- Ross Gerber is a long-time Tesla investor and supporter who also acts as an investment advisor.
- Elon Musk recently supported an anti-semitic tweet and other incendiary rhetoric on X.
- Musk is working to “destroy” Tesla, and is not acting as its CEO, Gerber said.
An ardent supporter of Tesla and its CEO Elon Musk no longer sees the billionaire as the leader of the company.
Ross Gerber, president and CEO of Gerber Kawasaki Wealth & Investment Management who has for years vocally supported Tesla stock as an investor himself and an advisor, told CNBC Thursday Musk has “already stepped aside” as CEO of the electric car company.
Although Musk has not actually stepped down from the role, Gerber said his continual comments and engagement with X, the company formerly known as Twitter that Musk acquired a year ago, show how disengaged he is with Tesla.
“This isn’t about me calling on him to step aside, he has stepped aside,” Gerber said on CNBC’s “Last Call.” “None of his actions are to benefit Tesla. He thinks in some weird world that what he says matters, but what he’s really doing is destroying everything he built.”
“He is not acting as the CEO of Tesla right now,” Gerber added.
Although Gerber said he is not planning to sell his own stock in Tesla, which includes some 420,000 shares, he’s fielding more demands than ever from clients demanding that their investments in the company be sold.
“I’ve never had this with any company I’ve invested in in my entire life, where the CEO does so many detrimental things that destroy the brand, because bottom line that’s what’s happening. It’s absolutely outrageous, his behaviors and the damage he’s caused to the brand.”
Representatives for Tesla did not immediately respond to Business Insider’s request for comment on Gerber’s statements. In a statement to Business Insider, an executive at X pointed to a recent posting from the platform’s CEO, Linda Yacaccarino.
Gerber’s comments came after Musk responded to an antisemitic comment on X, claiming that “Jewish communities” had been pushing “hatred against whites.” The user said Western Jewish people had been supporting “hordes of minorities” flooding their countries — and now had come to the “disturbing realization” that those minorities didn’t like them too much.
“You have said the actual truth,” Musk wrote in response to the antisemitic post. In other posts and replies, Musk claimed that American children were being taught “utter nonsense” about the country’s historical participation in slavery, and agreed with a post alluding to the misleading concept of reverse racism, a widely dismissed idea of white people experiencing purported discrimination.
Musk received swift backlash from tech executives and at least one advertiser in light of the comments.
IBM pulled about $1 million in ad spending on the website for the remaining three months of the year, The New York Times reported.
In a statement to Business Insider, IBM confirmed the reports and said the company “has zero tolerance for hate speech and discrimination and we have immediately suspended all advertising on X while we investigate this entirely unacceptable situation.”
Some tech executives also have criticized Musk’s statements.
Facebook co-founder Dustin Moskovitz called on Musk to resign in a post on Threads, while Wavelength cofounder Marc Bodnick said “Elon’s antisemitism is still shocking.”
Earlier on Thursday, Gerber wrote on X that he plans to ditch his Model Y Tesla for a Rivian due to Musk’s statements.
Musk has previously pushed back against claims that he was antisemitic, once saying that he was “aspirational Jewish.”
His grievance at times appeared to be particularly targeted at the Anti-Defamation League (ADL), which he threatened to sue after the nonprofit organization documented the rise in hate speech on X since Musk’s takeover.
Yaccarino said on Thursday afternoon that X has “been extremely clear about our efforts to combat antisemitism and discrimination.”
“There’s no place for it anywhere in the world — it’s ugly and wrong. Full stop,” she wrote.
