Tesla Stock Crash, X Hacking... Musk's Actions on His Worst Day [Comprehensive]

As stock prices plummeted and cyber attacks continued, Tesla CEO Elon Musk showed irritation toward a campaign targeting him.

On the 10th (local time), Tesla's stock price crashed more than 15% in a single day, marking its worst day in about 4 years and 6 months. Tesla shares closed at $222.15 on the New York Stock Exchange, down 15.43% from the previous session. At one point during trading, it plunged to $220.66, the largest drop since the 21.06% crash on September 8, 2020.

The market capitalization based on the closing price was $714.6 billion, evaporating about $130.3 billion (approximately 190.2 trillion won) compared to the previous session's $844.9 billion.

Tesla's stock price, which was $251.44 on November 5 last year, rose to an all-time high of $479.86 on December 17 last year as Elon Musk's political influence grew after leading Donald Trump's presidential campaign. However, as criticism began to emerge even within the White House, the stock started to decline, closing at $262.67 on the 7th, and has now given back all gains made since Trump's election. The closing price today is similar to mid-October last year.

Today's crash is interpreted as being influenced by the intensification of the tariff war that hit the overall U.S. stock market, recession concerns, and the growing consumer backlash against Tesla worldwide. This reflects the recent sharp decline in Tesla's sales performance in various overseas markets.

Meanwhile, X (formerly Twitter), the social networking service platform owned by Elon Musk, experienced temporary access issues in almost all countries worldwide, including the United States, on the morning of the 10th (Eastern U.S. time). The internet monitoring site 'Down Detector' reported that users from most countries, including the United States, United Kingdom, France, India, Australia, Argentina, and Japan, reported being unable to access the X service that morning. In the United States particularly, up to 20,000 people between 5 and 6 a.m., and up to 40,000 people between 8 a.m. and noon, reported being unable to use the X service.

In a post on his X account at 1:25 p.m. that day, Musk claimed, "There was a massive cyber attack on X (still ongoing)," adding, "We get attacked every day, but this time many resources were mobilized." He further added, "Either a large, coordinated group and/or a country is involved" and that they were "tracking it."

Musk posted this comment as a reply to another X post that suspected some external attack might be behind X's downtime. The post Musk shared stated, "First protests against the Department of Government Efficiency (DOGE). Then Tesla stores were attacked. Now X is down. We cannot rule out the possibility that this is the result of an attack on X."

Recently in the United States, protests against Musk, who leads the Department of Government Efficiency (DOGE) in the Donald Trump administration, have been spreading, and various attacks including arson and shootings targeting Tesla stores or vehicles have been occurring.

In this situation, Elon Musk also showed irritation toward a campaign targeting him.

Kia released an advertisement in Europe for its compact electric vehicle EV3 that read, "The car you buy after Elon Musk goes crazy." Kia has been publishing this advertisement in major Norwegian newspapers and on social media accounts since early March this year. The electric vehicle specialist media EV analyzed this as "an advertisement created by Kia targeting consumers disappointed with Tesla."

Elon Musk retweeted Kia's electric vehicle advertisement from Europe on his X account, writing, "They really did that?" This led some to worry that Musk might be suggesting retaliatory policies by responding to what is a common 'controversial' advertisement overseas.

Kim So-yeon, Hankyung.com reporter sue123@hankyung.com