Why Tesla needs a different kind of CEO

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In today's big story, Elon Musk appears to be bored with the day-to-day at Tesla. It might be time for a Tim Cook-style CEO.

What's on deck

Markets: Why Deutsche Bank thinks another correction could happen.

Tech: Google has a message for employees: higher performers will be rewarded.

Business: Amazon is at the center of a political showdown over tariffs.

But first, this is a Tim Cook moment.

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The big story

Tesla needs a 'Tim Cook'

Elon Musk may be bored of making cars.

While Tesla was getting off to a brutal start to 2025, Musk was juggling his other commitments with — in his own words — "great difficulty."

Why would the CEO of the world's most valuable car company wander off to Washington when the EV battle has just entered a new, crucial stage?

Because Musk likes to invent new things rather than fine-tune existing products, BI's Alistair Barr, author of the soon-to-be-launched Tech Memo newsletter, writes.

Musk spent the last decade working to turn Tesla into the Western world's dominant EV company. But now, EV manufacturing is arguably a solved problem. The next stages are all about refining processes, scaling efficient production, and selling the products — that's not Musk's jam.

If Musk were to relinquish control, what type of CEO would Tesla need?

When Tim Cook took over Apple in 2011 after Steve Jobs died, Alistair was a tech reporter at Reuters. He recalls that investors couldn't figure out how the company might continue to thrive without Jobs' creative drive.

Cook could. Since taking over, he has generated almost $3 trillion in shareholder value and made Apple the most valuable company in the world. And he did it by taking another solved problem — smartphones — and perfecting it over and over and over again.

Tesla could be at a "2011 Apple" moment right now, Alistair writes, and a supply chain genius like Tim Cook could launch Tesla to new heights.

3 things in markets

1. US manufacturers are very worried about a recession. In a recent Fed survey, US manufacturers said tariff and recession anxieties are making it nearly impossible to plan ahead. They're begging the Fed to lower interest rates.

2. Another correction could be on the way. Macro turmoil has led to conflicting market outlooks, Deutsche Bank says. The bank flagged three signals that could be setting the stage for a fresh correction.

3. Inside Warren Buffett's "Woodstock for capitalists." Tens of thousands of investors are traveling to Omaha, Nebraska, this weekend to hear Buffett speak and to connect with fellow Berkshire shareholders. Devoted attendees told BI why they're going.

3 things in tech

1. Google's big shakeup. The company is making changes to its compensation structure in a bid to incentivize higher performance from staff, BI exclusively reported. It'll give more employees the chance to get higher compensation, but lower performers would get smaller bonuses and equity.

2. Amazon Web Services preps staff for customer concerns. The company's cloud division is advising its frontline sales and technical staff on how to answer potential customer questions ranging from tariffs to data sovereignty, according to an internal document obtained by BI. Here's what their guidance said.

3. Snap declined to report Q2 guidance during its first-quarter earnings report. The company behind Snapchat cited uncertainty surrounding macroeconomic conditions. It joins a list of companies lowering or outright scrapping their guidance amid tariff chaos.

3 things in business

1. Tesla accelerates its Semi truck ambitions. The company hired more than a thousand new factory workers in Nevada to boost its Semi truck production, according to three people familiar with the matter. Until recently, Tesla had fewer than 100 factory workers assigned to the truck, two people said.

2. Amazon is at the center of a tariff-driven political fight. The retail giant says it never planned to display tariff costs on its website, despite an earlier report that said so. That didn't stop politicians on both sides of the aisle from duking it out over Trump's trade war.

3. Starbucks bets on people, not machines. The coffee giant is planning to hire more baristas and give them more hours in the next phase of its turnaround, CEO Brian Niccol said. It's also using a new algorithm to sequence orders, creating a calmer store experience.

In other news

• Trump says voters unhappy about the economy and his China trade war should deal with it because 'they did sign up for it, actually.'
• The backdoor way to get a dirt-cheap mortgage rate on your next home.
• Wall Street thinks Apple is set to crush first-quarter earnings estimates thanks to tariffs.
• The chairman of a failed 'TikTok killer' pleaded guilty to lying to investors to inflate the company's stock.
• Alistair Barr: Elon Musk's Starlink mints money and has become a geopolitical power tool. No wonder Amazon is splurging on satellites.
• UPS says it is cutting 20,000 staff and shutting over 70 facilities.
• My latest order from Temu doesn't have any import fees. I feel like I'm stealing the Constitution.
• No more Mr. Nice Guy: Say goodbye to the sycophantic ChatGPT.
• The Trump administration will press private law firms to represent police officers accused of misconduct for free.
• The new GOP plan for student-loan borrowers: longer repayment periods and fewer options for debt relief.
• Travel companies say Canadians are canceling US travel — and opting for this destination instead.

What's happening today

• Meta, Microsoft, Barclays, and Samsung report earnings.
• Q1 GDP growth figures published.
• President Trump hosts "Invest in America" event at the White House, including CEOs from Nvidia, GE Aerospace, Johnson & Johnson, Eli Lilly, and SoftBank.

Correction: Yesterday, we featured a chart of the S&P 500 index that only showed up until April 21, 2025. At the time of writing, the index had risen more than 7% since then.

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