Investor Warns Musk Will Have To Quit As CEO Of Twitter, Tesla

Elon Musk's days as CEO of three high-profile companies might soon be over, investor Dan Nathan told Jennifer Sor of Business Insider.

Photo Insert: Nathan pointed to Musk's mountain of debt from his Twitter takeover, as well as the pressures facing Tesla.

Nathan pointed to Musk's mountain of debt from his Twitter takeover, as well as the pressures facing Tesla. "He might be entering the end game here a little bit for being the CEO for all these companies," Nathan said.

That's because the tech mogul and world's second-richest person is facing mounting pressures on Tesla stock that could force him to confront some harsh realities about juggling his other capital-intensive and highly-leveraged side businesses.

Recently, Musk lost $13 billion as Tesla shares tanked. As his Starship rocket exploded minutes after launch, SpaceX shares are expected to sink.

In an interview with CNBC on Thursday, Nathan pointed to the mountain of debt Musk used to fund his Twitter buy, purchasing the social media company for $44 billion with a combination of bank financing and cash raised from selling Tesla stock in 2022. But Twitter may only be worth half the amount Musk bought it for.

Twitter has exposed Musk as unfit to manage the social media platform and bludgeoned his reputation. He can’t stay long as CEO in these firms.

"He's got all these banks on the hook for this debt that he can't service based on Twitter's businesses, so to me, he might be entering the end game here a little bit for being the CEO of all these companies and being that levered," Nathan said.

Tesla stock has rocketed higher in 2023 after a terrible performance last year. The stock this year so far has gained 33%, but that's actually down considerably from earlier year-to-date gains of as much as 70% — and Nathan sees much steeper losses ahead for the stock, which he described as "broken."

He forecast shares could soon dip below $100 each, though his ultimate price target is $69 a share, implying a downside of 58% from Friday's closing price of $163.58.

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