Elon Musk gave a vague answer when asked if he plans to step back at Tesla in the next 3 years

Elon Musk did not give a direct answer on Tuesday about whether he plans to reduce his role at Tesla in the next three years.

• Elon Musk gave a vague answer when asked if he plans to reduce his role at Tesla in the coming years.
• Musk was speaking during a call on Tesla's first-quarter earnings on Tuesday.
• Musk previously said he wants to maintain a certain level of control to keep growing Tesla.

Elon Musk didn't give a straight answer on Tuesday when asked if he plans to take a step back from Tesla in the coming years.

The Tesla CEO was speaking on a call that followed the company's first-quarter earnings report, which came as the electric vehicle maker deals with a decline in sales. The report showed Tesla fell short of expectations in profits and revenue in Q1 of 2024 but did better than estimated in net gross.

During the call, Toni Sacconaghi, a Wall Street analyst at Bernstein, asked about Musk's future involvement with Tesla, noting the billionaire is currently leading several companies. In addition to serving as CEO of Tesla and SpaceX, Musk is also the owner and CTO of X, formerly known as Twitter, and the owner and founder of The Boring Company.

"You're leading many important companies right now," Sacconaghi said. "Maybe you can just talk about where your heart is at in terms of your interests, and do you expect to lessen your involvement with Tesla at any point over the next three years?"

Musk replied, "Tesla constitutes the majority of my work time, and I work pretty much every day of the week. It's rare for me to take a Sunday afternoon off, so I make sure Tesla is very prosperous."

"It is prosperous, and it will be very much so in the future," he continued.

The vague answer notably did not actually address whether or not Musk plans to roll back his involvement with Tesla in the future.

Musk and Tesla did not respond to a request for comment from Business Insider.

During discussions about his Tesla pay package in January, Musk suggested he would not want to keep growing Tesla without maintaining a certain amount of control over the company.

"I am uncomfortable growing Tesla to be a leader in AI & robotics without having ~25% voting control. Enough to be influential, but not so much that I can't be overturned," Musk wrote on X. "Unless that is the case, I would prefer to build products outside of Tesla."

Less than two weeks later, a Delaware judge struck down Musk's $55 billion Tesla pay package, which included Tesla stock options.

Tesla is now asking shareholders to approve the compensation plan, arguing Musk deserves it and that it is "critical to the future success of Tesla."