Tesla Board member and Airbnb co-founder Joe Gebbia has become the first insider in over five years to purchase the company’s shares. The purchase comes just weeks before the highly anticipated launch of Tesla’s robotaxi service in Austin, Texas, which is expected to begin this June.
According to a Form 4 filing with the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) published on Monday, Gebbia acquired 4,000 shares at an average price of $256.31 per share, totaling approximately $1.02 million. The shares were purchased through a trust that now holds 4,111 Tesla shares, indicating Gebbia held just 111 shares prior to Monday’s purchase.
The transaction marks the first time in over five years that a Tesla insider has bought stock on the open market, breaking a long-standing trend where insiders had typically only sold shares. In recent months, several Tesla executives and board members, including CEO Elon Musk’s brother, Kimbal Musk, and Tesla CFO Vaibhav Taneja, have sold substantial amounts of stock. Tesla Chairwoman Robyn Denholm also sold more than $130 million worth of shares over the past several months.
Elon Musk publicly praised Gebbia’s purchase on X, posting “Joe rocks.” Gebbia joined Tesla’s board as an independent director in 2022.
The timing of Gebbia’s purchase comes as Tesla is preparing to launch its first paid autonomous ride service using Model Y vehicles in Texas. During Tesla’s Q1 2025 earnings call, Musk confirmed that initial operations will focus on Austin, with plans to expand the service to additional U.S. cities by the end of the year. He emphasized that the June rollout would involve fully autonomous rides, not requiring human drivers, and that the Cybercab will not be involved.
