The American electric carmaker Tesla has replaced Chief Financial Officer Zachary Kirkhorn. The reason for his departure has not been disclosed.

But the resignation of Kirkhorn, who was seen as a possible successor to Elon Musk as CEO, does come at a tricky time, so close to the launch of the Cybertruck.

Master of Coin

Kirkhorn, CFO since early 2019 and has worked for the company for 13 years, thanked top executive Elon Musk for his leadership on the social networking site Linkedln.

“Being part of this company is a special experience,” he wrote. “I am extremely proud of the work we have done together.” Kirkhorn, who held the official job title of Master of Coin, will continue to induct successor Vaibhav Taneja, the current Chief Accounting Officer, until the end of the year.

Taneja started in 2016 as vice president of accounting at Solar City, a solar energy company acquired by Tesla. Afterward, he became an assistant business controller at Tesla and then Chief Accounting Officer.

Guessing at the reason for the dismissal

The management change comes as a surprise to market experts and creates additional uncertainty in a turbulent time. However, you cannot blame Kirkhorn for doing his job badly. When he took the CFO job in 2019, Tesla was valued at 50 billion dollars; today, it’s worth 773 billion dollars, according to Forbes.

Since Musk never comments on the resignation of his staff, the real reason for Kirkhorn’s dismissal is anyone’s guess. On X, the former Twitter, it is rumored that the top executive disagreed with Musk on some aspects of strategy.

Tesla is still by far the largest manufacturer of EVs in its US home market but faces increasingly fierce competition around the world. As a result, the company recently implemented hefty price cuts, for instance.

Another reason could be that Kirkhorn may have been told that he was not a contender for the CEO position. In any case, the resignation falls at a busy time for Tesla: the Cybertruck will be launched next month.

Cage fight

And what about Musk? Meanwhile, he’s gearing up for a ‘Cage Match’ with Mark Zuckerberg, the CEO of Facebook’s parent company Meta. The fight between the two tech billionaires – Musk initially challenged Zuckerberg to a physical battle in June, and Zuckerberg agreed – should occur at the end of this month.

Apart from being direct competitors, the two CEOs are also outright enemies. They have constantly criticized each other over the years, and in July, Zuckerberg launched Threads, a new social medium, as a direct competitor to X.

But possibly a neck and back operation that Musk is due to undergo may still throw a spanner in the works. The 52-year-old Musk will soon get an MRI, he writes on his own platform. Musk will know this week whether the surgery will stand in the way of a fight.

The entrepreneur has been suffering from severe back pain for some time. If Elon Musk and Mark Zuckerberg fight each other, the duel will be broadcast live on X. Proceeds from the fight will be donated to US Army veterans.