The world's richest man, Elon Musk celebrates his 51st birthday on June 28. The CEO of SpaceX and Tesla saw his wealth increase by over 10 times since the outbreak of the COVID-19 pandemic in early 2020. However, despite the hundreds of billions of dollars and millions of followers on Twitter that Musk has gained, the South Africa-born space tycoon may have a challenging year ahead. Here are some of the issues that Elon Musk may face in the coming years. (Image: AP Photos)
Discrimination lawsuits | The world's richest man is an outspoken maverick but his position as the CEO of both Tesla and SpaceX means that he is on the receiving end of several very serious lawsuits. Musk's electric vehicle company, Tesla, is currently facing multiple lawsuits related to alleged widespread racial discrimination and sexual harassment in its California location. One of these lawsuits happens to be filed by a Tesla shareholder against Musk and Tesla’s board for fostering a toxic work culture and disregarding workers’ complaints, reported Reuters. (Image: AP Photo)
US labour law violation | Two former Tesla employees sued Elon Musk on June 19, alleging that the EV giant violated US federal laws related to mass layoffs. The lawsuit was filed after Elon Musk recently announced that Tesla will reduce its salaried workforce by 10 percent in the next three months. (Image: AP Photos)
Dogecoin lawsuit | Elon Musk faces a $258-billion class action lawsuit by a Dogecoin investor for running a ‘pump and dump’ racket to inflate the price of the cryptocurrency. (Image: Shutterstock)
Free speech hypocrisy | With SpaceX reportedly firing employees who wrote a critical open letter to Musk, and Musk’s claims of being a ‘free speech’ advocate, it hasn’t taken long for some of the billionaire's own free speech hypocrisy to be highlighted in the media. From suing a whistleblower for over $160 million to firing employees who are posting reviews of the cars, many have suggested that Musk’s free speech only extends to those who aren’t talking bad about him. (Image: Shutterstock)
Tesla self-driving still 'coming soon' | It was November 2016 when Musk had promised investors, car enthusiasts and Tesla fans that Tesla vehicles would have Fully Self Driving (FSD) capabilities by the next year. However, five years on, Musk is still saying that FSD capability is a year away. While Tesla’s electric capabilities have driven a strong portion of its consumer base, its claims of ‘soon’ offering Tesla autopilot also have thousands waiting. (Image: Reuters)
Driving up production at new plants | With Tesla’s new plants in Texas and Germany finally operating, Musk needs to get the production ball rolling if he wants the company to start making money from these massive facilities. With the erratic shutdown of the Shanghai Gigafactory due to COVID-19 lockdowns, the need for these factories to pump out vehicles is even more important. (Image: Reuters)
Twitter deal | Musk’s much talked about $44-billion Twitter takeover bid also hangs in balance. Though the Twitter board approved the deal in April, the process is yet to be completed — with the deal seemingly stuck on the issues of bots. With Twitter claiming that only 5 percent of the user base is bots, Musk contends that nearly one-fifth of the platform’s users are bots. Seemingly at an impasse, the two sides have failed to reach any agreement on the issue yet. (Image: Shutterstock)