Tesla (TSLA) denied a recent report by The Wall Street Journal that the electric vehicle maker's board was looking for a new chief executive to replace Elon Musk.

The Wednesday report claiming that Tesla's board had contacted recruitment firms to begin a CEO search "is absolutely false," Chair Robyn Denholm said in a statement posted on the company's official X account. "The CEO of Tesla is Elon Musk and the board is highly confident in his ability to continue executing on the exciting growth plan ahead," Denholm wrote.

Replying to Denholm's post, Musk said, "it is an extremely bad breach of ethics that the @WSJ would publish a deliberately false article and fail to include an unequivocal denial beforehand by the Tesla board of directors!"

The WSJ report quoted unnamed sources as saying that board members began reaching out to headhunting firms about a month ago to find Musk's replacement. Board members told Musk that he needed to spend more time at Tesla as its profits and stock price were sinking, according to the report.

Tesla shares were up 0.4% in recent premarket activity Thursday after closing 3.4% lower Wednesday.