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Elon Musk is leaving Washington after a brief but tumultuous stint in government and is returning to his numerous businesses, each with its own set of issues for the billionaire to address.
Start with Tesla, his electric car company. While how much Musk accomplished in his role as President Donald Trump’s chief cost-cutter is up for debate, it’s clear his association with right-wing politics damaged Tesla’s brand and tanked sales.
Musk’s social media platform X, formerly Twitter, needs to rebuild its advertising base; his aerospace company SpaceX appears to be financially promising but has seen some recent setbacks; and it’s unclear if his satellite business Starlink can keep striking deals without Trump nearby.
Here’s a look at the state of some key Musk businesses.
Tesla trouble
Profits plunged 71% at Tesla in the first three months of the year, right after a Chinese competitor claimed the mantle as the world’s biggest electric car seller.
The big question now: Will Musk’s leaving Washington help lure buyers back?
The answer is crucial to reviving profits because so much else is uncertain. Tesla’s lineup of cars is aging, and its foreign rivals have become much more competitive. They would be taking market share from Tesla even in the best of circumstances.
Tesla’s decision to close down factories as it retooled its best-selling Model Y, among other temporary problems, contributed to its struggles in the first quarter. But the blowback from Musk’s time in Washington has some analysts and investors worried.
In a note to clients, JP Morgan warned of “unprecedented brand damage.” Wedbush Securities said at one point, “This is a full-blown crisis.” And a group of smaller investors just wrote to Tesla’s board demanding it require Musk to spend at least 40 hours a week repairing its “plummeting global reputation” among other problems.
News earlier this week from Europe doesn’t bode well: Sales in April plunged by half.
Taxis with no driver
Another big test for Musk: Will Tesla’s launch of its first-ever driverless taxis prove successful?
Musk has been talking about robotaxis for more than a decade, but next month, they may finally hit the road. He has promised to test 10 or 20 robotaxis in Austin, Texas, then ramp that up to hundreds of thousands by the end of next year.
“Can you go to sleep in our cars and wake up at your destination?” the billionaire asked investors in a conference call last month, then answered, “I’m confident that will be available in many cities in the U.S. by the end of this year.”
Investors are convinced Musk will deliver, judging by the 50% jump in Tesla stock since he made that statement. But he faces many challenges, not least is whether technically the taxis will work without hitting things — or people.
Federal safety regulators last month requested data from Tesla on how the robotaxis will perform in low-visibility conditions. That request comes after an investigation into 2.4 million Teslas last year equipped with Full Self-Driving software after several accidents, including one in which a pedestrian was killed.
Even if the Austin test goes off without a hitch, Musk faces another challenge: Waymo.
The driverless taxi company owned by Google parent Alphabet just logged its ten-millionth trip and is now operating in San Francisco, Los Angeles, and several other cities.
Ad rebound at X?
After Musk bought Twitter in 2022 and opened it up to all manner of conspiracy theories, long-time advertisers began to flee. Then Musk made the situation worse when he threatened to “name and shame” them and sued them.
Now, advertisers are inching back, though maybe not for a good reason.
“Some big brands resumed spending on X in part to curry favor with the Trump administration, or to avoid potential retaliation by Musk,” said e-marketer analyst Jasmine Enberg,. “But fear is not a sustainable motivator, and most were spending less than they were previously.”
She expects X’s ad business will rebound this year, but still be smaller than it was before Musk bought the company.
Rockets red glare
It’s not clear how well Musk’s rocket company, SpaceX, is faring because the private company doesn’t disclose its finances. That said, news headlines point to both troubles and triumphs.
First, the bad development, which came just this week with a spinning explosion of one of the company’s Starship mega rockets over the Indian Ocean. That followed explosions of two other Starships earlier this year that sprayed flaming debris across the Caribbean Ocean.
Undeterred, Musk is vowing several more tests soon, but the stakes are high and the clock is ticking. NASA hopes to use Starship for future missions to the moon, including one next year that will attempt a lunar orbit and then send the four astronauts aboard back home.
The good news is that investors who have gotten a peek at SpaceX’s finances apparently are excited.
A private financing round for the company a few months ago, followed by a private sale of shares recently, has reportedly valued SpaceX at $350 billion, a big jump from a $210 billion estimated value just a year ago.
It’s business, not politics — or is it?
A SpaceX satellite internet subsidiary called Starlink has also been striking deals to set up in foreign countries. But it’s not clear how much the result is of cold business calculation and how much is due to politics, an advantage that could disappear as Musk leaves Washington.
Accompanying Trump on his trip to Saudi Arabia earlier this month, Musk announced that the country had approved Starlink service for aviation and maritime use. That followed a decision to grant approval for the service by regulators in Bangladesh, whose garment industry would be devastated by Trump’s threatened 37% tariff, along with a string of other deals in India, Pakistan, and Lesotho in recent months.
Next up: South Africa, maybe.
Earlier this month, following Trump’s Oval Office dressing down of that country’s president, regulators in the country loosened a rule in a way that could help Starlink win a foothold in the country. Musk had called the rule requiring Black partial ownership of any new foreign venture “openly racist.”
The country denies that politics influenced its decision.
President Donald Trump bid farewell to Elon Musk in the Oval Office on Friday, providing a cordial conclusion to a tumultuous tenure for the billionaire entrepreneur.
Musk is leaving his position spearheading the Department of Government Efficiency, and he’ll be rededicating himself to running his businesses, including electric automaker Tesla, rocket company SpaceX, and social media platform X.
Trump credited Musk with “a colossal change in the old ways of doing business in Washington” and said some of his staff would remain in the administration. Musk, who wore all black, including a T-shirt that said “The Dogefather,” nodded along as the president listed contracts that had been cut under his watch.
“I think the DOGE team is doing an incredible job,” Musk said after accepting a ceremonial key from the president. “They’re going to continue to be doing an incredible job.”
He left a searing mark on the federal bureaucracy, including thousands of employees who were fired or pushed out. Some government functions were eviscerated, such as the U.S. Agency for International Development, which had provided a lifeline for impoverished people around the world. Boston University researchers estimate that hundreds of thousands of people have already died as a result of the cuts.
The State Department responded by saying most of USAID’s programs on HIV, known as PEPFAR, remained operational. However, the statement did not address any of the other cuts while calling on “other nations to dramatically increase their humanitarian efforts.”
Despite the upheaval, Musk also fell far short of his goals. After promising to cut $1 trillion or even $2 trillion in federal spending, he lowered expectations to only $150 billion in the current fiscal year.
It’s unclear whether that target has been hit. The DOGE website tallies $175 billion in savings, but its information has been riddled with errors and embellishments.
Musk had a bruise next to his right eye in the Oval Office, which he explained by saying he had been “horsing around” with his young son.
“I said, go ahead, punch me in the face,” he said. “And he did.”
Trump said Musk had led the “most sweeping and consequential government reform effort in generations.” He suggested that Musk is “really not leaving” and “he’s going to be back and forth” to keep tabs on what’s happening in the administration.
There were signs, however, that attention was already shifting away from Musk, who once appeared omnipresent in Washington. He often stood quietly next to Trump as reporters peppered him with questions about the French president (he’s great), Joe Biden’s autopen (it’s bad), and the potential for pardoning Sean “Diddy” Combs (he’ll look at the facts).
When Musk was asked about the impact of tariffs on Tesla — something Musk has expressed concerns about in the past — Trump jumped in to answer.
Musk, the world’s richest person, recently said he would reduce his political donations. He was Trump’s top donor in last year’s presidential campaign.
Trump appeared eager to end Musk’s service on a high note.
“This will be his last day, but not really, because he will always be with us, helping all the way,” Trump wrote on social media on Thursday evening. “Elon is terrific!”
As a special government employee, Musk’s position was designed to be temporary. However, he had speculated about staying “indefinitely,” working part-time for the administration, if Trump still wanted his help.
Musk has brushed off questions about how DOGE would continue without him, even suggesting it could “gain momentum” in the future.
“DOGE is a way of life,” he told reporters recently. “Like Buddhism.”