DOHA – Elon MuskCEO of Teslasaid the reduction of 10% of salaried employees at tram production will take place in three months, as the richest man in the world predicts a US recession more likely than not.
His comments were the most detailed explanation of the job cuts and his first appearance since Reuters. report At the beginning of this month, the company needed to cut staff by about 10% and was halting hiring worldwide.
Speaking at the Qatar Economic Forum hosted by Bloomberg, Musk said the cuts would apply only to salaried workers, meaning a 3.5% reduction in total staff, changes he described is “not metaphysical”.
But he expressed concern about the prospect of a US recession.
“It’s not a sure thing, but it seems more likely than not,” he said.
Musk’s outlook echoed comments from executives, including JPMorgan Chase & Co CEO Jamie Dimon and Goldman Sachs President John Waldron. A “storm just out of the way is coming our way,” Dimon said in the first day of this month.
Whether the US falls into a recession is a growing concern among executives, the Federal Reserve, and the Biden administration.
WE President Joe Biden on Monday reiterated that he feels a US recession is not inevitable, even as the world’s largest economy struggles to cope with soaring gasoline prices and inflation. is at a 40-year high.
Former US Treasury Secretary Lawrence Summers told NBC News on Sunday that he expected a recession.
In an email on June 2, seen by Reuters, Musk told Tesla executives he had “extremely bad feelings” about the economy and that the company needed to cut staff by about 10% and “pause all worldwide hiring”.
He said on Tuesday Tesla expects to increase the number of workers who are paid hourly rather than fixed wages.
He also said he is sticking with the digital currency and intends to personally support dogecoin.
The digital currency has been extremely volatile this year, but bitcoin surged after Tesla’s announcement last February that it had purchased $1.5 billion in the currency and accepted it as payment. payment for the means of transport in a short time.
‘Very important matter’ unresolved in Twitter deal
Elon Musk also talked about the attempt to acquire Twitter, which Forbes magazine reported earlier this month that he had agreed to buy for $44 billion.
Musk said there are unresolved issues, including the debt portion of the deal and the number of spam users.
“We’re still pending on that, and it’s a very important one,” he said, reiterating doubts over Twitter’s claims that spam or false accounts represent less than 5% Daily active users can earn.
“And of course, the question is, will the debt portion of the circle come together? And then the shareholders will vote in favor?”
Musk said he wants to have 80% of North America and half of the world on Twitter.
“My desire for Twitter is to be as inclusive as possible,” he said.
The most important thing, he said, is to get the company on track, as at private rocket company SpaceX and Tesla.
Whether I’m CEO or not is less important than being able to get the product on track, he said.
(Additional reporting by Nadine Awadalla in Dubai and Hyunjoo Jin in San Francisco; Writing by Saeed Azhar; editing by Jason Neely and Barbara Lewis)
