I was wrong, as it turns out, about Elon Musk. At least on this occasion.

A year ago, I’d predicted that Musk would quit Tesla. It was a bold prediction but one backed with evidence: Sales of Tesla’s electric cars fell in 2025, the first annual decline in more than a decade, and for the billionaire to be juggling roles leading X, Tesla, SpaceX, xAI, the Boring Company and Neuralink seemed unsustainable. I thought that the incessant tweeting, the controversies and constant outrages, the demanding role in Donald Trump’s incoming administration, and a decline in vehicle sales would all collectively catch up to Musk.

In May, the Wall Street Journal reported that Tesla’s board, with “Tesla’s stock sinking and some investors irritated Musk’s White House focus”, had gotten serious about looking for Musk’s successor. Credit: Bloomberg

“After constant controversies and distractions, it will all come to a head in 2025, and Musk will be forced to hand over the reins at Tesla, a company many mistakenly think he founded,” I wrote.

Musk hit back.

“I predict that the Sydney Morning Herald will continue to lose readership in 2025 for relentlessly lying to their audience and boring them to death,” he wrote in response to a screenshot of my article posted by one of his followers.

Elon Musk’s tweet predicting a difficult year for the Sydney Morning Herald.Credit: Twitter

Elon was wrong. Statistics from Roy Morgan show the Sydney Morning Herald grew its total readership by 11 per cent in 2025.

I too, was wrong. But I was oh so close to being right.

In May, the Wall Street Journal reported that Tesla’s board, with “Tesla’s stock sinking and some investors irritated Musk’s White House focus”, had gotten serious about looking for his successor.

“Board members reached out to several executive search firms to work on a formal process for finding Tesla’s next chief executive, according to people familiar with the discussions,” the newspaper reported.

Tesla’s eight-person board, which is chaired by Australian businesswoman Robyn Denholm, denied the accuracy of that report and ultimately went the other way. They issued Musk the largest CEO pay deal ever - a stock-based compensation plan that could be worth close to $US1 trillion ($1.5 trillion) over roughly a decade - a move designed to keep Musk focused on Tesla rather than shifting his attention elsewhere.

Tesla’s chairperson Robyn Denholm said Elon Musk was a “generational leader” and the right CEO during this........

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