Tesla shares fell Monday after longtime CFO (or Master of Coin, in Musk-speak) Zach Kirkhorn unexpectedly announced plans to leave the electric carmaker.
Kirkhorn became Tesla’s CFO in 2019, and he has spent about 13 years at the company in total. His title was changed to "master of coin" in 2019.
The company did not offer a reason for Kirkhorn’s departure but said that Chief Accounting Officer Vaibhav Taneja will serve as his replacement. It is unknown whether Taneja will hold the same master of coin title.
Kirkhorn will remain with the company through 2023.
It’s possible that tension developed between Musk and Kirkhorn. In July, when Musk announced that Tesla planned to spend $1 billion on its Dojo supercomputer by the end of 2024, Kirkhorn stepped in to note that “the numbers that [Musk] mentioned are between R&D spend and capital spend.”
Taneja, for his part, started with Tesla in conjunction with its acquisition of Musk’s solar power company, SolarCity, in 2017.
Tesla stock fell 1% Monday to $251.45.
Contact Andrew Kessel at andrew.kessel@proactiveinvestors.com
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