Elon Musk covered everything from the state of his deal to buy Twitter Inc. to the direction of the American economy and planned job cuts at Tesla Inc. in an appearance at the Qatar Economic Forum Tuesday.
The chief executive officer of Tesla and Space Exploration Technologies Corp. even waded into US politics, saying that he was yet to decide who to back in the next presidential election when asked directly if he鈥檇 consider supporting Donald Trump.
Wearing a white shirt and grey suit jacket, the world鈥檚 richest man was articulate and to the point in the video link-up, fielding a raft of questions over the 20-minute discussion.
Here are the top things Musk spoke about in an interview with Bloomberg News Editor-in-Chief John Micklethwait:
鈥楿nresolved matters鈥� remain on Twitter deal
鈥淭here is the question of, will the debt portion of the round come together and then will the shareholders vote in favor,鈥� Musk said.
The billionaire said last month that he was putting the takeover 鈥渙n hold鈥� while he investigated how many of Twitter鈥檚 users were real people, and later filed a formal letter with the Securities and Exchange Commission in which he told Twitter executives he might walk away from the deal if the company didn鈥檛 do more to prove the actual size of its user base.
Musk told the forum on Tuesday he would focus on 鈥渄riving the product鈥� at Twitter, though he doesn鈥檛 necessarily plan to be the CEO.
US recession 鈥渋nevitable鈥� at some point
The electric-car pioneer told Tesla executives earlier this month that he had a 鈥渟uper bad feeling鈥� about the economy, according to an internal email seen by Reuters. Seeking to quell a surge in living costs, the Federal Reserve accelerated its monetary-tightening campaign last week with its biggest interest-rate increase since 1994.
A recession in the US is inevitable at some point, he said Tuesday. 鈥淎s to whether there is a recession in the near-term, that is more likely than not.鈥�
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Tesla job cuts
鈥淭esla is reducing its salaried workforce roughly 10% over the next three months or so,鈥� Musk said, reiterating plans revealed in an email earlier this month. 鈥淲e expect to grow our hourly workforce. We grew very fast on the salaried side, grew a little too fast in some areas.鈥�
But he also provided more clarity on the employee-reduction plans Tuesday, saying the cuts will result in an overall reduction of some 3% to 3.5% in total headcount at Tesla, as hourly staff numbers are still expected to grow, Musk said.
Tesla, now headquartered in Austin, Texas, has grown to about 100,000 employees globally, hiring rapidly as it built out new factories in Austin and Berlin. The cuts, which have affected human resources representatives and software engineers, caught many by surprise, with several employees told they were being terminated immediately.
鈥淎 year from now, I think our headcount will be higher鈥� in salaried and hourly workers, he added.
Supply chain issues
Supply constraints are the biggest brake on Tesla鈥檚 growth, rather than competition from rival automakers.
鈥淥ur constraints are much more in raw materials and being able to scale up production,鈥� he said.
Musk earlier this month said the EV pioneer has had a 鈥渧ery tough quarter鈥� as it struggles with supply-chain snags and urged workers to help get production back on track.
鈥淎s anyone knows who has tried to order a Tesla, the demand for our cars is extremely high and the wait list is long,鈥� he said. 鈥淭his is not intentional and we鈥檙e increasing production capacity as fast as humanly possible.鈥�
Trump and US politics
Asked whether he would support Trump in the next US presidential election: 鈥淚鈥檓 undecided at this point on that election.鈥�
His comments are significant as last week Musk indicated that he was leaning toward supporting Florida Governor Ron DeSantis, who has positioned himself as a staunch conservative and heir apparent to Trump.
Musk said last week that he voted Republican for the first time in the primary election in Texas.
Praising China
Musk has long had a cosy relationship with China, including being the only foreign automaker allowed to wholly own its local operations there and receiving support for its Gigafactory near Shanghai.
Asked Tuesday whether he sees any issue with balancing his Tesla interests in China with the future acquisition of Twitter, Musk said the social-media and discussion platform doesn鈥檛 operate in the country and 鈥淐hina does not attempt to interfere with the free speech of the press in the US, as far as I鈥檓 aware.鈥�
He went on to praise Chinese firms, saying 鈥淚 am very impressed with the car companies in China, just in general companies in China. I think they鈥檙e extremely competitive, hard-working and smart.鈥�
Qatar鈥檚 Ministry of Commerce and Industry, Qatar Investment Authority and Investment Promotion Agency Qatar are the underwriters of the Qatar Economic Forum, Powered by Bloomberg. Media City Qatar is the host organisation.
