Elon Musk on Thursday, 19 May, said that Tesla is constantly on his mind and that he spends less than five percent of his time on Twitter acquisition, in an attempt to reassure investors that he isn't becoming distracted.
After the $44 billion Twitter deal was made public, Tesla's stock has fallen by over 30 percent, erasing one third of the electric carmaker's market value.
"To be clear, I’m spending less than 5 percent (but actually) of my time on the Twitter acquisition. It ain’t rocket science! Yesterday was Giga Texas, today is Starbase. Tesla is on my mind 24/7," he wrote in a tweet.
Tesla opened its new factory in Texas this year, called Giga Texas, and initial deliveries of vehicles built at the plant began on 7 April. Starbase is a rocket production, testing, and launch facility built by SpaceX, located at Boca Chica in Texas.
Why Tesla Is Tanking
Tesla's shares have plummeted 8 percent in just the past five days.
Part of what's making investors lose confidence is the fact that Elon Musk, on 26 and 27 April, sold around 4.4 million shares of the electric car company, according to filings with the US Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC).
The shares, amounting to 2.6 percent of his Tesla stake and worth roughly $4 billion, were sold to help finance his acquisition of Twitter. Musk was quick to assure investors that he won't be selling any more shares.
China's lockdown measures which have hurt Tesla's production capabilities further pulled the stock down. The company's exclusion from the popular S&P 500 ESG Index didn't help matters.
Environmental, social, and governance (ESG) criteria are a set of standards for environmentally and socially conscious investors to assess a company’s behavior.
KoGuan Leo, one of Tesla's biggest individual shareholders, urged the company to use some of its cash reserves to buy back shares at the lowered price, to give investors some confidence.
"Tesla must announce immediately and buy back $5 billion of Tesla shares from its free cash flow this year and $10 billion from its free cash flow next year, without effecting its existing $18 billion cash reserves with ZERO debt," he tweeted.
This comes amid rising political spotlight on Musk after his statement on Wednesday that he will vote for the conservative Republican Party in upcoming United States elections as he can no longer support the Democrats.
(At The Quint, we question everything. Play an active role in shaping our journalism by becoming a member today.)