Tesla Chief Executive Elon Musk stands on the podium as he attends a forum on startups in Hong Kong, China.
Bobby Yip | Reuters
Elon Musk has run two ambitious tech companies at the same time ever since he became chair and later CEO of electric vehicle maker Tesla while also leading SpaceX, his reusable rocket and satellite internet business.
He went on to launch a computer-brain interface startup, Neuralink, and a drilling business called Boring Co. in 2017, and is in the midst of a contentious lawsuit with Twitter over a buyout gone awry.
With his attention divided, Musk relies on a large team of deputies more than 20 people today to keep business rolling at Tesla. His cast of direct reports shifts often with strategic or organizational changes, occasional "spot firings" by the mercurial CEO, and resignations.
Here are the direct reports we know about as of September 2022. The data was gathered from interviews with current and recent Tesla employees, LinkedIn profiles, internal and public records from Tesla, and may not include all of the people who report to him.
Headcount numbers are approximate and refer to the number of people each of Musk's direct reports was managing as of early September.
About 22% of the CEO's direct reports are now based in Texas, around half are still based in California, and more than 90% are men.
Musk will need to lean on these deputies as Tesla works to bring its new factories in Gruenheide, Germany, and Austin, Texas, to full production, and to demonstrate progress on his many other goals.
Musk has told shareholders and fans that Tesla will "solve Full Self-Driving" this year, improve vehicle service and repairs, and start deliveries of the experimental Cybertruck pickup by midyear 2023. He also said that Tesla would shore up its battery-manufacturing capabilities to be able to produce 100 gigawatt-hours worth of 4680 batteries on its own this year, enough to power more than 1 million of its cars.
Musk's direct reports have also recently needed to navigate through headcount reductions amid uncertain economic times.
The CEO abruptly announced a steep cut to the Tesla workforce at the end of May during a challenging second quarter that was marked by Russia's invasion of Ukraine and Covid-19 outbreaks in China.
In June, Tesla closed an entire Autopilot office in San Mateo, California, and dismissed at least some employees who were previously authorized for remote work but who did not agree to an order by Musk to work at a Tesla office at least 40 hours per week. The CEO cited a"super bad feeling"about the economy in an e-mail to Tesla staff in June.
Tesla's former senior director of artificial intelligence, Andrej Karpathy, was not among those who Musk laid off or fired, however he announced his resignation from the company formally in July. Autopilot leader Ashok Elluswamy is reporting directly to Musk for the time being.
Other Musk direct reports who parted ways with Tesla in 2022 have included former Nevada Gigafactory VP Chris Lister, as CNBC previously reported, and Jean Frazier, who was Tesla's senior director of employee relations, according to internal documents viewed by CNBC.
David Searle, who previously headed up Tesla's legal department, is still employed there, records indicate. Insiders said they expect Searle to leave in coming months as he previously managed more than a dozen employees, and now has only one direct report listed on internal organization charts.
According to public and internal records, Senior Director of Legal Dinna Eskin is now acting as the manager of Tesla's legal department and is effectively the company's general counsel. Tesla hasn't employed a person with the title of general counsel officially since late 2019.
Read this article:
Elon Musk has more than 20 direct reports at Tesla here are the ones we know about - CNBC
- Elon Musk bought Twitter because the account tracking his private jet annoyed him, book says - Quartz - February 16th, 2024 [February 16th, 2024]
- Elon Musk Says Employees Are 'More Productive' in the Office. A New Study Says He's Wrong - Inc. - February 16th, 2024 [February 16th, 2024]
- Elon Musk, fuming over $55 billion Tesla pay ruling, switches Neuralink incorporation from Delaware to Nevada - Fortune - February 16th, 2024 [February 16th, 2024]
- SpaceX files to move incorporation site from Delaware to Texas - CNBC - February 16th, 2024 [February 16th, 2024]
- Top labor economist says dont believe the AI doom narrativeand his reason why is the underpopulation crisis Elon Musk talks about - Fortune - February 16th, 2024 [February 16th, 2024]
- Elon Musk to his sycophant pet journalist Matt Taibbi: "You are dead to me" - Boing Boing - February 16th, 2024 [February 16th, 2024]
- Ukraine Says Russia Is Using Starlink at the Front Line, Prompting Pushback From Elon Musk - The Wall Street Journal - February 16th, 2024 [February 16th, 2024]
- Elon Musk opposes aid to Ukraine, says Putin can't lose Bloomberg - Yahoo News - February 16th, 2024 [February 16th, 2024]
- Musk ordered to testify again in SEC investigation of Twitter takeover - The Guardian - February 16th, 2024 [February 16th, 2024]
- Tesla Stock Is Up Again. What's the Latest News. - Barron's - February 16th, 2024 [February 16th, 2024]
- Who killed Twitter? - Platformer - February 16th, 2024 [February 16th, 2024]
- Ex-Twitter engineer says Musk wrongly fired him for leaking information to the press - Business Insider - February 16th, 2024 [February 16th, 2024]
- How Teslas Board Can Solve Its Elon Musk Problem Without Overpaying - Barron's - January 23rd, 2024 [January 23rd, 2024]
- Elon Musk: Diversity-based hiring is antisemitic - POLITICO Europe - January 23rd, 2024 [January 23rd, 2024]
- Elon Musk Backs Prediction of 1 Billion Humanoid Robots by 2040 - Elon Musk Backs Prediction of 1 Billion Humanoid ... - IoT World Today - January 23rd, 2024 [January 23rd, 2024]
- Elon Musk, CEO of X, to visit Poland amidst online antisemitism uproar - NBC News - January 23rd, 2024 [January 23rd, 2024]
- Elon Musk expresses shock about the Holocaust after Auschwitz visit that was incredibly moving, and deeply sad and tragic that humans could do this to... - January 23rd, 2024 [January 23rd, 2024]
- Elon Musk says he is 'Jewish by Association' after Auschwitz visit - USA TODAY - January 23rd, 2024 [January 23rd, 2024]
- MrBeast's first video on X made $263,000 in win for Elon Musk's creator dreambut the YouTube star dismissed the ... - Yahoo Finance - January 23rd, 2024 [January 23rd, 2024]
- Elon Musks satellite army has a new target: Connecting the $183 billion farm industry to high-tech ag tools - Fortune - January 23rd, 2024 [January 23rd, 2024]
- Everything Elon Musk Did During His Visit To Auschwitz - The Onion - January 23rd, 2024 [January 23rd, 2024]
- Elon Musk visits Auschwitz after uproar over antisemitic messages on X - The Guardian - January 23rd, 2024 [January 23rd, 2024]
- Elon Musk visits Auschwitz with Ben Shapiro - The Jerusalem Post - January 23rd, 2024 [January 23rd, 2024]
- At Auschwitz, Musk says social media, free speech would have prevented extermination - The Times of Israel - January 23rd, 2024 [January 23rd, 2024]
- Musk on visiting Auschwitz: It will take a few days to sink in - Forward - January 23rd, 2024 [January 23rd, 2024]
- Stellantis CEO warns of EV bloodbath and race to the bottom if car makers follow Elon Musks lead and start cutting prices - Fortune - January 23rd, 2024 [January 23rd, 2024]
- Elon Musk says audits show less antisemitism on X than other apps - Fox Business - January 23rd, 2024 [January 23rd, 2024]
- Musk vs. Zuckerberg: Elon seems to envy the other CEO's Meta control - Business Insider - January 23rd, 2024 [January 23rd, 2024]
- Elon Musk With Ben Shapiro in Auschwitz: Another Cynical Whitewashing Performance - Haaretz Today - Haaretz - January 23rd, 2024 [January 23rd, 2024]
- Elon Musk visits Auschwitz after uproar over antisemitic messages on X - South China Morning Post - January 23rd, 2024 [January 23rd, 2024]
- Following Auschwitz visit, Elon Musk says X could have saved Jews from the Holocaust - JTA News - Jewish Telegraphic Agency - January 23rd, 2024 [January 23rd, 2024]
- Will Elon Musk's xAI Be The Downfall Of OpenAI After Sam Altman's Betrayal and Ousting? - Yahoo Finance - January 23rd, 2024 [January 23rd, 2024]
- Elon Musk Surprisingly Reacts to Bitcoin's Epic Surge By U.Today - Investing.com - January 23rd, 2024 [January 23rd, 2024]
- Elon Musk visits Auschwitz amid uproar over antisemitic messages - Business Insider - January 23rd, 2024 [January 23rd, 2024]
- MrBeast reveals his first video on X made $263,000but the YouTube multi-millionaire dismissed the cash as a facade and is giving it away - Fortune - January 23rd, 2024 [January 23rd, 2024]
- Elon Musk Just Demanded 25 Percent of Tesla Stock. Here's Why That's Not as Crazy as It Sounds - Inc. - January 23rd, 2024 [January 23rd, 2024]
- Elon Musk lays wreath at Auschwitz after private tour with Ben Shapiro and European rabbi - Baptist News Global - January 23rd, 2024 [January 23rd, 2024]
- Elon Musk denies AI startup has raised $500M of $1B goal - Fox Business - January 23rd, 2024 [January 23rd, 2024]
- Elon Musk's Tesla Confronts 'Black Cloud': Q4 Earnings Must Draw 'Line In The Sand Around Margins,' Analy - Benzinga - January 23rd, 2024 [January 23rd, 2024]
- Elon Musk visits Auschwitz, says he was 'naive' about antisemitism: 'Two-thirds of my friends are Jewish' - New York Post - January 23rd, 2024 [January 23rd, 2024]
- Elon Musk pledges to fund any Irish legal challenges to hate speech legislation - The Irish Times - January 23rd, 2024 [January 23rd, 2024]
- X appears to be juicing MrBeast's views as Elon Musk tries to woo the YouTuber to the platform - Mashable - January 23rd, 2024 [January 23rd, 2024]
- Elon Musk Wants You to Use Neuralink to Lose Weight. That's a Bad Idea. - The Daily Beast - December 27th, 2023 [December 27th, 2023]
- Twitter Violated Contract by Withholding Employee Bonuses, Judge Rules - The Daily Beast - December 27th, 2023 [December 27th, 2023]
- How Elon Musk Made Himself the Internet's Main Character in 2023 - Vanity Fair - December 27th, 2023 [December 27th, 2023]
- Elon Musks X Breached Twitter Worker Contracts By Refusing Bonuses, Judge Rules - Forbes - December 27th, 2023 [December 27th, 2023]
- Elon Musk's X accused of not paying employee bonuses after promising them verbally, to face court battle - India Today - December 27th, 2023 [December 27th, 2023]
- How Elon Musk became the world's most famous poster - Business Insider - December 27th, 2023 [December 27th, 2023]
- Sam Altmans OpenAI to be second-most valuable U.S. startup behind Elon Musks SpaceX based on early-talks funding round - Fortune - December 27th, 2023 [December 27th, 2023]
- Judge rules that Twitter violated contract when it withheld millions of dollars in bonuses - Courthouse News Service - December 27th, 2023 [December 27th, 2023]
- Elon Musk reveals production plans of low-cost Tesla model: The revolution [of] that car will blow peoples minds - Yahoo - December 27th, 2023 [December 27th, 2023]
- Tesla in 2024 will have 'moving pieces' from the Cybertruck to EV pricing - Austin American-Statesman - December 27th, 2023 [December 27th, 2023]
- Hyperloop, Elon Musks Pipe Dream, Bites the Dust - Rolling Stone - December 27th, 2023 [December 27th, 2023]
- The best books that CEOs read in 2023 from Airbnbs success story to Elon Musks biography - Fortune - December 27th, 2023 [December 27th, 2023]
- Elon Musk's Feud With Disney CEO Bob Iger Spills Over to Tesla - Observer - December 27th, 2023 [December 27th, 2023]
- Musk and Tesla are battling unions across Scandinavia. What comes next in the labor dispute? - The Associated Press - December 27th, 2023 [December 27th, 2023]
- From AI and inflation to Elon Musk and Taylor Swift, the business stories that dominated 2023 - The Associated Press - December 27th, 2023 [December 27th, 2023]
- Elon Musk Calls It 'Insane' -- But What Does the World Think? - Inc. - December 27th, 2023 [December 27th, 2023]
- How Donald Trump and Elon Musk killed Twitter, with Marty Baron and Zoe Schiffer - The Verge - December 27th, 2023 [December 27th, 2023]
- Hyperloop One to Shut Down After Failing to Reinvent Transit - Bloomberg - December 27th, 2023 [December 27th, 2023]
- Tesla Stock 2024 Forecast: Will the Elon Musk-Run Company Break Out to New Highs? - Nasdaq - December 27th, 2023 [December 27th, 2023]
- 49% of Americans dislike tech billionaires, but you probably still want to be like themhere's why, say experts - CNBC - December 27th, 2023 [December 27th, 2023]
- Startup that tried to realize Musk's hyperloop dream is shuttering - Business Insider - December 27th, 2023 [December 27th, 2023]
- The year of social media soul-searching: Twitter dies, X and Threads are born and AI gets personal - The Associated Press - December 27th, 2023 [December 27th, 2023]
- Elon Musk wants Grok to be the 'funniest' AI chatbot - Business Insider - December 27th, 2023 [December 27th, 2023]
- Musk's Erratic Behavior May Be Caused By Escalating Drug Use, Associates Say - The Daily Beast - August 24th, 2023 [August 24th, 2023]
- Keith Lee pitches Mr. Beast fight on Elon Musk vs. Mark Zuckerberg card - MMA Fighting - August 24th, 2023 [August 24th, 2023]
- Elon Musk Is Apparently Making the US Government Quite Nervous - Futurism - August 24th, 2023 [August 24th, 2023]
- Elon Musk Says He 'Looks Forward' To Visiting India In 2024 - Benzinga India - August 24th, 2023 [August 24th, 2023]
- Elon Musk, Sundar Pichai Applaud Chandrayaan-3's Landing on ... - The Weather Channel - August 24th, 2023 [August 24th, 2023]
- Tesla CEO Elon Musk still isn't ready to release hard information on ... - Longview News-Journal - August 24th, 2023 [August 24th, 2023]
- Mark Zuckerberg vs Elon Musk: clash of the tech egos - Financial Times - July 9th, 2023 [July 9th, 2023]
- "I Look..": How Elon Musk Reacted To His Viral Childhood Pic - NDTV - July 9th, 2023 [July 9th, 2023]
- Elon Musk believes Tesla will have 'level 4 or 5' self-driving this year ... - Electrek - July 9th, 2023 [July 9th, 2023]
- Arnold Schwarzeneggers Son Already Gives Up, Amid Elon Musk and Mark Zuckerberg Rigorously Hustling to Outdo Each Other: Honestly Dont Think I Have It... - July 9th, 2023 [July 9th, 2023]
- Elon Musk Responds To His Parody Account's "Lizard Boy" Tweet - NDTV - July 9th, 2023 [July 9th, 2023]
- Musk sues law firm for $135m bill on Twitter deal - The Australian Financial Review - July 9th, 2023 [July 9th, 2023]
- `Insane`: Elon Musk Reacts To His Viral Baby Picture, Netizens Say This - Zee News - July 9th, 2023 [July 9th, 2023]
- Mark Zuckerberg Trolls Elon Musk Over Threads With First Tweet ... - The Daily Beast - July 9th, 2023 [July 9th, 2023]
- An Elon Musk-Controlled Charging Network Imperils The EV ... - Jalopnik - July 9th, 2023 [July 9th, 2023]