Tesla's Hiring Surge 800 New Employees Amidst Shifts in Focus and Stock Surge

TapTechNews July 16th news, Tesla is hiring nearly 800 new employees, just three months after CEO Elon Musk issued the company's largest-ever layoff order.

In recent weeks, according to Bloomberg analysis, some new positions have gradually appeared on Tesla's recruitment page, covering various types from AI experts to service positions.

The increase in recruitment positions coincides with the surge in Tesla's stock price. In just the past 14 trading days, Tesla's market capitalization has increased by more than $223 billion (TapTechNews note: currently about 1.62 trillion yuan). Except for the day when it was reported that Tesla decided to postpone the release of the self-driving taxi prototype, Tesla's stock price has risen almost every day. Elon Musk confirmed on Monday that he asked for design changes to the self-driving taxi and gave the team developing the vehicle additional time.

Although these 800 positions are not many compared to the thousands of positions Tesla laid off this year, and publicly available positions may not fully reflect the company's recruitment situation, but these new positions still give us a glimpse into some of the priorities of Musk's company.

In May this year, Tesla failed to meet vehicle sales expectations and suffered the largest decline in history, and there were only three recruitment positions on its website at that time. Bloomberg reported that the 20% drop in quarterly deliveries prompted Musk to promote the corresponding staff reduction, which would mean laying off about 28,000 of the company's more than 140,000 employees at the beginning of the year.

Now, many of the positions the company is hiring are focused in the fields of artificial intelligence and robotics, and the products in these fields include Tesla's humanoid robot Optimus. At least 25 positions are related to self-driving development or Autopilot, and at least 30 positions are focused on the Optimus robot. As Tesla prepares to release the self-driving taxi prototype in October, the company is strengthening its determination to pursue self-driving technology for many years.

This recruitment boom seems also aimed at replenishing personnel in areas where Tesla has cut too much staff, and also reflects Musk's vision for the company. He previously said that he now views Tesla more as an artificial intelligence, robotics and sustainable energy company rather than an electric vehicle company.

In mid-May, Tesla quietly posted 17 artificial intelligence and robotics-related positions in its Palo Alto, California office. By July 10th, this number had steadily climbed to about 130 positions.

Tesla's recruitment page also lists dozens of energy-related positions in cities such as Palo Alto, California and Las Sop, where Tesla builds the large battery Megapack, covering related work from engineering positions to installing Megapack and solar products.

The customer-facing department of Tesla is also replenishing staff. On July 15th, Tesla listed 268 service-related positions, including 77 maintenance technicians, far more than any other position or department. The company also opened more than 60 sales and customer support positions.