Elon Musk has announced a return to an intense ’24/7′ work schedule across his companies, including Tesla, SpaceX, xAI, and X. Musk’s recent decision to increase his involvement across his companies comes amid growing scrutiny over his divided focus, particularly following his significant role in President Donald Trump’s current administration. More recently, he also suggested at a public forum, that he’s “had enough” of political work and wouldn’t want to move any further now.
As head of the Department of Government Efficiency (DOGE), Musk is playing a critical (and controversial) role in shaping federal policy (like advocating for drastic budget cuts). He is also facing serious allegations regarding the use of Grok (the AI chatbot developed by his company, xAI) within the DOGE. Musk’s political engagement and active participation in governmental affairs have raised concerns among investors and the public about potential conflicts of interest and the impact on his business ventures.
Off late, Musk has also faced heat from within, with many suggesting his role being sidelined in the current administration for inability to yield the desired and heavily publicised results (such as announcements of nearly $1Tn in spending save, which has since been reduced to $150Bn).
Critics argue that Musk’s political involvement has diverted his attention from his core businesses, like Tesla, X and SpaceX, leading to operational challenges and reputational risks. For example, Tesla has experienced a decline in brand reputation and sales, particularly in Europe, where Musk’s political beliefs and actions have caused some customers to lose trust in his company.
Tesla’s financial results for the first quarter (Q1) of 2025 showed a sharp decline, with net profit dropping 71% to $409 million compared to $1.39 billion a year earlier. Revenue for Q1 2025 also declined 9% to $19.3 billion (down from $21 billion in Q1 2024), missing Wall Street’s expectations of $21.5 billion. This marks Tesla’s weakest quarterly performance since 2022. The company’s automotive revenue (income generated from vehicle sales) dropped to $13.9 billion, a 20% decline from $17.4 billion in the same period last year. Vehicle deliveries in Q1 2025 declined 13% year-over-year to 336,681 units.
And now, in response to these challenges, Musk announced his plan to work day and night at his companies to reassure stakeholders of his commitment to technological innovation and business performance.
“Back to spending 24/7 at work and sleeping in conference/server/factory rooms. I must be super focused on X/xAI and Tesla (plus Starship launch next week), as we have critical technologies rolling out,” the billionaire said in his post on X.
Musk’s latest announcement comes shortly after a major global outage on X (previously known as Twitter). On May 24, the service went down for several hours, affecting tens of thousands of users worldwide, including those in the US, Europe, India, and Australia. Reports on Downdetector showed the number of complaints peaked at over 25,800, with issues ranging from login failures to problems in sending messages. The outage was caused by a malfunction at a data center, which also experienced a similar failure just days earlier. This repeated disruption has raised concerns about the platform’s infrastructure and reliability. Meanwhile, Musk admitted that the recent problems with X showed that big improvements are needed because the backup system, meant to prevent the outage, did not work.
