The global economy apparently has the world’s wealthiest man pretty concerned.
An email with “pause all hiring worldwide” in the headline was reportedly sent to executives at electric-car giant Tesla
TSLA,
Reuters reported late Thursday.
In the email, Chief Executive Elon Musk said he had a “super bad feeling” about the economy, and that employee headcount needed to be cut by 10%. Tesla employed around 100,000 people at the end of 2021, according to its annual SEC filing. Tesla did not immediately respond to a request for comment.
Musk’s apparent economic gloom comes on the heels of attention-grabbing comments by JPMorgan Chase
JPM,
Chairman and Chief Executive Jamie Dimon, who warned of a looming economic hurricane, from rate hikes, the war in Ukraine and inflation.
The report comes on the heels of an apparent demand by Musk for workers to return to the office or leave the company.
Tesla shares have dropped 26% so far in 2022, amid a technology-led rout for the U.S. stock market. The EV maker has struggled to get its Shanghai factories back online amid COVID lockdowns since late March in the major Chinese city that Bloomberg reports have cost the company 40,000 lost units.
And while still the world’s richest man, Musk’s personal fortune has dropped by $42.9 billion this year, leaving him with $227 billion, according to Bloomberg’s Billionaire Index.
Tesla shares were down 2.6% in premarket trading after closing up 4.6% to $776 a share on Thursday, amid a broad-market rally.
