When Elon Musk recently announced that he was stepping back from politics, investors hoped that would mean he would step up his involvement in the many tech firms he runs.
His explosive row with US President Donald Trump – and the very public airing of his dirty White House laundry – suggests Musk’s changing priorities might not quite be the salve they had been hoping for.
Instead of Musk retreating somewhat from the public eye and focusing on boosting the fortunes of Tesla and his other enterprises, he now finds himself being threatened with a boycott from one of his main customers – Trump’s federal government.
Tesla shares were sent into freefall on Thursday – falling 14% – as he sounded off about Trump on social media.
They rebounded a little on Friday following some indications tempers were cooling.
Even so, for the investors and analysts who, for months, had made clear they wanted Musk off his phone and back at work, the situation is far from ideal.
‘They’re way behind’
Some argue, though, that the problems for Musk’s businesses run much deeper than this spat – and the controversial role in the Trump administration it has brought a spectacular end to.
For veteran tech journalist Kara Swisher, this is especially so for Tesla.
“Tesla’s finished,” she told the BBC on the sidelines of the San Francisco Media Summit early this week.
“It was a great car company. They could compete in the autonomous taxi space but they’re way behind.”
Tesla has long attempted to play catch-up against rival Waymo, owned by Google’s parent, Alphabet, whose driverless taxis have traversed the streets of San Francisco for years – and now operate in several more cities.
This month, Musk is supposed to be overseeing Tesla’s launch of a batch of autonomous robo-taxis in Austin, Texas.
He posted on X last week that the electric vehicle maker had been testing the Model Y with no drivers on board.
“I believe 90% of the future value of Tesla is going to be autonomous and robotics,” Wedbush Securities analyst Dan Ives told the BBC this week, adding that the Austin launch would be “a watershed moment”.
“The first task at hand is ensuring the autonomous vision gets off to a phenomenal start,” he added.
But with Musk’s attention divided, the project’s odds of success would appear to have lengthened.
And there’s something else to factor in too: Musk’s own motivation.
The talk in Silicon Valley lately centres less on whether Musk can turn things around and more on whether he even cares.
“He’s a really powerful person when he’s focused on something,” said Ross Gerber, President and CEO of Gerber Kawasaki Wealth and Investment Management.
“Before, it was about proving to the world that he would make EVs – the tech that nobody else could do. It was about proving he could make rockets. He had a lot to prove.”
A longtime Tesla investor, Mr Gerber has soured on the stock and has been paring back his holdings since Musk’s foray into right-wing politics. He called Thursday an “extremely painful day”.
“It’s the dumbest thing you could possibly do to think that you have more power than the president of the United States,” Mr Gerber said, referring to Musk’s social media tirade against Trump.