Tesla CEO Ilon Musk advised to "shut up" analyst Dan Ives, who is known as the main supporter and optimist about the company on Wall Street. Ives offered his advice to Tesla's board of directors: it's time for him to step in and set the rules about Musk's political activities, who over the weekend announced the formation of a new party, according to the analyst. The billionaire wasn't verbose in response.

Details

Tesla CEO Ilon Musk on Tuesday sharply responded to suggestions from longtime Tesla bull, Wedbush analyst Dan Ives, for Tesla's board of directors. Ives said the board should limit the impact of the billionaire's political ambitions on the company.

"Shut up, Dan," Musk wrote succinctly under a post Ives' post on X, a social network owned by the billionaire. At the time of publishing this text, Musk's post has garnered 464,500 views and 7,000 likes. By comparison, Ives' post, to which Musk responded, had 2,000 likes.

"Ilon has his opinion, and I understand that, but we're sticking to what is the right course of action for the board," stated Ives in an emailed comment to CNBC.

What was Wedbush's suggestion

In his X post, Ives described three specific steps he believes Tesla's board of directors should take :

- work out a new compensation package for Musk that includes 25 percent voting control and a possible merger with his artificial intelligence startup xAI.

- establish requirements for the time Musk is required to devote to Tesla as part of his compensation package:

- to organize oversight of Musk's political activities.

Musk reacted sharply to Ives' ideas, even though the first point involves handing him the voting control he has long sought, CNBC noted.

Ives also spoke out in a note published Tuesday morning co-authored by other Wedbush analysts. It calls "a turning point in Tesla's history" Musk's announcement of a new party in the U.S., which the businessman made over the weekend, reports Yahoo Finance. Because of Musk's decision, Tesla's stock collapsed by nearly 7% in a day on Monday, July 7: the company's capitalization fell by $68 billion, added CNBC. In trading on July 8, however, the securities were up about 1.5%.

"At the end of the day, the Tesla board should act now and set ground rules for Musk regarding his future political ambitions and actions," Ives wrote in a statement to Yahoo Finance.

Context

Ives is one of the top optimists about Tesla on Wall Street. He in May set a $500 target price for the company's securities - at the highest level among all analysts, according to FactSet, wrote CNBC. Wedbush maintains that target and a recommendation to buy the securities despite criticism of Musk's political ambitions, the network noted. Ives was one of the people Tesla invited to the launch of its robot cabs in June in Austin, Texas. After the trip, the analyst said the unmanned car exceeded his expectations and that "this is the future."

Musk is also in open conflict with US President Donald Trump. In early June, the businessman and former associate of the president called Trump's budget and tax bill a "disgusting abomination," which caused his displeasure and threats to strip Musk's company of state subsidies. Afterward, the Tesla CEO stated that he regretted the anti-Trump posts. But in late June, the billionaire resumed criticism of the "great and wonderful law" (the president signed it on July 4), and on July 5 announced the formation of the Party of America. Trump called the Tesla CEO's decision "ridiculous" and said he was "completely off the rails."

This article was AI-translated and verified by a human editor

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