Ilon Musk’s business empire has been hit by a series of departures of senior executives in the last year, as relentless demands and political activism of the billionaire accelerate the renewal of staff to the Hierarchy’s upper levels.

Senior executives of the Tesla Sales Group in the US, the battery and engines, the Public Relations Department and the Company’s IT manager have recently left, as well as key members of the robotics groups Optimus and Artificial Intelligence, in which Mask has bet.

The turmoil was even more intense in XAI, the newly established Musk artificial intelligence company, which it merged with the social network X in March. The Director of Finance and the Company’s General Advisor recently retired after a brief term, with one week apart.

These moves are part of a massive departure from the richest man in the world, managing five companies, from SpaceX to Tesla, with more than 140,000 employees. The Financial Times spoke with more than twelve current and former employees to better understand what is happening.

While many were happy after a long term to establish newly established businesses or take breaks in their careers, there was also an increase in those who resigned due to exhaustion or frustration from MASK’s strategic changes, mass redundancies and policy.

Burnout

“The only stable in the world’s world is how quickly it exhausts its deputies,” said one of the billionaire advisers. “Even the board is joking by saying that there is time and there is ‘Tesla time’. It is a work ethics that looks like a job 24 hours a day, 7 days a week. Not everyone is made for it, “he said.

Robert Keele, XAI’s general adviser, finished his 16 -month term in early August by posting a video created by artificial intelligence, in which a suit in a suit shouts while shoveling melted carbon. “I love my two little kids and I don’t see them enough,” he commented.

Mike Liberatore remained three months as Xai’s CFO before he was sent and goes to Mask’s unspeakable opponent, Sam Altman at Openai. “102 days, 7 days a week in the office, 120+ hours a week. I like to work hard, “he told LinkedIn.

Top executives of the company said MASK’s pressure has intensified with the circulation of Chatgpt at the end of 2022, which upset the established order of things at Silicon Valley.

Employees also believe that Mask’s rivalry with Altman -with whom he co -founded Openai before they disagree -is the cause of the pressure on staff.

“Ilon is blurred by Chatgpt and devotes every moment of his day trying to get Sam out of the market,” said a senior official who left.

Last week, XAI accused its competitor of “stealing” engineers in order to “plunder and misappropriate” the code and secrets of its data center. Openai described the lawsuit as “the last chapter of MASK’s ongoing harassment”.

Other employees pointed out concern for Mask’s support for Donald Trump and the defense of far -right ideologies in the US and Europe.

They said that some employees were afraid of difficult discussions with their families about Mask’s polarizing views on all issues, from transsexual rights to the murder of conservative activist Charlie Kerk.

Musk, Tesla and Xai refused to comment.

Massive departures from Tesla

Tesla was traditionally the most stable part of the MASK Group. However, many of its top executives left after the abolition of 14,000 jobs in April 2024. Some withdrawals were caused by MASK’s decision to withdraw investments from new electric vehicles and batteries, which many employees considered it to be the basic of the company to send the company to reduce the company and to reduce the company, Robic.

Mask canceled a program for the construction of a $ 25,000 low -cost electric car, which could be sold in emerging markets -which was named within the NV -91 company and Model 2 of its fans on the internet, according to five people familiar with the subject.

Daniel Ho, who helped oversee the project as director of vehicles and referred directly to Mask, retired in September 2024 and joined the Google Autonomous Taxi Division Waymo.

Public Politics Rohan Patel and Hasan Nazar and the head of Engine and Energy Units Drew Baglino also resigned after the change of direction. Rebecca Tinucci, head of the Transcontinental Department, went to Uber after dismissing the entire team by Musk and slowing down the rapid charge stations.

In late summer, David Zhang, who was responsible for the release of Model Y and Cybertruck models, left. Cio Nagesh Saldi left in November.

Vineet Mehta, a company veteran with 18 years of service, described by a colleague as “critical to all batteries”, resigned in April. Milan Kovac, in charge of the Optimus Human Robotics Program, left June.

This month followed by Ashish Kumar, head of the Optimus AI team, who moved to Meta. “The financial benefits in Tesla were significantly greater,” Kumar wrote in X in response to reviews that he had left for the money. “Tesla is known for her very good earnings, long before Zakeberg does it.”

In the midst of the sharp decline in sales -which many attribute to the alienation of Mask’s liberal customers -Omead Ashfar, a close associate known as the “firefighter” and “executor” of the billionaire, was fired from the position of Chief of Sales. Ashfar’s Deputy Troy Jones followed him shortly after, finishing 15 years of service.

“Ilon’s behavior affects morale, maintenance and recruitment,” said one of his long -term associate. “He went through a place where people of all classes liked him, in a place where only some like him.”

Few of those who leave criticize Mask for fear of retaliation. However, Giorgio Balestrieri, who worked for Tesla for eight years in Spain, is one of the few who spoke publicly, stating this month that he resigned because he believed Mask had caused “huge damage to Tesla’s mission and the health of democratic institutions”.

“I love Tesla and the time I spent there,” said another who recently left. “But there is no one to think about politics. Who in the good wants to tolerate this? I receive phone calls at least once a week. My advice is, if your moral compass tells you that you have to leave, that won’t change, “he noted.

However, Tesla President Robyn Denholm said: “There are always titles for people who are leaving, but I do not see titles for joining people.
The power of our human resources is excellent … In Tesla we are really well developing people and we are still attraction for talents. ”

Departures from X and XAI

In XAI, some employees have reacted to the relaxed approach that MASK seems to have in terms of user safety, as it is in a hurry to release new artificial intelligence functions to compete with Openai and Google. During the summer, the Chatbot Grok incorporated on X praised Adolf Hitler, after Mask ordered changes to make it less “progressive”.

The former CFO Liberatore was among the executives who came into conflict with the close circle of MASK on corporate structure and strict economic goals, according to people who know the subject.

“The faithful of the sidelines who display his characteristics, dismiss people and make decisions about security that I find are very worrying to internal partners,” one of the people added.

The Wall Street Journal published for the first time some details of the internal diamonds.

Linda Yaccarino, X’s chief executive, resigned in July after XAI was absorbed by the social media platform. He was disappointed by MASK’s unilateral decisions and his criticism of advertising revenue.

Co -founder and head engineer, Igor Babuschkin, resigned a month later to establish his own research program for the safety of artificial intelligence.

Communications Dave Heinzinger and John Stoll have worked for three and nine months respectively on X before returning to their previous employers, according to people familiar with the subject.

X also lost a number of senior engineers and employees of the Department of Products directly reporting to MSK and helped to complete the integration with XAI.

These include the head of the Haofei Wang Department of Engineering and the Patrick Traughber’s consumer and payment department. Uday Ruddarraju, who oversees Xai’s Xai Infrastructure Engineering, and Infrastructure Engineer Michael Dalton were hired by Openai.

Musk shows no sign of retreat. XAI’s “Ani Bot” has sparked controversy over sexually clear interactions with teenage users of the Grok application. However, the owner of the company has installed an Ani hologram in the Xai lobby to welcome staff.

“He is the boss, Alpha, and whoever does not deal with him finds a way to eliminate him,” said a former Tesla official.

“It has no shades of gray, it calculates everything and is concentrated … It makes it difficult to cooperate. But if you agree with the ultimate goal and you can smile and endure it, there is no problem. Many people do it, “he noted.