By Tim Higgins

The sun is shining bright again in the Elon Musk business empire. Don't get burned.

The billionaire entrepreneur may still be pining for a political revolution with talk of starting his own third party to punish spendthrift Republicans, but recent high-profile departures at his companies underscore that the Boss is back.

"Thank you for your contributions," Musk -- who has a way with goodbyes -- told his outgoing chief executive at X, Linda Yaccarino, on Wednesday.

She announced her departure after two years on the hot seat, running the billionaire's social-media platform. Yaccarino's role was largely about trying to revive advertising for a guy who seems allergic to the art of the sale. Just days earlier, it was revealed that Omead Afshar, who was heading sales and manufacturing for Tesla in North America and Europe, had left Musk's electric-car company.

Both departures reflect an old saying among Musk alum: to survive with the mercurial leader is to avoid flying too close to the sun. Musk being the sun.

Finding shade was easier when his Department of Government Efficiency effort was churning 120 hours a week for the Trump administration. That came to an end for him in late May. Now Musk is burning hot (if not always 100% focused).

The latest executive departures also underscore Musk's complicated relationship with the sales functions at his companies. He's the ultimate salesman of the future vision. But he tends to churn through sales leaders responsible for moving today's inventories -- whether that's ad spots or electric sedans.

And, these days, Musk is acting like the AI chatbots and cars will sell themselves.

That Yaccarino stayed as long as she did beat the guesses of some Madison Avenue insiders. They had privately speculated she wouldn't last long under Musk. She surprised the industry by leaving her cushy gig at NBCUniversal in 2023.

Together, she and Musk were seen as a real-life Odd Couple.

Musk has long shown disdain for traditional sales methods, arguing over the years that quality products should sell themselves. Meanwhile, Yaccarino was Ms. Sales -- whether it was her polished image or pitch that Twitter-turned-X was a safe place for brands.

That last part could be hard to swallow. Musk's own actions could promote contentious content on the platform and his "Go F -- Yourself" ways could be off-putting to big brands worried about negative associations.

This past week, "MechaHitler" trended on X after Musk's chatbot, Grok, generated antisemitic content. That only renewed concerns about safeguards.

When Musk took over Twitter, he said he didn't want to be CEO. It was a common refrain from him over the years, something he has said about Tesla where he has led the company since taking the reins in 2008 during financial difficulties.

He has often complained that the company can't find somebody to run things for him, unlike at his rocket company, SpaceX. There, he has long had a strong No. 2 to handle the parts of the business that interest him less -- like sales.

Despite his objections to being X CEO, he clearly wanted to be the Boss. This point was driven home when his xAI startup acquired X earlier this year. Yaccarino's role was largely diminished as part of a company more broadly aiming to use Grok to compete against AI rivals such as OpenAI and Alphabet.

Over the years, I've often heard insiders talk about how it has grown increasingly hard to recruit seasoned business leaders to work for Musk because of his reputation for burning through people.

During one stretch at Tesla, the company saw more than 50 vice presidents or higher depart in a relatively short period. In some cases, a high-profile hire would join only to quietly leave a few weeks later. Some of the churn was natural attrition as options vested. Some of it was Musk growing tired of people. Some of it was employees growing tired of his grueling pace.

In 2023, amid investor concerns that Musk was too distracted from Tesla's day-to-day with his then-recent purchase of Twitter, he presided over an unusual investor meeting. Sixteen executives flanked him on stage to discuss their areas of the car company.

It was as if Musk was trying to show that Tesla was more than just him. "We obviously got significant bench strength here," Musk said at the time.

Flash forward two years, many are gone. That includes the then-CFO, who was seen as a potential replacement for Musk if the board needed it.

These days, it's rare for Tesla to highlight its bench far beyond Musk. And again, Tesla, and now X, are down key deputies when Musk faces major challenges across his companies. Tesla recently launched a limited robotaxi service amid a car-sales slump.

A few weeks ago, Musk was in a three-hour-plus meeting that ran well past midnight at his brain-implant startup, Neuralink, when his SpaceX rocket blew up, according to biographer Ashlee Vance, who was with him. "Meeting ended," Vance posted on X. "I assume that's when he learned about it. And then ... he went back to work."

Hours after Yaccarino's departure announcement Wednesday, Musk was leaning into the wonky side of AI to sell xAI's newest model, Grok 4. During a near hourlong reveal streamed online, Musk talked about the AI's advanced book smarts and practical applications. One demonstration included a voice AI with an English accent being asked to write and sing an opera about Diet Coke, Musk's preferred beverage:

"Oh, Diet Coke

Thou elixir divine

With bubbles that dance

In a sparkling line

Thy crisp, cool kiss

On lips so fine ..."

As Musk sat on the dark stage flanked by young xAI employees dressed in black T-shirts, he wound things down, asking: "Anything you guys want to say?"

One engineer, near Musk, quickly applied a sort of sunscreen, blurting out: "It's a good model, sir."

The UV index is high.

Write to Tim Higgins at tim.higgins@wsj.com

(END) Dow Jones Newswires

July 13, 2025 05:30 ET (09:30 GMT)

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