Musk blames short-sellers for poor health; Board seeking No 2 exec at Tesla: NYT

In an emotional interview with The New York Times, Tesla (TSLA) CEO Elon Musk said his personal life and health has been taking a toll as he struggles to meet the production deadlines of Model 3. Lately, he has been working for as long as 120 hours a week, at the expense of seeing his friends and kids. His 47^th birthday, which fell on June 28, was spent entirely at work, and he came close to missing his brother’s wedding as well.

And then there is the “extreme torture” by short sellers, who keep projecting a Tesla failure narrative. Musk says the last few months have been the worst, which was vented out in the form of outbursts during the May conference call and the “pedo” comment following the rescue of the Thai soccer team.

He is even unable to sleep without taking Ambien and NYT reported that some of the board members are unhappy with the CEO’s habit of taking recreational drugs. “The drug does not put Mr. Musk to sleep but instead contributes to late-night Twitter sessions,” NYT quoted a person familiar with the board’s thinking.

Apparently, Musk’s tweet on August 7 that read “Am considering taking Tesla private at $420. Funding secured” has not gone down well with the Tesla board, especially since it triggered a probe from the San Francisco office of the Securities and Exchange Commission. However, Musk said in the interview that he simply wanted to be transparent.

Meanwhile, citing sources familiar with the matter, NYT reported that the Board has launched lookout for a No. 2 executive at Tesla to share some of Musk’s duties. And the search has reportedly intensified after the “funding secured” tweet. The company had, a few years ago, approached Facebook (FB) COO Sheryl Sandberg about the job.

Related: Elon Musk taking Tesla private? Trading halted

“To the best of my knowledge, no search right now,” Musk told NYT. He added that he currently does not plan to relinquish his dual role of CEO and Chairman.

For the full NYT article, click here.