Robyn Denholm sells $310m worth of Tesla shares as EV car sales hits the skids

Despite Elon Musk urging staff to hold onto their shares, his Australian chair has sold about $310m worth of shares in the past six months. But those close to her say it’s a regular strategy.

Robyn Denholm has been Tesla chair since 2018. Picture: Lyndon Mechielsen.

Tesla chair Robyn Denholm has sold almost $US200m ($310m) worth of the company’s stock in the past six months as the electric vehicle maker’s shares hit the skids, likely pushing her estimated wealth to more than $1bn.

Ms Denholm – who is a director and former chair of the Technology Council of Australia – sold the shares, despite chief executive Elon Musk’s pleas for employees to hold onto their shares.

Tesla shares dived to as low as $US221.86 last month – a drop of more than 41 per cent since January – as the company attracted at times violent protests over Mr Musk’s support of Donald Trump and heading the US Department of Government Efficiency (DOGE).

Tesla shares have since rebounded – but are still down more than 8 per cent for the year – after Mr Musk said he would spend less time at DOGE and more time at the company, while declaring it was on track to deliver its autonomous vehicles by June.

Ms Denholm bought more than 112,000 shares last week at $US24.73 apiece, which she earned as a director, before selling them the same day at an average price of more than $US275 a share.

Tesla chair Robyn Denholm bought more than 112,000 shares in the company last week for $US24.73 before selling them the same day for around $US275 apiece.

She has also sold other parcels of shares for between $US33m and $US43.16m since the start of the year.

Ms Denholm has been approached for comment. It is understood her share sales were part of her regular strategy for how she manages her Tesla holdings since she became chair in 2018, and brings her total profit to $US530m. Her net worth, according to The List - Australia’s Richest 250, was $972m in March this year.

Ms Denholm, is well regarded in Canberra and by other business leaders and is helming a review into the research and development tax incentives for the Albanese government,

Fellow Tesla director James Murdoch sold $US13.2m worth of shares in March, according to SEC filings. Meanwhile, Tesla Chief financial officer Vaibhav Taneja sold $US1.13m shares in the company last week, taking the total amount he has offload in the past three months to $US4.6m.

Mr Musk urged employees in March to hold onto their shares in the carmaker.

Elon Musk with Donald Trump and a Tesla Cybertruck at the White House.

“There are times when there are rocky moments, a little bit of stormy weather, but I’m here to tell you the future is bright and exciting,” he said on a recording of the event posted on his social-media platform, X.

“What I’m saying is — hang on to your stock.”

Tesla stores and vehicles have been vandalised over Mr Musk’s support of Mr Trump. But Mr Musk said his role at DOGE has been important in helping support the US’s economic turnaround.

“There’s been some blowback for the time that I’ve been spending in government with the Department of government efficiency, with DOGE. I think the work that we’re doing there is actually very important,” Mr Musk said on Tesla’s quarterly earnings call last month.

“The DOGE team has made a lot of progress in addressing waste and fraud but a natural blowback from that is those who were receiving the wasteful dollars and the fraudulent dollars will try to attack me and our team and anything associated with me.”

Mr Musk said Tesla was “not even close” to the “ragged edge of death”, despite earnings diving to the lowest level in five years, and its driverless car tech was peerless and would make a meaningful earnings contribution by next year.

Tesla’s system is camera-based and relies on a neural network, which is different from its competitors that use 3D mapping and remote sensing technology called LiDAR or light detection and ranging – emitting laser pulses to accurately determine a terrain and the objects within it.

“We’re the ones that made that pure AI solution with cameras. The car actually will listen for sirens and that kind of thing. It’s way more than just that expensive sensor suite,” Mr Musk said.

“Even though Google is very good at AI, it is worth noting that Tesla has both an incredible AI software team and AI hardware chip design team. So I don’t see anyone being able to compete with Tesla at present.”

What also makes Tesla different is that Musk is betting on a future where people won’t buy cars, and he is laying the groundwork for the company’s ‘iPhone moment’.

“The reality is that in the future, most people are not going to buy cars. If you continue on that phone metaphor, I can remember the days of flip phones. There were 100 different flip phone designs. The mistake manufacturers made was to try to make different variants of a flip phone. They should have made an iPhone.

“In the not too distant future, buying a gasoline car that is not autonomous will be like riding a horse using a flip phone.”