Tesla CIO Quits Before Major Robotaxi Event, Exec Departures Continue in 2024

In the latest slew of departures, Tesla Inc TSLA veteran leader quit ahead of its Robotaxi event on October 10 at Warner Bros. Discovery Inc’s WBD movie studio lot in Burbank, California.

Chief Information Officer Nagesh Saldi joined Tesla in 2012 from HP Inc HPQ and gradually became the CIO in 2018.

Saldi reported directly to Tesla chief Elon Musk, and Bloomberg cited familiar sources.

Also Read: Tesla Recalls 27,185 Cybertruck Vehicles Over Rearview Camera Delay

Saldi is credited with building Tesla’s new data centers in Texas and New York.

In 2024, several executive departures occurred since Musk announced a downsizing, surpassing 10% of its staff.

In May, Tesla’s head of product launches, Rich Otto, resigned from the company after seven years.

Otto’s exit coincided with the resignation of the senior director of charging infrastructure, Rebecca Tinucci, the director of new product introduction, Daniel Ho, and the senior vice president of powertrain and energy engineering, Drew Baglino.

Artificial intelligence Manager Paril Jain also exited in the same month after seven years to join The Bot Company, which he co-founded.

Also, in May, Cybertruck manufacturing head Renjie Zhu resigned after five years. Tesla started delivering the Cybertruck in November.

In August, Tesla’s Vice President of Finance and Business Operations, Sreela Venkataratnam, who is credited with ramping vital models, departed after eleven years.

Tesla’s stock has been down close to 6% in the last 12 months due to industrywide demand weakness and competition from lower-priced electric vehicles.

Tesla Stock Prediction For 2024

When buying a stock for a longer time horizon, it is important for investors to assess where they think the stock is headed in the future.

When mapping a stock's future trajectory, investors should consider factors including the future earnings expectations and expected performance against a benchmark.

Tesla's revenue has grown at an average rate of 41.16% annually over the past 5 years. The average 1-year price target from analysts is $226.86, representing an expected -8.53% downside in 2025.

While past performance is not a guarantee of future results, investors should also look at a stock's historical performance when compared to both a benchmark index and the company's peers. Shares of Tesla have seen an annualized return of -2.61%, underperforming the S&P500 index by 12.46%. This compares to 3.79% growth in the overall Consumer Discretionary sector. Tesla has a beta of 0.62.

Price Action: TSLA stock is up 3.33% at $248.67 at last check on Friday.

Also Read:

• Tesla Q3 Deliveries ‘Step In The Right Direction’: Analyst Says More ‘Heavy Lifting’ Needed From Elon Musk To Turn Growth Story Around

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