Tesla investors and business leaders slam Elon Musk for endorsing an antisemitic post

• Elon Musk is facing backlash from business leaders after he appeared to endorse an antisemitic conspiracy theory.

• Tesla investors have criticized the CEO's remarks, and IBM pulled ads from X.

• Musk has been criticized for allowing hate speech content to proliferate on his platform.

Elon Musk is facing backlash from the business community after he appeared to endorse an antisemitic post on X.

On Wednesday, Musk, who has been criticized for allowing antisemitic content to proliferate on X, responded "you have said the actual truth" to a post that made sweeping statements accusing Jewish people of hatred against white people and that echoed the "great replacement" conspiracy theory.

The theory, to which many white supremacists subscribe, in part contends that Jewish people are attempting to reduce the white population in the US by supporting nonwhite immigrants. It was referenced by the gunman who killed 11 people at a Pittsburgh synagogue in 2018 and by the Buffalo mass shooter last year.

As the tweet was brought to public attention on Thursday, the backlash was swift, with some Tesla investors and other tech leaders taking to social media to criticize Musk's comment, demand he step down, and announce they are getting rid of their Teslas.

"I call on Elon Musk to resign," Asana and Facebook cofounder Dustin Moskowitz said on Wednesday. "(from everything)," he later added.

Musk — who is the richest person on the world with a net worth of $225 billion, according to Bloomberg's latest calculations — currently has his hand in six companies. Most notably, he is the CEO of Tesla and rocket manufacturer SpaceX, as well as the owner of X, formerly known as Twitter.

"Elon's antisemitism is still shocking," tech entrepreneur Marc Bodnick said.

"Take my car back," notorious short seller Andrew Left wrote. "It is not as good as the BMW anyways."

Of note were a number prominent Tesla investors criticizing Musk's remarks, though the noise has not appeared to affect Tesla's stock: It was outpacing the broader market, rising by about 0.75% in mid-afternoon trade Friday — and remains up by more than 9% over the last five days.

Still, longtime Tesla bull and investor Ross Gerber announced his plans to replace his Model Y with a Rivian as a result of Musk's comment.