Elon Musk is stepping back into hands-on leadership at Tesla and his other companies, announcing a full return to a “24/7” work schedule. Musk announced the shift following a widespread outage at X, saying the failure exposed gaps in system resilience and requires immediate and focused attention.
The disruption, which impacted tens of thousands of X users globally over the weekend, was reportedly triggered by a fire at a data center in Oregon. While service was gradually restored, the incident raised concerns about the platform’s backup systems and prompted Musk to recommit to his demanding work ethic.
“I must be super focused,” he posted, adding that he would once again be sleeping at company offices, harkening back to the launch of the Model 3 in 2017 and 2018 when he famously slept on the factory floor during “production hell.”
Reprioritizing Business Over Politics
Musk also used the opportunity to announce a formal retreat from political engagement, particularly his volunteer role as head of the U.S. Department of Government Efficiency (DOGE). While the program claims to have identified $160 billion in federal savings, Musk now says he will only contribute to the initiative one or two days every two weeks.
“I’ve done enough,” Musk told The Washington Post, reflecting on his political donations and advisory work over the past few years. “It’s time to double down on engineering and execution.”
Following the X outage, Musk said renewed work schedule is intended to drive improvements not only at X, but at Tesla and across all of his companies.
Musk’s decision to refocus his time and energy signals a renewed commitment to the demanding leadership Tesla, and his companies have come to expect. Whether this return to around-the-clock oversight will stabilize operations and satisfy critics and investors remains to be seen, but one thing is clear – Musk is back at the helm, and he’s not taking his foot off the accelerator.
