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Tesla is looking to hire more than 800 workers in the U.S. to fill positions in everything from construction and manufacturing to artificial intelligence and robotics, some three months after it initiated a wave of mass layoffs.
In April, Tesla began laying off thousands of workers across its worldwide operations, affecting just about every division in the company. At least six executives, including its senior director of human resources and senior vice president of powertrain and energy, left the company as the layoffs kicked off.
About 14% of the company, or around 19,600 workers, were laid off, according to CNBC. Tesla also issued what appeared to be a hiring freeze, taking down thousands of job postings at least twice since layoffs began.
“With [Tesla’s] rapid growth there has been duplication of roles and job functions in certain areas,” CEO Elon Musk wrote to employees as he informed them of job cuts.
Now, the company appears ready to put new blood to work. The new positions have slowly appeared on Tesla’s careers webpage over the last few weeks, according to Bloomberg News, which first reported the openings.
At least 64 positions are listed as working in AI and robotics projects, including Tesla’s Optimus robots and Dojo supercomputer. Musk has said Tesla will spend “well over $1 billion” on Dojo, which the company plans to use to process the massive amount of data its electric vehicles collect.
Musk recently promoted the potential value Tesla’s Optimus robots may have on the stock, describing a hypothetical that could see the product add $20 trillion to the company’s market capitalization. The robots aren’t expected to go on sale until the end of 2025 and are expected to eventually sell for between $20,000 and $30,000. The CEO in June predicted that Tesla will have more than 1,000 robots working at Tesla in 2025.
At least 25 jobs listed on Tesla’s careers page are related to Autopilot or self-driving technology development. An autonomous fleet of Tesla “robotaxis” are expected to be a major moneymaker for Tesla in the future. Musk has described launching a network that’s a “combination of Airbnb and Uber,” since owners can opt their cars into the service at their leisure.
However, Tesla has delayed its planned unveiling of the technology by two months and now plans to hold its product demonstration in October. Musk on Monday said he requested an “important design change to the front” and that the extra time allows Tesla to show off “a few other things.”
The plans play into Musk’s long-held belief that Tesla will achieve full self-driving autonomy, something he’s promised repeatedly over the years — and failed to accomplish. In recent months, Musk has taken to calling Tesla an “AI/robotics and sustainable energy company,” not an electric vehicle maker.
Tesla’s career page also has dozens of energy-related jobs and internships. When it reported second-quarter deliveries earlier this month, Tesla said it hit its highest quarterly deployment of energy storage products, 9.4 gigawatt hours. The energy business, a somewhat overlooked part of the company, may begin to have a more significant influence on earnings — and the stock.
“We believe investors will begin to pay more attention to Tesla Energy which we value at $36 per Tesla share ($130bn) as the business uniquely positioned to benefit from investment in the US electric grid accelerated by the AI boom,” Morgan Stanley analyst Adam Jonas wrote earlier this month.