Elon Musk Formally Declares Himself Technoking of Tesla

Tesla CEO Elon Musk may have already been the unofficial king of Tesla Inc. and isn’t only a CEO either, but on Monday, he became a king of sorts. He is now Tesla’s Technoking, the company said in an official filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission. Tesla Chief Financial Officer Zach Kirkhorn is now “Master of Coin.” The two men will retain their previous titles, the brief regulatory filing states.

The “Master of Coin” title may be a reference to Tesla’s recent foray into cryptocurrencies. Tesla announced in February that it had purchased $1.5 billion worth of bitcoin. Tesla also said it was planning to accept bitcoin for its products “in the near future.” The announcement pushed bitcoin’s value up to record highs.

The company over the weekend released a video showing its commercial truck prototype on a test track. The Tesla Semi and its eventual release will likely be discussed more over the coming months, Ives said. 

As for the “Technoking” inclusion, it could hit at “Musk viewing Tesla more
as a technology disruptor in the future especially with robotaxis, (full self-driving capabilities), and massive battery technology advancements on the horizon at Tesla,” he said. The CFO’s “Master of Coin” title may allude to Tesla’s bitcoin ownership “which we expect to expand in the coming year.”

Musk has a long history of attention-grabbing stunts. Around the same time as Tesla’s bitcoin purchase, Musk touted the joke cryptocurrency Dogecoin, contributing to a tenfold increase in Dogecoin’s value. “Occasionally I make jokes about Dogecoin, but they are really meant to be jokes,” Musk said during a recent Clubhouse interview.

In 2018, Musk announced that his Boring Company would sell branded flamethrowers. Fans snapped up 10,000 of them in 48 hours. Last year, Tesla sold red “short shorts” with “S3XY” printed in gold across the back. The sale was a way of taunting short sellers—people who bet on a fall in Tesla’s stock price—at a time when the company’s stock was soaring.

Tesla’s stock rose tenfold—from $88 to $880—between January 2020 and January 2021. But it has been on a downward slide over the last month. The stock is up nearly 2 percent in early trading today. Presumably, Wall Street is excited about Musk’s new role as Technoking.