Elon Musk tells Tesla employees ‘hang onto your stock’ in all-hands

During Elon Musk’s two months in Washington, D.C., Tesla shares have been on a precipitous decline, losing over 40% of their value.

Protests and campaigns against Tesla, Musk and his work in the Trump White House have erupted around the world. Criminal acts of vandalism and arson have also targeted some Tesla electric vehicles, showrooms and charging stations in a string of incidents in the U.S. and across Europe.

At an all-hands meeting with Tesla employees on Thursday evening, Musk addressed some of those issues, while trying to reassure employees that they were still in good hands, and to “hang onto your stock.” The shares closed more than 5% higher on Friday at $248.71.

“It’s very difficult like for people in the stock market, especially those that look in the rearview mirror — which is most people — to imagine a future where suddenly a 10 million vehicle fleet has five to ten times the usefulness,” Musk said, touting his vision for autonomous vehicles that he’s long promised. “It’s so profound and there’s no comparison with anything in the past that it does not compute. But it will compute in the future.”

In recent months, Tesla’s new vehicle sales have fallen in Europe and in parts of the U.S. and China. The company is facing trade uncertainty after multiple executive orders from President Trump imposed new tariffs on goods and materials from Canada, Mexico and China, home to crucial Tesla suppliers. National car shopping site Edmunds said this week that Tesla owners are trading in their electric vehicles at record levels.

“If you read the news it feels like, you know, Armageddon,” Musk said on the livestream on Thursday. “It’s like, I can’t walk past the TV without seeing a Tesla on fire. Like what’s going on? Some people, it’s like listen, I understand if you don’t wanna buy our product, but you don’t have to burn it down. That’s a bit unreasonable.”

He followed up saying, “This is psycho, stop being psycho!”

Employees laughed with him.

Musk spent much of the meeting hyping Tesla’s technology, or the prospects of it.

“What’s the most exciting future that you could possibly imagine?” he asked rhetorically. He answered that it’s “a future of abundance for all,” where robotaxis, artificial intelligence and robots now in development at Tesla will bring about a future “where you could literally just have anything you want.”

Musk celebrated the best-seller status of the Tesla Model Y, and said the electric SUV would be the “best-selling car on Earth again this year” and “available worldwide.” He boasted that the Cybertruck, Tesla’s angular steel pickup truck, had become the top-selling fully electric pickup. Despite a massive Cybertruck recall announced earlier on Thursday, Musk also lauded the vehicle because it had attained a 5-star rating for crash safety.

He thanked Tesla employees for the refreshed version of the Model Y, saying the company’s supply chains on three continents proved a challenge in getting the car to market.

Musk boasted about the forthcoming Cybercab, a two-seater with no steering wheel or brakes, and EVs that will be upgraded to have robotaxi capabilities with a software update. It’s a promise he’s been making for years. In 2016, Musk told Tesla owners that their cars would be able to make a driverless cross-country trip by the end of 2018.

On Tesla’s last earnings call, Musk said a driverless ride-hail service is coming to Austin, Texas in June, using existing Tesla vehicles and a version of the company’s FSD or “Full Self-Driving” software, which currently requires a driver at the wheel ready to steer or brake at any time.

Musk said on Thursday that the Cybercab will be produced in Austin, as will the company’s humanoid robot, dubbed the Optimus. The Optimus is now being assembled at the company’s Fremont, California factory, he said, and Tesla aims to produce about 5,000 units this year.

In both the robotaxi and humanoid robotics markets, Tesla faces stiff competition.

Alphabet’s Waymo is scaling its driverless ride-hailing offering in more U.S. markets, recently launching in Austin. And Chinese EV makers, including Zeekr, plan to make their equivalents to Tesla’s Autopilot and FSD available as standard options.

Meanwhile, a number of humanoid robotics developers, including Apptronik, Boston Dynamics and Unitree, are working to bring their models to market. Boston Dynamics, in partnership with RAI Institute, released a new video this week showing their electric Atlas humanoid robot walking, running, crawling, and doing gymnastics.

Still, Musk says Tesla’s Optimus is “the most sophisticated humanoid robot on Earth,” even though it’s now “learning to walk and catch balls” and in most of its major demonstrations has been operated by people.

Tesla employees will be first to get access to the robots, he said, adding that one day they’ll function like Star Wars characters R2-D2 and C-3PO.

“We will offer Optimus robots first to Tesla employees,” Musk said. “There are some pluses and minuses to that — probably have a few bugs. But it’s gonna be very cool.”

WATCH: Musk has neglected Tesla