On March 19, 2025, a claim circulated online that major Tesla investor Ross Gerber, the president and CEO of Gerber Kawasaki Wealth & Investment Management, had asked Elon Musk to step down as the company's CEO.
The rumor appeared on multiple social media platforms, including Facebook (archived) and Bluesky (archived).
One X post featuring the claim (archived) read: "BREAKING: Top Tesla investor Just officially asked Elon Musk to step down as head of the company for destroying the electric vehicle maker's reputation," while a Reddit user wrote (archived): "Tesla investor Ross Gerber calls for Elon Musk to resign - 'I think Tesla needs a new CEO.'"
In short, it is true that on March 19, Gerber announced during an interview with British news media outlet Sky News that he thought Tesla needed a new CEO (at minute 4:08):
His full comments were as follows:
Elon chooses to work, you know, all the time, but you can only work so many hours a day. It's 24 [hours], right, and he sleeps. So there's no question he's been committed to his job in the government, that's where he's spending his time, he is not running Tesla and, you know, that's why I'm gonna say it. I think Tesla needs a new CEO and I decided today I was gonna start saying it, and so this is the first show that I'm saying it on. It's time for somebody to run Tesla. The business has been neglected for too long. There's too many important things Tesla's doing, so either Elon should come back to Tesla and be the CEO of Tesla and give up his other jobs, or he should focus on the government and keep doing what he's doing, but find a suitable CEO for Tesla.
Many posts, such as the one above seen on X, described Gerber as "top Tesla investor." Readers could interpret this as meaning Gerber is the top investor in Tesla, which is not true. However, Gerber is a major shareholder with about $106 million in Tesla stock.
In August 2024, Gerber told Business Insider that he had sold around $60 million in Tesla shares, saying he lacked confidence in Tesla's ability to sell cars.