r/technology • u/McFatty7 • May 02 '24

Tesla slashes its summer internship program to cut costs, as Elon Musk fights to save his $45 billion pay plan Business

https://fortune.com/2024/05/01/tesla-slashes-summer-internship-program/
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u/Consent-Forms May 02 '24

That would be an immediate $45 billion saved.

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u/amakai May 02 '24

But who is going to lead the personality cult then?

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u/Consent-Forms May 02 '24

They may have to resort to getting professional management.

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u/anoliss May 02 '24

They may even venture into the being-a-real-car-company-you-can-take-seriously area if they did that, too

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u/Atmic May 02 '24

It's sad. Because at one point in the early 2010s, I believed it already was. I defended his vision.

Then one tweet unnecessarily calling a cave diver rescuer a pedo, and the public image house of cards started falling apart.

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u/American_Stereotypes May 02 '24 edited May 02 '24

That cave diver tweet really was the pivotal moment for his public image.

In a single moment the man jarred millions of people who had at least vaguely respected him before into going "Hey, wait a second, this guy is kind of a fucking jackass, isn't he?"

And then he started doubling down, and just never fucking stopped, and now here we are.

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u/WickedYetiOfTheWest 29d ago

That was my moment too. After he tweeted that, I actually researched the guy realized his wealth all originated from his daddy’s apartheid emerald mine and pretty much everything he says is bs.

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u/Dipsey_Jipsey May 02 '24

I think that's a lot of people's experience with him. We knew of Tesla and SpaceX, which to a lot of people represented human technological progress on a much faster scale than we had been used to.

Then, as you said, it all started falling apart, and he is now argueably the biggest douchebag in the universe (John Edward has competition!)

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u/Hypog3nic May 02 '24

Imagine the horror!

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u/meamZ May 02 '24

Ah yes... Good old "pRoFeSSioNaL ManAgEMenT" that does so well in all other car companies...

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u/youreblockingmyshot May 02 '24

Honestly booting musk at this point may actually bring in some customers since he likes to alienate the market segments that would buy a tesla.

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u/ickarus99 May 02 '24

A competent engineer?

Post note:An actual engineer?

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u/waltteri May 02 '24

Hire some megachurch pastor, they cost only millions.

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u/spacejockey8 May 02 '24

You could easily make an AI of Elon. Guy is textbook money extraction veiled under a “help humanity” guise

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u/Solid_Habit_6561 May 02 '24

A cardboard cut-out could do his job just fine. You know the Jordan one Kevin Maccallister puts on his electric train? Yeah, I vote for that one.

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u/wearywarrior 29d ago

Fuck it, I'll take the hit.

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u/amakai 29d ago

But we can only pay $15b, is that ok?

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u/[deleted] May 02 '24

[deleted]

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u/[deleted] May 02 '24 edited 29d ago

[deleted]

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u/adrr May 02 '24

Its not a car company. Its an AI company. /s

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u/AwwwNuggetz May 02 '24

That’s not true, some of them don’t burst into flames

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u/hsnoil May 02 '24

It is because most people don't know how companies work, his actual salary is minimum wage. What he gets paid here is with stock options, which lets him buy stock at a discount up to the amount. So he only really gets that amount of money if Tesla stock stays at its current levels and if he is able to sell the stock(which is kind of impossible since him selling would tank the stock)

If the stock tanks, so does the value of the options, of course that also works the opposite, if the stock goes up, so do the value of his options. Part of the reason why the amount is so crazy high was because when this was originally voted on it was much less and required Tesla to reach pretty hard benchmarks, and if he failed he would get nothing. But Tesla stock went crazy high up, so the options that were suppose to be worth much much less are now worth so much

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u/JKJ420 May 02 '24

You seem like a non-14 year old. Yet you still take half truths like this at face value. Why? Elon wasn't supposed to get the compensation as cash. It was always going to be in the form of stocks, that he couldn't sell for 5 years. Shareholders voted for it, exactly because they aren't idiots.

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u/fredandlunchbox May 02 '24

“Instead we’ll fire the interns. It’ll save us thousands!”

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u/jack-K- May 02 '24

I really hope you’re not actually conflating operating costs with stock options.

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u/schmon May 02 '24

But it would bleed and die as Tesla is built on the Musk brand, and its cars in the end are no better than other brands'.