Tesla CEO Elon Musk addressed shareholders at the company's annual meeting on Tuesday, predicting the economy would begin to recover within 12 months and promising the company would release a production Cybertruck later this year.During a question-and-answer session, a participant dressed as a robot and wearing a cowboy hat asked Musk if Tesla would ever build an RV or camper. Musk said the company currently has no plans to produce a motorhome, but the upcoming Cybertruck could be converted into a motorhome or camper.Asked about his $44 billion purchase of social network Twitter, Musk said it was a "short-term hiccup" and said he would have to do "major open-heart surgery" to ensure its survival, before noting that he's glad that former NBCUniversal advertising executive Linda Yaccarino has joined the company as its new CEO. Another participant asked Musk if he would reconsider Tesla's long-standing position on traditional advertising. Historically, the company has relied on word of mouth, influencer marketing, and other unconventional marketing and advertising methods to promote its products and their best qualities.
Shareholders previously voted to add former technical director J.B. Straubel, now CEO of Redwood Materials, to the automaker's board of directors. Redwood Materials recycles e-waste and batteries and last year struck a multibillion-dollar deal with Tesla supplier Panasonic.
Following the shareholder vote, CEO Elon Musk pledged at the start of the meeting to conduct a third-party audit of Tesla's cobalt supply chain to ensure there is no child labor at any of Tesla's cobalt suppliers. Cobalt is a key ingredient in the production of batteries for Tesla electric vehicles and backup batteries for home and utility energy projects. “Even if we produce a small amount of cobalt, we will make sure that no child labor is used for six weeks until Sunday,” Musk said to applause from investors in the room. Later in his speech, Musk talked about the company's energy storage business and said sales of its "big batteries" are growing faster than the company's core automotive segment.
Back in 2017, Musk unveiled the "next generation" Tesla Roadster, the company's Class 8 electric truck, at the Tesla Semi launch event. On Tuesday, he said production and delivery of the Roadster, originally scheduled for 2020, could begin in 2024. Musk also expressed optimism about the humanoid robot Tesla is developing called Optimus Prime. Musk said Optimus should be able to run on the same software and computers that Tesla uses to power advanced driver assistance systems in its cars. The CEO said he believes "the majority of Tesla's long-term value" will ultimately come from Optimus.
Leo Coguan, Tesla's largest retail shareholder, criticized Musk for selling billions of dollars of Tesla stock to finance the $44 billion acquisition of Twitter after the electric vehicle maker's last annual meeting in August 2022. Kaihara, the billionaire founder of IT services company SHI International, called on the company's board to "resort to shock therapy to restore the share price" through a share buyback late last year. Some of Tesla's institutional investors have warned that Musk has been too distracted during his time as Twitter CEO to perform at his best at the helm of Tesla, but Musk said Tuesday that he expects to spend less time on Twitter and in the future it will be less than in the past. six months. They also criticized Tesla's board of directors, led by Chairman Robin Denholm, for failing to rein it in and protect shareholder interests. One participant asked Musk about rumors that he was considering leaving Tesla. Musk said: "That's not true." He added: "I think Tesla is going to play a big role in artificial intelligence and general artificial intelligence, and I think I need to keep an eye on it to make sure it's good," referring to artificial general intelligence being a hypothetical idea. . intelligent agent. Musk then stated that Tesla has "by far the most advanced real-world artificial intelligence" of any tech company today.
On October 28, 2022, after Musk officially took over Twitter, Tesla's stock price closed at $228.52. Shares closed at $166.52 at the start of the May 16, 2023 meeting and were up about 1% in the after-hours.
At last year's shareholder meeting, Musk predicted an 18-month recession, hinted at the possibility of stock buybacks and told investors that the electric vehicle business aims to produce 20 million vehicles a year by 2030. each produces 1.5 to 2 million units per year. The data represents a real-time snapshot.
Post time: Jul-04-2024