Shame, Elon Musk is having a tough time. Unfortunately, that means that Tesla is now having a tough time, too.

Depending on Elon’s mood and social media habits, Tesla shares can change faster than Cape Town’s weather.

Earlier this year, there were concerns over Tesla’s future after the company posted an R8 billion net loss in the first quarter.

In their most recent drop, Tesla shares plummeted on Friday as investors reacted to an interview in which Musk spoke about taking sleeping pills, working 120 hours a week, and being generally exhausted.

According to the Telegraph:

He broke down at times as he told the New York Times he was suffering the most painful year of his career, while company executives said they were worried his erratic tweeting and unpredictable behaviour could be caused by his use of sedatives to sleep.

By the end of trading, shares in Tesla were down almost 9%, which wiped more than $5 billion off of its value.

Mr Musk has long delighted in his reputation as one of Silicon Valley’s brashest entrepreneurs but admitted struggling to cope with exhausting production deadlines.

“It’s not been great, actually,” he said. “I’ve had friends come by who are really concerned.”

Brash is right. Over the last while Elon has had a go at analysts for asking “boring, boneheaded” questions, and called a British diver who helped rescue some kids from a cave a ‘paedo’.

Company insiders told the paper that Mr Musk’s use of the drug was also causing concern.

He said he was working a 120-hour week to try and reach the company’s production targets, and admitted: “It is often a choice of no sleep or Ambien.”

Mr Musk has previously raised eyebrows with his praise for the sleeping pills. In June last year he tweeted: “A little red wine, vintage record, some Ambien … and magic!”

Yet seven months earlier, in November 2016, he acknowledged that “tweeting on Ambien isn’t wise.”

No. No, it isn’t.

It also isn’t the first time that Ambien has been blamed for bad behaviour.

Roseanne Barr [below], the comedienne who was fired after tweeting racist tropes at the African American former Obama aide Valerie Jarrett, blamed her own Twitter rant earlier this year on Ambien. The pharmaceutical company that makes the drug, Sanofi, replied that “racism is not a known side effect” of Ambien.

Sean Penn blamed his strange March appearance on The Late Show with Stephen Colbert on the drug, while President Donald Trump’s doctor Ronny Jackson said he occasionally took the sleeping tablets. Some have speculated that the president’s famous “covefe” tweet was a side-effect of taking the pill. Ambien also was one of the drugs found in Tiger Woods’ system after police found him asleep in his car in the middle of a highway last August.

Elon also used the interview to try and explain the tweet where he suggested that he might be taking his company private.

He said he fired off the message while on his way to the airport and it was based on offering shareholders a 20 per cent premium, which would have made the figure $419.

“It seemed like better karma at $420 than at $419,” he said in the interview. Commentators pointed out that the 420 number is used as code for marijuana.

“But I was not on weed, to be clear. Weed is not helpful for productivity. There’s a reason for the word ‘stoned.’ You just sit there like a stone on weed.”

Tesla has launched a search for a deputy to try and ease the pressure on Elon, who almost missed his brother’s wedding, and hasn’t taken a holiday since he contracted Malaria in 2001.

Tough being a billionaire, hey?

[source:telegraph]