New Chief Twit Elon Musk Pulls More than 50 Tesla Employees to Join Twitter

Jace Dela Cruz, Tech Times 31 October 2022, 10:10 pm

The new "Chief Twit," Elon Musk, has pulled more than 50 of his trusted Tesla workers, who are mostly software engineers of the Autopilot team, to take part in his Twitter acquisition, according to a report by CNBC.

(Photo : JIM WATSON/AFP via Getty Images)
Elon Musk shows his Texas belt buckle as he speaks during a press conference at SpaceX's Starbase facility near Boca Chica Village in South Texas on February 10, 2022.

From Tesla to Twitter

The CEO of Tesla and SpaceX completed the $44 billion Twitter takeover deal on Friday, Oct. 28. He immediately fired the CEO, CFO, and heads of the policy and legal teams of the social media company. He has also dissolved Twitter's board of directors.

Internal documents obtained by CNBC show that workers from Musk's other companies, including more than 50 from Tesla, two from the Boring Company, and one from Neuralink, are now permitted to work at Twitter.

Some of Musk's close friends, advisers, and financial backers are also participating, including Jared Birchall, the head of his family office, Jason Calacanis, an angel investor, and David Sacks, the first chief operational officer of PayPal and a venture capitalist.

James and Andrew Musk, who previously worked for Palantir and Neuralink, respectively, will be joining the blue bird app as well.

Among the employees that the billionaire enlisted from Tesla are Ashok Elluswamy, director of software development; Maha Virduhagiri, senior director of software engineering; Milan Kovac, director of Autopilot and TeslaBot engineering; Pete Scheutzow, senior staff technical program manager; and Jake Nocon, senior manager of security intelligence and a member of Tesla's surveillance unit.

Nocon has previously worked for Uber and Nisos, a security firm with a large contract with Tesla to track down and uncover insider risks to the corporation.

Elon Musk's Pressure

Several Twitter employees told CNBC over the weekend that he is also pressuring them to swiftly learn everything they can about Twitter, including the source code, content moderation guidelines, and data protection regulations, so he can overhaul the network.

Musk's previous statement showed that he was a free speech absolutist but at the same time he will have to contend with laws and practical commercial considerations to advance his free expression goals.

A day before he took over the social media company, he wrote an open letter to advertisers saying: "Twitter obviously cannot become a free-for-all hellscape, where anything can be said with no consequences."

It is still unknown how Tesla workers will divide their time between the automaker and Twitter. CNBC noted that typically when Tesla employees work for other companies of Musk, such as SpaceX or the Boring Company, they can be compensated by those companies as consultants.

It is worth noting that some of the billionaire's workers hold full-time positions at more than one of his companies. For instance, Charlie Kuehmann is the vice president of materials at Tesla, and he holds the same position at Space X as well.

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Written by Jace Dela Cruz