Dissatisfaction Over Workload, Strategic Shifts, and Political Activities
The Financial Times (FT) has reported that key executives at companies led by CEO Elon Musk, including Tesla and xAI, are leaving in succession. This is due to growing employee fatigue over Musk's leadership style and political activities.
FT interviewed 12 current and former employees and analyzed that senior executives are leaving because of Musk's relentless demands and political involvement, which have fueled internal dissatisfaction. The report also noted that departures have increased due to burnout, frequent strategic shifts, and large-scale layoffs.
One of Musk's advisors pointed out the excessive workload, saying, "Even at the board level, people joke that there is a separate 'Tesla time.'"
In particular, the pace of executive departures at Musk's artificial intelligence (AI) company xAI is notable. Recently, both the Chief Financial Officer (CFO) and the legal counsel resigned in quick succession. Mike Liberatore, who served as xAI's CFO for just three months, moved to OpenAI, which is led by Musk's biggest rival, CEO Sam Altman. On LinkedIn, he wrote about the culture of working seven days a week and more than 120 hours per week. Robert Kille, who served as xAI's legal counsel, also resigned last August, stating that although he loves his two children dearly, he found it difficult to see them often.
xAI employees reported that the workload intensified after OpenAI launched ChatGPT. Musk co-founded OpenAI with Altman, but after their split, the two became competitors. A senior official who recently left xAI said, "Elon is obsessed with ChatGPT and is spending every waking moment trying to bring Sam down."
Even at Tesla, considered the most stable among Musk-led companies, there has been a notable exodus of senior executives. In April 2024, many left when 14,000 jobs were cut. This was due to a shift away from investments in electric vehicles and batteries, and a greater focus on robotics, AI, and autonomous robotaxis.
Daniel Ho, who served as director of vehicle programs and reported directly to Musk, left Tesla in September last year to join Waymo, Google's autonomous taxi division. Rohan Patel and Hasan Nazar, executives in charge of public policy, and Drew Baglino, who led the powertrain and energy division, also resigned due to changes in business direction. Rebecca Tinucci, who led the Supercharger (high-speed charging) division, moved to Uber after Musk fired her entire team and delayed the construction of charging stations.
David Zhang, who oversaw the launch of the Model Y and Cybertruck, left last summer, and Chief Information Officer (CIO) Nagase Saldi resigned in November last year. Vinit Mehta, a key figure in the battery business, and Milan Kovac, who led the Optimus humanoid robot program, also left the company.
Last month, Ashish Kumar, the leader of the Optimus AI team, moved to Meta. Although there was speculation that Kumar left because of salary issues, he denied this on the social networking service X (formerly Twitter).
As Tesla sales plummeted, Musk's close aide Omid Afshar was dismissed from his position as head of North American sales and operations, and Troy Jones, a 15-year veteran who worked with him, also resigned.
Musk's political activities, such as supporting former U.S. President Donald Trump and endorsing far-right groups in the United States and Europe, have also been major reasons for resignations. Employees said they found it difficult to discuss Musk's comments on LGBTQ rights and his views on the incident involving conservative commentator Charlie Kirk with their families.
Giorgio Ballestrieri, who unusually criticized Musk publicly after resigning, said he left because he believed Musk had done significant harm to Tesla's mission and to the health of democracy. He had worked at Tesla for eight years.
A longtime associate of Musk commented, "Elon's behavior is affecting morale, talent retention, and recruitment. He used to appeal to all kinds of people, but now he only appeals to certain groups."
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