How Microsoft Swallowed Its Pride to Make a Massive Bet on OpenAIRead more

Tesla CEO Elon Musk. Photo: AP

Tesla’s Musk Takes Charge of Model 3 Production as Problems Persist

Photo: Tesla CEO Elon Musk. Photo: AP

Tesla’s struggles to manufacture its flagship Model 3 electric sedan reached a boiling point last week, prompting CEO Elon Musk to take direct control of the division producing the vehicles, according to two people briefed on the matter.

The move came after Tesla failed to hit its goal of making about 500 Model 3 sedans per day, or 2,500 per week, by the end of March. Mr. Musk appears to have pushed aside the company’s senior vice president of engineering, Doug Field, who had been overseeing manufacturing in recent months. Until the move by Mr. Musk, Mr. Field had been consolidating power since joining Tesla from Apple in 2013. Mr. Musk had given Mr. Field several chances to raise output, but the company has repeatedly missed its Model 3 production targets over the past year, including after Mr. Field took over manufacturing.

Access on the go
View stories on our mobile app and tune into our weekly podcast.
Join live video Q&A’s
Deep-dive into topics like startups and autonomous vehicles with our top reporters and other executives.
Enjoy a clutter-free experience
Read without any banner ads.
Microsoft's Satya Nadella, left, and Peter Lee. Photo by Bloomberg, Microsoft
Exclusive
How Microsoft Swallowed Its Pride to Make a Massive Bet on OpenAI
Satya Nadella didn’t want to hear it. Last December, Peter Lee, who oversees Microsoft’s sprawling research efforts, was briefing Nadella, Microsoft’s CEO, and his deputies about a series of tests Microsoft had conducted of GPT-4, the then-unreleased new artificial intelligence large-language model built by OpenAI.
What'll you have? Expensify CEO and founder David Barrett has high hopes for his workspace-cafe-lounge concept in San Francisco. Art by Clark Miller
The 1:1 culture
A Lounge, an Office and a Strike Against Silicon Valley’s ‘Factory Mentality’
On May 9, Expensify issued a quarterly earnings report that even its likable longtime CEO couldn’t soften.
Art by Mike Sullivan
startups asia
Venture Capitalists Face Pressure to Divest From China
Silicon Valley venture capitalists are coming to terms with a new reality: Their once-prized China investments may be victims of a simmering cold war.
From left, Major League Pickleball owners Dude Perfect, Heidi Klum, Eva Longoria, Gary Vaynerchuk, Mark Cuban, Naomi Osaka, Kate Upton, David Dobrik, LeBron James and Tom Brady. Photo-composite by Clark Miller. Gary Vaynerchuk by Michael Nagle/Bloomberg, Kate Upton by Humberto Vidal, Lebron James by Ashley Landis-Pool/Getty Images.
The Big Read culture
The Hot New Trophy Asset: A Pro Pickleball Team
It was power lunch hour in midtown Manhattan and Central Park’s new pickleball courts had filled up with the type of sporty executives who once preferred to talk business over 18 holes of golf.
Graphic by Shane Burke. Photos via Shutterstock/Wikimedia.
facebook
How Meta’s Acquisition of Giphy Went South
When a U.K. antitrust regulator initially ordered Meta Platforms to sell Giphy 18 months ago, it hoped to ensure that the startup—a library for animated images known as GIFs—would prosper as an independent company.
Chart by Mike Sullivan.
Data Point enterprise
Enterprise Software’s Laggards: Firms Growing Slowly And Still Burning Cash
It’s the age-old refrain in American business: You have to spend money to make money. And it’s particularly true of the tech industry, where startups pour millions into untested new businesses and technologies.
Cookies on The Information
We use cookies for a number of reasons, such as keeping The Information reliable and secure, personalizing content and ads, providing social media features and to analyze how our sites are used.