reaction to the election outcome.

Musk’s large contributions, concentrated in Texas races that both companies lost, place SpaceX’s Starbase launch facility and headquarters under a new Democratic governor.

At the federal level, Democratic control of Congress enables greater scrutiny of NASA, the Department of Defense, and other contracts that support a meaningful share of revenue, along with reviews of Starlink national-security uses and any Tesla merger. Analysts have noted that empowered committees can hold hearings and request documents on these relationships.

For SpaceX, the results raise the risk of delayed contract awards, higher compliance costs, and tighter constraints on AI and satellite infrastructure expansion, particularly in Texas where a data-center moratorium has been discussed.

A merger with Tesla could encounter political friction that slows integration of launch, connectivity, and autonomy capabilities.

While Starlink growth and launch cadence continue as primary drivers, the company faces a more contested path for federal funding and state-level operations, requiring management to rebuild ties with the new congressional majorities and Texas leadership to limit the overhang.

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