Since Elon Musk first said he’d buy Twitter, the price of Tesla stock has decreased by more than 35%.

Shares of Tesla CEO Elon Musk’s electric vehicle manufacturer have fallen more than 35% since he revealed his offer to purchase Twitter. However, on Friday, during a market rally that followed a turbulent week, shares of Tesla fell just 3.6% for the day. Comparatively, over the same period, the Nasdaq Composite is down by about 18%.

On April 25, 2022, Musk first declared that he had decided to purchase Twitter. That day, Tesla stock closed at $332.67; today, it closed at $207.47, capping his first complete week as a Twitter owner.

On Friday, Musk spoke at the 29th annual Baron Investment Conference. Hedge fund manager Ron Baron, who is now a shareholder in Tesla, SpaceX, and Twitter and is generally positive about Musk’s businesses, posed a question to the centibillionaire CEO about balancing new responsibilities.

Musk now refers to himself as “Chief Twit” and runs a company that manufactures reusable rockets and satellite internet (SpaceX), as well as a multinational electric vehicle and sustainable energy company (Tesla), as well as funding and founding a brain-chip company (Neuralink) and a tunneling company (The Boring Company). More formally, following his $44 billion deal, he is Twitter’s CEO and only director.

My workload increased from, say, 78 hours a week to probably 120, Musk said to Baron, adding, “Once Twitter is set on the right path, I think it is a much easier thing to manage than SpaceX or Tesla.”

He has informed followers on Twitter that his role as the social network’s sole director and CEO is temporary, but he has not stated who, if anyone, might succeed him in that capacity.

Some automakers, including GM and Audi, have halted their social media advertising as a result of Musk’s ownership of the platform. However, it’s unclear how it will affect Tesla over the long term.

Elon Musk uses Twitter, where he has a sizable following, to freely promote all of his businesses, their goods, and his own self-image. Tesla has long relied on Twitter to communicate with shareholders. He frequently encourages followers to join him in attacking alleged adversaries on Twitter, including elected officials, regulators like the Securities and Exchange Commission, journalists, and advocates for automotive safety who are thought to be overly critical of Tesla.

More than 50 Tesla employees, mostly Autopilot and other software engineers, as well as a number of other dependable advisers and backers from his other companies have been given permission by Musk to manage Twitter.

He has not yet specified how the schedules of Tesla employees will be divided or how their obligations to Twitter and Tesla are compensated or related.

Musk also reaffirmed Tesla’s plans to create an electric vehicle that is less expensive than its entry-level Model 3 electric sedan at the investor conference. A target of being able to produce 40,000 cars per day was also restated by him.

Musk added that it appears increasingly likely that Tesla will need to be directly involved in mining rather than relying solely on outside suppliers given the sheer volume of batteries needed to produce them and the amount of metals and other materials needed to build them.

Baron questioned him on whether Tesla had discussed or was considering investing in Glencore, as some media outlets had previously claimed. Musk emphasized that when it comes to lithium mining, “I’m talking about Tesla, doing it ourselves,” and added, “We’ve never contemplated investing in Glencore.”

Compared to its rival automakers, Tesla’s stock has fallen much more precipitously since Musk announced the agreement in April. Ford and General Motors are down about 2% and 11%, respectively, while Rivian, a manufacturer of electric vehicles, is down just over 5%.

(Adapted from CNBC.com)