Tesla investor Ross Gerber says he's been dumping the stock because no one wants the company's cars or robots - agency report
Tesla investor Ross Gerber says he's been dumping the stock because no one wants the company's cars or robots - agency report
One of Tesla's longtime investors has dumped about half his stake in Elon Musk's carmaker.
The shareholder, Ross Gerber, has said that's because no one seems interested in buying Tesla's cars or robots.
Gerber, who's been a loud critic of Musk since the Tesla CEO acquired Twitter in 2022, said he had sold about 60 million worth of his Tesla shares. He told Yahoo Finance in a recent interview that his investment fund still had a $50 million stake in the company.
"Over time, I've just been sort of lowering my position, because I just don't have the same confidence that they're going to achieve the goals that were set out for Tesla several years ago and even recently, which is really to sell more cars," Gerber said, dismissing bullish talk on Tesla's robotics and full-self-driving tech. "That's just a distraction from the fact that they need to sell cars, this year, and next year, and the year after, because none of this is coming anytime soon," he added.
Other Tesla investors have also grown skeptical and impatient over the car company's trajectory. Tesla's stock is down 13% this year, largely because of declining sales, rising competition in China, and drama surrounding Musk's legal battles.
Gerber said the used-car market was swarmed with old Teslas, adding that he'd been unable to offload his own Tesla at what he deemed a fair value.
"It's really a quagmire where you have the best products in an industry but a CEO who doesn't actually work there, who doesn't try to sell the cars," Gerber said, adding: "We've seen sales go down, and that's what's happening. Sales are going down. If you're expecting a great quarter, you're wrong. They're not selling any Teslas here, other than basically, discount, discount, discount."
And while analysts have made the case that the company is being undervalued as an AI firm, Gerber said artificial intelligence was unlikely to save the company. He speculated that demand would be poor for Tesla's humanoid robots, given doubts over Musk amid his chaotic revamp of Twitter into X.
The simplest way to do it is, go around to your neighbors and ask them, 'How many of you would buy a humanoid robot built by Elon Musk?' And the answer is zero, OK. Nobody wants a robot from Elon Musk. Why? Who would trust it?" Gerber said, adding: "The last thing I need is some robot built by Elon Musk in my house, so I don't know if they thought about the marketing of this at all yet."
Musk's leadership of Tesla has been under rising scrutiny from investors and lawmakers over the past few years. Most recently, Sen. Elizabeth Warren sent a letter to Tesla's board of directors, calling on the executives to ensure Musk was meeting his financial responsibilities to Tesla shareholders.
