Elon Musk has run two ambitious tech companies simultaneously since becoming chairman and then CEO of electric vehicle maker Tesla while running SpaceX, his internet business with reusable rockets and satellites.
Elon Musk founded the brain-computer interface startup Neuralink and a drilling company called Boring Co. in 2017. And is in the midst of a controversial legal battle with Twitter over the failed purchase.
With his attention divided, Musk is relying on a large replacement team more than 20 at the moment to keep Tesla’s business afloat. Its direct reporting team frequently rotates with strategic or organizational changes. Occasional “fires in the field” by the living CEO, and resignations.
The following is a live report we know of as of September 2022. Data is collected from interviews with current and new Tesla employees, LinkedIn profiles. And internal and public Tesla records and may not include all individuals who report to them.
The number of employees is an estimate and reflects the number of employees each of Musk’s direct subordinates had in early September.
About 22% of direct reporting CEOs are based in Texas. About half are still in California, and more than 90% are men. Musk will need to count on this replacement as Tesla works to bring his new plants in Grünheide, Germany, and Austin, Texas, into full production and demonstrate progress on many other goals.
Musk told shareholders and fans alike that this year Tesla will “fully enable self-driving vehicles. Improve vehicle service and repair, and begin deliveries of experimental Cybertruck pickup trucks by mid-2023. He also said Tesla is expanding its capabilities to produce 4,680 batteries. It is worth 100 gigawatt-hours this year, enough to power its more than 1 million cars.
Musk’s direct employees have also recently had to deal with downsizing in uncertain economic times.
The CEO announced a sudden sharp cut in Tesla’s workforce at the end of May. During a challenging second quarter marked by Russia’s invasion of Ukraine and the Covid-19 outbreak in China.
In June, Tesla closed its entire Autopilot office in San Mateo, California, laying off at least some employees. Who were previously qualified to work remotely but disagreed with Musk’s order of at least 40 hours a week in Tesla’s offices to work. The CEO cited a “very bad feeling” about the economy in an email to Tesla employees in June.