NEW YORK - Fed up with Mr Elon Musk’s antics on Twitter, long-time Tesla investor Trevor Goodwin recently sold US$30,000 (S$40,700) of the electric car company’s stock.

Mr Goodwin, 46, started investing in Tesla about five years ago, and he and his wife both own vehicles from the company. He once talked up the cars to all his friends.

Now, he has offloaded most of his shares, keeping only about US$500 worth. He said he is no longer willing to deal with the erratic behaviour of its billionaire chief executive officer.

“It’s almost like he’s abandoned us in favour of his new mission,” the business analyst said.

Mr Musk recently completed his US$44 billion acquisition of Twitter after a tumultuous year filled with lawsuits, public fights and squabbling about spam bots.

The CEO has sold at least US$36 billion of his own Tesla shares to fund the buyout, and broader concerns about how he is dividing his time between his many companies have also weighed on the car company’s stock, which is down about 50 per cent this year.

Tesla shares have been hit by a broader slump in technology stocks, supply chain snarls, rising raw material costs and lockdowns in China. But there is no doubt that the Twitter deal and Mr Musk’s subsequent share sales have added to the downdraft.

Mr Musk has said that adding Twitter to his workload, which also includes running SpaceX, means he works 120 hours a week, up from 70 to 80 previously.

His own net worth has dropped by more than US$99 billion in 2022 to US$170.9 billion, according to the Bloomberg Billionaires Index.

He is now at risk of losing his spot as the world’s richest person for the first time since 2021.

As at the close of trading on Wednesday, after Tesla’s stock fell for a third day in a row, his fortune was only US$4.8 billion higher than that of France’s Bernard Arnault.

Since the acquisition, Mr Musk has fired most of the social media platform’s employees, restored banned accounts and grappled with advertisers, including Apple. He spends a lot of time tweeting, advocating his vision of free speech and telling his followers to vote for Republicans.

All that chaos is concerning for investors in the company that made Mr Musk his fortune: What happens to Tesla with its CEO seemingly so distracted?

Retail favourite

The electric-vehicle maker has long been a darling of small-time traders, especially the legion who began investing during the pandemic bull run, helping to send Tesla’s market value above US$1 trillion and making Mr Musk the world’s richest man.

Many holders are undeterred by the recent losses, which total about US$78 billion this year for retail investors, according to Vanda Research.

Despite everything, many traders are staying loyal, even if they are not thrilled with the drama. Only the SPDR S&P 500 ETF beats Tesla as retail investors’ most-bought security in 2022 to date, according to Vanda.

Uncertain future

For Mr Jonathan Batchelor, a Tesla investor in Phoenix, the most concerning aspect of the current situation is that it is not clear who is in charge at Tesla now that Mr Musk is spending so much time on Twitter.

The 43-year-old lawyer first started investing in the carmaker in early 2019, meaning he rode the pandemic gains – and subsequent fall. He attributes the drop to the broader macro environment and the unwinding of overvalued electric-vehicle stocks. But the Twitter news did not help.

Now, he is looking for some kind of guidance from the Tesla leadership, something to reassure investors that the company is on solid footing even while its CEO’s attention is diverted.

One silver lining? At least the blunders Mr Musk is currently making at Twitter are not directly affecting Tesla’s fundamentals.

“In some ways, it may be helpful to some of Elon’s companies if he goes through some growing pains in his management of Twitter and learns lessons in dealing with that organisation rather than making mistakes with Tesla,” Mr Batchelor said. BLOOMBERG