Earlier today (August 7), Elon tweeted that he had the option to go private at $420 a share, a decent amount over their current stock price. The tweet is here:

Am considering taking Tesla private at $420. Funding secured.
— Elon Musk (@elonmusk) August 7, 2018

Elon Musk has been under fire from investors and critics for a long time now, complaining that he is using up too much cash, or mishandling certain business operations among other things.

Many investors are betting that his stock and his company will fall, which is why TSLA is now one of the most shorted stocks ever (people who short the stock will gain money from the stock falling).

Musk put a lot of this hate to rest in his most recent quarterly results, in which he well outperformed expected earnings and results and propelled his company forward. So, on the back-end of all of this, Musk was likely very fed up with all the public was saying about his company and how his stock led Tesla to be treated as a short-term way to make some money.

His tweet, and later leaked email to employees hinted at this being the reason, but was more about making the best decision for the company moving forward. To mitigate all the issues with going private, he is promising that current employee shareholders will be able to either keep their stock or sell it off without any consequences.

This same option applies to longer-term investors. If Musk thinks that this is the way to go, I support him because he's got a record of success when he does things his own way.