By Hyunjoo Jin and Akash Sriram

SAN FRANCISCO (Reuters) – In 2018, Elon Musk was working via the night time and sleeping at Tesla (NASDAQ:) Inc’s factories in California and Nevada as the corporate struggled to ramp up manufacturing of the Mannequin 3.

On Monday, Musk stated he had labored via the night time at Twitter’s San Francisco headquarters and would maintain “working & sleeping right here” till the social media platform – which he just lately acquired for $44 billion – was mounted.

A self-described “nanomanager,” Musk’s penchant for working lengthy hours in moments of disaster has been a widely known a part of his model. However the billionaire’s deep dive into Twitter, after a protracted buyout that he tried to scrap, has some Tesla traders frightened about his capability to concentrate on his function as CEO of the world’s most beneficial carmaker.

“Tesla traders are going to be annoyed,” stated Gene Munster, managing associate at enterprise capital agency Loup Ventures. “He is in all probability going to spend extra time on Twitter than any Tesla investor feels comfy about.”

Musk, who is predicted to testify in court docket on Wednesday about whether or not a $56 billion pay package deal at Tesla is justified, didn’t reply to a Reuters electronic mail searching for remark.

He tweeted on Monday “I’ve Tesla coated too,” saying he deliberate to work on the electrical car maker for a part of this week. Tesla has an workplace in Palo Alto, California, and a manufacturing facility in Fremont, California.

Tesla’s shares have dropped by 50% since early April, when he disclosed he had taken a stake in Twitter. Gross sales of Musk’s personal Tesla shares – totaling $20 billion since he disclosed his Twitter stake – have added to the strain.

Tesla faces a rising record of challenges from demand considerations in China to a regulatory probe of the claims it makes concerning the talents of its “Autopilot” driver help know-how in america.

To this point this month, Musk’s tweets about his efforts to reboot Twitter have accounted for greater than two-thirds of his postings on the platform he acquired in October, in line with a Reuters tally.

Tesla accounted for simply 3% of his tweets from Nov. 1 to Nov. 15, down from a mean of just about 16% over the earlier eight months.

GRAPHIC: Musk’s favourite subjects to tweet since March Musk’s favourite subjects to tweet since March – https://graphics.reuters.com/TESLA-MUSK/klvygkgdovg/chart.png

Munster stated he expects Twitter to eat Musk’s consideration for the following six to 12 months, including that Tesla was a extra developed firm than in earlier days and fewer instantly reliant on Musk.

In current days, Musk has stated his workload has elevated considerably after his Twitter purchase.

“I’ve an excessive amount of work on my plate,” he stated by video hyperlink to a enterprise convention in Indonesia on Monday, saying he was working “from morning until night time seven days per week.”

“As soon as Twitter is ready on the best path, I feel it’s a a lot simpler factor to handle than SpaceX or Tesla,” Musk stated earlier this month on the Baron funding convention, referring to the aerospace firm which he additionally runs.

Tesla investor Ross Gerber, a powerful supporter of Musk, stated on Tuesday that Tesla wanted to discover a deputy for its multitasking CEO. “I feel he is lastly reached a degree the place he is actually difficult himself. I feel they should discover the best individual. And fairly frankly, they simply haven’t got that individual.”

‘MINIMAL TIME’

The Tesla board has expressed considerations about Musk’s dedication to SpaceX and a number of other smaller firms. Tesla board chair Robyn Denholm stated in a 2018 electronic mail that the “minimal time” Musk was spending at Tesla was “turning into increasingly more problematic,” in line with court docket paperwork associated to his pay trial. A Tesla shareholder says the board failed in approving a $56 billion pay package deal for him with out demanding his full-time consideration.

One other board member, Ira Ehrenpreis, famous at trial that Musk was paid for outcomes, not time spent, a view echoed by Musk in a 2021 deposition. At Tesla’s annual assembly in August, Musk responded to a query about “key-man threat” by acknowledging his colleagues, saying “We do have a really proficient workforce right here. So I feel Tesla would proceed to do very effectively even when I used to be kidnapped by aliens or went again to my residence planet perhaps.”

Musk has confirmed his doubters unsuitable earlier than and a few early traders say they count on him to be up for the Twitter problem. “Whenever you get an entrepreneur that does all that he is performed, we should always simply be kissing his toes. The man is superior,” billionaire investor Tim Draper informed Reuters.

However others have misplaced persistence.

“Musk has managed to do what the bears have unsuccessfully tried for years – crush Tesla’s inventory,” Wedbush analyst Daniel Ives, a long-time Tesla bull, stated in a be aware final week.

Ives referred to as Twitter an “albatross,” a “distraction” and a “cash pit” for Musk. “The Twitter circus present is slowly beginning to affect the pristine EV model of Tesla,” he stated.