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Elon Musks drive to slash costs at Tesla is hitting almost every corner of the company, from senior-level executives to summer interns just weeks away from employment.

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Joshua Schreiber, a student at Miami University, was set to start his summer internship with Tesla in just three weeks and said he already spent thousands of dollars on housing. Now, hes looking for a new gig.

At 8:46am, I opened a Tesla email for flight info, he wrote on LinkedIn on Wednesday, in a post first reported by Bloomberg. By 11:25am, my internship offer was gone.

The unexpected cancellation comes at a rough time for college students looking for summer jobs to occupy their time, make some cash if theyre paid programs and get valuable experience. Most universities are wrapping up the spring semester and many applications across fields have already closed, making nabbing a new job difficult.

Teslas decision to rescind summer internships has affected students looking to learn and work with teams across the company, from megapack production and human resources to corporate sustainability. Diana Rosenberg, who works in battery supply at Tesla, asked her LinkedIn network to help one intern-to-be find a new summer position to support their career.

Please make our loss your gain! Rosenberg wrote.

Musk on April 15 announced that Tesla would move to cut more than 10% of the companys 140,000 people global employees, including its marketing team, as part of cost-cutting measures. Musk had reportedly pushed to lay off about 20% of the company an amount, he reasoned, that would match Teslas sales decline between the fourth quarter of 2023 and the first quarter of 2024.

As we prepare the company for our next phase of growth, it is extremely important to look at every aspect of the company for cost reductions and increasing productivity, Musk told workers in a memo last month, before announcing the imminent layoffs. There is nothing I hate more, but it must be done.

Its unclear how much money Tesla will save from revoking intern offers, but its unlikely to be a lot. Some internships are for unpaid positions, while paid interns usually make $18 to $28 per hour, according to Glassdoor. Over 3,000 students are hired for internship and apprenticeships each year, according to Teslas 2022 impact report.

Earlier this week, Tesla laid off the majority of its 500-person Supercharger division. Rebecca Tinucci, a six-year veteran of the company overseeing the division, has also left Tesla. At least five other high-profile executives have either already resigned or plan to later this year, including Tesla leaders overseeing investor relations, human resources, and public policy.

Behind all of these cuts is Musks move into wartime CEO mode to reassure investors skeptical of his promises and Teslas Full Self-Driving technology. Also on the table is Musks $47 billion pay package, which will be voted on by shareholders over the summer. Several stockholders, including Teslas biggest retail shareholder, have expressed their opposition to reapproving the package, which was struck down by a judge in Delaware earlier this year.

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Elon Musk's Tesla layoffs slam everyone from interns to executives - Quartz

Shares of Tesla rallied Monday after the electric vehicle makers CEO, Elon Musk, paid a surprise visit to Beijing over the weekend and reportedly won tentative approval for its driver-assistance software.

Muskmet with a senior government official in the Chinese capital Sunday, just as the nations carmakers are showing off theirlatest electric vehicle modelsat the Beijing auto show.

According to The Wall Street Journal, which cited anonymous sources familiar with the matter, Chinese officials told Tesla that Beijing has tentatively approved the automakers plan to launch its Full Self-Driving, or FSD, software feature in the country.

Although its called FSD, the software still requires human supervision. On Friday, the U.S. governments auto safety agency said it is investigating whetherlast years recallof Teslas Autopilot driving system did enough to make sure drivers pay attention to the road. Tesla has reported 20 more crashes involving Autopilot since the recall, according to the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration.

At the close of trading, shares of Austin, Texas-based Tesla surged more than 15%its biggest one-day jump since February 2020adding roughly $82 billion to its market capitalization. For the year to date, shares are still down 22%.

Tesla has been contending with its stock slide and slowing production. Last week, the company said itsfirst-quarter net incomeplunged by more than half, but it touted a newer, cheaper car and a fully autonomous robotaxi as catalysts for future growth.

Wedbush analyst Dan Ives called the news about Chinas FSD approval a home run for Tesla and maintained his Outperform rating on the stock.

We note Tesla has stored all data collected by its Chinese fleet in Shanghai since 2021 as required by regulators in Beijing, Ives wrote in a note to investors. If Musk is able to obtain approval from Beijing to transfer data collected in China abroad this would be pivotal around the acceleration of training its algorithms for its autonomous technology globally.

Originally posted here:

Tesla gains roughly $82 billion on 15% stock surge as top analyst sees 'home run' deal for Elon Musk in China - Fortune

xAI, Elon Musks 10-month-old competitor to the AI phenom OpenAI, is raising $6 billion on a pre-money valuation of $18 billion, according to one trusted source close to the deal. The deal which would give investors one quarter of the company is expected to close in the next few weeks unless the terms of the deal change.

The deal terms have changed once already. As of last weekend, Jared Birchall, who heads Musks family office, was telling prospective investors that xAI was raising $3 billion at a $15 billion pre-money valuation. Given the number of investors clamoring to get into the deal, those numbers were quickly adjusted.

Says our source, We all received an email that basically said, Its now $6B on $18B, and dont complain because a lot of other people want in.

Investors whove been lobbying to get into the deal for months hardly minded. Sequoia Capital and Future Ventures, the venture fund co-founded by Musks longtime friend Steve Jurvetson, are participating in the round.

Other participants are likely to include Valor Equity Partners and Gigafund, whose founders are also part of the inner circle of Musk, who famously blends the personal and the private. (Outreach to these investors went unreturned; xAI does not have a press function.)

Jurvetson sits on the board of SpaceX and was a director at Tesla until 2020. Gigafund co-founder Luke Nosek, who previously co-founded Founders Fund with investor Peter Thiel, was the first venture investor to write a check to SpaceX and has sat on its board since. Valor founder Antonio Gracias was among the earliest investors in Tesla; like Jurveston, hes a former Tesla director and is also on the board of SpaceX.

Our source said its not entirely clear to every other investor who is in the deal because of the way the commitments were garnered. Its a Zoom call and its just you and Elon and Jared [on the other side] at a table with some engineers.

The pitch, says this individual, is captivating.

xAIs marketing literature already makes clear that the outfits ambition is to connect the digital and physical worlds, but it may not be widely understood that Musk plans to do this by pulling in training data from each of his companies, which include Tesla, SpaceX, his tunneling outfit Boring Company, and Neuralink, which develops computer interfaces that can be implanted in human brains.

Of course, another of Musks companies is X. The social media platform has already incorporated xAIs months-old chatbot, Grok, into the platform as a paid add-on. Yet thats just one piece of what Musk tells investors will become a sprawling virtual cycle.

With Grok, for example, X is both a customer and provides Grok with massive distribution. Eventually (goes the pitch), Grok will be fed data from Musks other companies, helping it to master the physical world in potentially endless ways, starting with truly self-driving cars.

Another likely beneficiary would be Teslas humanoid robot, Optimus. Today the Tesla robot is still in the lab, but Musk told analysts on a call earlier this week that Optimus will be able to perform tasks in Teslas factories by the end of this year. Even if that timeline proves ambitious, these slick assistants may be able to do more and faster than previously imagined if Musks overarching vision plays out.

In the meantime, the most immediate beneficiary of xAIs burgeoning momentum may be X itself. Though the platform has become something of a toxic cesspool in the 1.5 years since Musk bought it and subsequently lost much of its value, Musk had already seen to it that X owns a stake in xAI, so it will benefit from whatever upside the AI outfit sees.

What it all means for OpenAI which became the fastest growing startup in history last year is an open question. Musk has had OpenAI in his crosshairs since the companys surge began, following the release of its ChatGPT chatbot.

Musk cofounded OpenAI in 2015 and left its board in 2018 over disagreements about the direction of the outfit, which began life as a nonprofit and later evolved into a for-profit entity. Musk has since publicly harangued OpenAI cofounder Sam Altman and poked fun at the brand, proposing that it instead call itself ClosedAI.

Last month, when Musk open sourced the architecture of xAIs earliest chatbot Grok-1, meaning that anyone can now download and alter it, the move was another part of his ongoing campaign to distinguish his efforts from OpenAI, which has not shared its secret sauce with the world, and which Musk is now suing.

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xAI, Elon Musks OpenAI rival, is closing on $6B in funding and X, his social network, is already one of its shareholders - TechCrunch

Claim:

Elon Musk has invested $1 billion dollars into actors Mel Gibson and Mark Wahlbergs "un-woke" production company.

On April 24, 2024, Esspots.com published an article with the headline, "Breaking: Elon Musk Invests $1 Billion in Mel Gibson and Mark Wahlberg's New Un-Woke Production Studio." The article posited that the billionaire wanted to support projects that aligned with this vision, and the studio was committed to "traditional values" and "non-woke" content.

The article said:

Musk, renowned for his innovative ventures in technology and space exploration, expressed his enthusiasm for this new creative endeavor, citing a desire to support projects aligned with his vision for cultural authenticity and creative freedom. The collaboration between Musk, Gibson, and Wahlberg represents a fusion of Silicon Valley ingenuity with Hollywood craftsmanship, aiming to challenge prevailing industry norms.

The decision to back this un-woke production studio underscores Musk's broader interest in disrupting traditional paradigms across various sectors. Known for his outspoken views on culture and society, Musk has frequently critiqued the prevailing narrative in mainstream media and entertainment, advocating for a return to more genuine, relatable storytelling.

The Facebook page associated with the website, SpaceX Fanclub, also shared a post with the same headline on April 21, 2024, adding the article in the comments section days later. Many commenters under the post believed what it was saying, with statements like, "You are a Good Man Elon. So is Mel Gibson and Mark Wahlberg."

(Facebook user SpaceX Fanclub)

However, the above story originates from a site that describes itself as satirical in nature. SpaceX Fanclub's introduction section states, "We post SATIRE, nothing on this page is real."

Esspot.com's "About Us" page states:

Welcome to the US page of Esspots (A Subsidiary of SpaceXMania.com specializing in Satire and Parody News), your one-stop destination for satirical news and commentary about the United States of America. Our team of writers and editors is dedicated to bringing you the latest and greatest in fake news and absurdity, all with a healthy dose of humor and satire.

On this page, you can expect to find all sorts of hilarious stories and parodies about US politics, culture, and society. From outrageous conspiracy theories to outlandish political stunts, we've got it all covered.

The site also has a disclaimer, which says:

Welcome to Esspots.com, a website that specializes in satire, parody, and humor. Before you proceed to read our content, we would like to emphasize that nothing on this website is real. All of the articles, stories, and commentary found on Esspots.com are entirely fictitious and created for the purpose of entertainment only.

This is not the first time we've covered related satirical stories from Esspots.com. The site has previously falsely claimed that Wahlberg and Gibson were starting a "non-woke" production studio while declaring "Hollywood is saved." It also falsely wrote that Wahlberg refused to work with Tom Hanks, saying the latter was a "woke creep."

For background, here is why we sometimes write about satire/humor.

"About Us." Esspots, https://esspots.com/about-us/. Accessed 25 Apr. 2024.

"Disclaimer." Esspots, https://esspots.com/disclaimer/. Accessed 25 Apr. 2024.

Izzo, Jack. "Mark Wahlberg Refused To Work with Tom Hanks on $65M Movie?" Snopes, 19 Apr. 2024, https://www.snopes.com//fact-check/mark-wahlberg-refused-work-tom-hanks-woke/.Accessed 25 Apr. 2024.

Rascout-Paz, Anna. "Mark Wahlberg and Mel Gibson Are Launching 'Non-Woke' Film Studio?" Snopes, 4 Apr. 2024, https://www.snopes.com//fact-check/gibson-wahlberg-non-woke-production/.Accessed 25 Apr. 2024.

Robin, Alex. "Breaking: Elon Musk Invests $1 Billion in Mel Gibson and Mark Wahlberg's New Un-Woke Production Studio." Esspots, 21 Apr. 2024, https://esspots.com/breaking-elon-musk-invests-1-billion-in-mel-gibson-and-mark-wahlbergs-new-un-woke-production-studio/.Accessed 25 Apr. 2024.

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Elon Musk Invested $1B Into Mel Gibson and Mark Wahlberg's 'Un-Woke' Production Studio? - Snopes.com

Tesla has hardly been keeping quiet as it prepares to announce earnings on Tuesday.

Shares in the carmaker are down in premarket trading on Monday after the company announced further cost cuts and a recall of its ballyhooed Cybertruck model over the past few days. These developments are the latest signs that Tesla is confronting its toughest stretch in years and many shareholders arent convinced that the company and its C.E.O., Elon Musk, are taking the right steps to address it.

The latest: During the weekend, Tesla cut prices of several models in China, the U.S. and Europe. The company also reduced the price of its driver-assistance software, known as Full Self-Driving (which doesnt actually allow for fully autonomous driving).

Those moves came a day after Tesla voluntarily recalled nearly 4,000 Cybertrucks over a faulty accelerator pedal that could get stuck.

Its all apparently keeping Musk so busy that he canceled a trip to India, during which he was expected to meet with Prime Minister Narendra Modi and announce plans to build a factory there.

The moves came after an event-filled week for Tesla. The company had already announced that it was laying off 10 percent of its work force and that it was asking shareholders to again approve a multibillion-dollar payout for Musk that a Delaware judge had voided.

Markets arent sure the carmaker is on the right track. The cost cuts are only the latest announced in recent months, as Tesla tries to reverse a sales slump while rivals are taking market share. Analysts are especially worried about softening demand in China, a wider E.V. slowdown in the U.S., and that the price reductions are hurting global profit without juicing sales.

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How Can Elon Musk Reassure Tesla Investors? - The New York Times