Elon Musk has said that 10 percent of jobs will disappear in Tesla
Tesla CEO Elon Musk said a 10 percent cut in pay at the electric car maker will come in three months as the world’s richest man predicted a US recession was more likely than not.
His comments were his most detailed explanation of the job cuts plans and his first personal appearance since Reuters reported early this month that the company had to cut its workforce by about 10 percent and halt hiring worldwide.
Speaking at the Qatar Economic Forum hosted by Bloomberg, Musk said the cuts would only apply to salaried workers, meaning a 3.5 percent reduction in the total workforce, changes he described as “not super material.”
But he expressed concern about the prospect of a recession in the US.
“It’s not a certainty, but it seems more likely than not,” he said.
Mr. Musk’s outlook reflects comments from executives, including Jamie Dimon, CEO of JPMorgan Chase & Co and John Waldron, president of Goldman Sachs. A “hurricane is right there on the road heading our way,” Mr Dimon said early this month.
Whether the United States will slip into recession has been a growing concern for chief executives, the Federal Reserve and the Biden administration.
US President Joe Biden reiterated Monday that he believed a recession in the US was not inevitable, even as the world’s largest economy struggles to deal with rising gasoline prices and inflation, which are at their highest in 40 years.
Former US Treasury Secretary Lawrence Summers told NBC News on Sunday that he expected a recession.
In a June 2 email seen by Reuters, Mr. Musk told Tesla executives that he had a “super bad feeling” about the economy and that the company needed to cut its workforce by about 10 percent and cut “all hires globally.” stop”.
He said Tuesday that Tesla expected to increase the number of employees per hour rather than fixed salaries.
He also said that he was sticking to digital currencies and intending to back dogecoin personally.
Digital currencies have been extremely volatile this year, but bitcoin rose following Tesla’s announcement in February last year that it had bought $1.5 billion of the currency and accepted it as payment for vehicles for a short time.
‘VERY IMPORTANT MATTER’ UNSOLVED ON TWITTER DEAL
Elon Musk also spoke about his offer to buy Twitter, which Forbes magazine reported early this month agreed to buy for $44 billion.
Mr. Musk said there were unresolved issues, including the debt portion of the deal and the number of spam users.
“We’re still waiting for a resolution on that matter, and that’s a very important thing,” he said, reiterating his doubts about Twitter’s claims that fake or spam accounts represented less than 5 percent of daily active users that earn revenue. can be generated.
“And then, of course, there’s the question of whether the debt portion of the round will come together? And will shareholders vote in favour?”
Mr. Musk said he would like to get 80 percent of North America and half of the world on Twitter.
“My ambition for Twitter is to be as inclusive as possible,” he said.
The most important thing was to steer the company in the right direction, as with his private rocket company SpaceX and Tesla, he said.
“Whether I’m CEO is much less important than my ability to steer the product in the right direction,” he said.
(Except for the headline, this story was not edited by DailyExpertNews staff and was published from a press release)
