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Linda Yaccarino is just the latest top Elon Musk lieutenant to leave businesses

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“After two incredible years, I’ve decided to step down as CEO of 𝕏,” Yaccarino wrote on X Wednesday. “When @elonmusk and I first spoke of his vision for X, I knew it would be the opportunity of a lifetime to carry out the extraordinary mission of this company. I’m immensely grateful to him for entrusting me with the responsibility of protecting free speech, turning the company around, and transforming X into the Everything App.” 

Yaccarino joined X in June of 2023, and was at the company for two years. She joined X after decades in the media and advertising industry, with long stints at NBC and Turner Broadcasting System. Former colleagues previously told Fortune that she stood out as a gritty executive who was adept at managing difficult clients and “stood up to a lot of misogyny.”

It’s not clear why Yaccarino is departing X, although the social media platform has certainly had its share of troubles since Musk took over. Many users have left the platform since Musk took over in 2022, and competitors like Bluesky have become more popular over the past year. Just this week, a chatbot released by Elon Musk’s AI company called Grok shared anti-Semitic posts on X. The chatbot’s account on X later posted: “We are aware of recent posts made by Grok and are actively working to remove the inappropriate posts.”

Yaccarino, however, is only the latest high-profile Musk lieutenant to step away from his business empire over the past several months, which have been particularly volatile. These are the other Musk lieutenants who have recently parted ways with the mogul.  

Omead Afshar, former head of sales in North America and Europe at Tesla
Departure: June 2025
A former top aide to Musk, Afshar left Tesla last month. He ran sales and operations in North America and Europe, but was also seen as a proxy for Musk when he was away from the company, according to the Wall Street Journal

Jenna Ferrua, former director of HR at Tesla
Departure: June 2025

Ferrua reportedly left Tesla last month after spending seven years at the carmaker. Her LinkedIn profile does not reflect any change in her employment status.

Milan Kovac, ex-head of the Optimus humanoid robot team at Tesla 
Departure: June 2025
Kovac was “the brains behind CEO Elon Musk’s trillion-dollar dream of a robot future,” Fortune wrote when the executive announced he was leaving Tesla last month. Kovac, who worked at Tesla for nine years, said he was going to spend time with his family. 

Vineet Mehta, former head of battery architecture at Tesla
Departure: May 2025
The former 18-year Tesla veteran recently left the company of his own accord, he wrote on LinkedIn, though his departure came as a surprise to many

Mark Westfall, former head of mechanical engineering at Tesla Energy
Departure: April 2025

Westfall spent a decade at Tesla before leaving four months ago. “It’s hard to put into words what Tesla has meant to me – I never imagined the places this job would take me, or the impact I would be able to have,” he wrote in his departure post on LinkedIn. He’s now the director of engineering at Redwood Materials. 

Brett Weitz, former global head of content, talent, and brand sales at X
Departure: June 2025
Weitz called his time at X “one hell of a ride” when he acknowledged his departure on LinkedIn last month. The veteran media executive had previously worked at WarnerMedia and Turner before joining X in 2023. Deadline reported that Weitz had spearheaded X’s Originals documentary-style video series and launched video podcasts, including Khloé Kardashian’s Khloé in Wonderland.

David Lau, former vice president of software engineering at Tesla
Departure: April 2025
Lau’s reported departure earlier this year was described as “abrupt.” He had worked at the EV maker for 12 years. Lau has been credited with changing the way software was managed inside cars after he pioneered a superior experience for the user at Tesla.  

Dave Heinzinger, former head of media strategy at X 
Departure: March 2025
Heinzinger’s term at X could be measured in “Scaramuccis.” The ex-head of media strategy lasted four months in the role before resigning for personal reasons in March. In an interview with Axios, he praised Yaccarino’s knack for recruiting top talent on his way out the door. “I can say that Linda is building one of the most impressive teams in the world. The influx of talent has been incredible, and the platform is stronger, more innovative and more consequential than ever,” he said. He’s now the president of Haymaker Group, a PR firm in New York where he had worked for six years before jumping to X.

Haofei Wang, former head of product engineering at X
Departure: March 2025
Wang, who joined Twitter in July 2021, left X in March for unknown reasons, according to The Verge. (Wang’s LinkedIn profile still states that he is an employee at X.) Like others on this list, Wang worked closely with Musk, and reportedly acted as buffer and communication conduit between Musk and the engineering department. Before joining the social media site, he was the vice president of engineering at the streamer Tubi. 

Tom Ochinero, former vice president of commercial business at SpaceX 
Departure: February 2024
A former VP at Musk’s Space company, Ochinero is one of very few high-level executives to leave SpaceX. He’s now the chair and founding partner of an early stage investment group

Nick Pickles, former vice president of global affairs at X
Departure: September 2024
Pickles, a top spokesperson for X, left the company last September after a decade working in public policy roles at Twitter and X. “The constant across my time at Twitter and X has been the amazing people I’ve worked with inside and outside the company,” he wrote on X the day he stepped down. He’s now the chief policy officer for Tools of Humanity, according to his LinkedIn. 

Renato Leite Monteiro, former global data protection officer at X
Departure: September 2024
Monterio was among the holdovers from X’s Twitter years who stayed at the social media site after Musk took over. The former professor of law and data privacy was hired by Twitter in 2020, and initially worked for the company in Brazil before relocating to Ireland. He quit last September to take some “personal time off,” he wrote on LinkedIn. Five months ago, he became the vice president for legal assurance at e&, a technology and investment group in Abu Dhabi.

David Zhang, former roadster and next-generation vehicle program manager at Tesla
Departure: July 2024
Zhang, the manager behind Tesla’s Model S and Cybertruck, joined Tesla in 2015. He left in July 2024, and acknowledged his departure on LinkedIn months later, writing, “Thank you and (belated) farewell, Tesla. It has been a privilege and an honor to have devoted myself to the mission.”

Joe Benarroch, former head of operations at X
Departure: June 2024
Considered Yaccarino’s top lieutenant, Benarroch resigned from the social media site in early June of 2024, after spending one year and one month at the company. The executive’s LinkedIn profile states that Yaccarino recruited Benarroch from NBCUniversal. At X, he was put in charge of restructuring the organization following mass layoffs. Benarroch also handled corporate communications for X. Benarroch is now the head of content, media partnerships, and distribution at the NYSE. 



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SpaceX to offer insider shares at record-setting $800 billion valuation

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SpaceX is preparing to sell insider shares in a transaction that would value Elon Musk’s rocket and satellite maker at as much as $800 billion, people familiar with the matter said, reclaiming the title of the world’s most valuable private company. 

The details, discussed by SpaceX’s board of directors on Thursday at its Starbase hub in Texas, could change based on interest from insider sellers and buyers or other factors, said some of the people, who asked not to be identified as the information isn’t public. SpaceX is also exploring a possible initial public offering as soon as late next year, one of the people said. 

Another person briefed on the matter said that the price under discussion for the sale of some employees and investors’ shares is higher than $400 apiece, which would value SpaceX at between $750 billion and $800 billion. The company wouldn’t raise any funds though this planned sale, though a successful offering at such levels would catapult it past the record of $500 billion valuation achieved by OpenAI in October.

Elon Musk on Saturday denied that SpaceX is raising money at a $800 billion valuation without addressing Bloomberg’s reporting on the planned offering of insiders’ shares. 

“SpaceX has been cash flow positive for many years and does periodic stock buybacks twice a year to provide liquidity for employees and investors,” Musk said in a post on his social media platform X. 

The share sale price under discussion would be a substantial increase from the $212 a share set in July, when the company raised money and sold shares at a valuation of $400 billion. The Wall Street Journal and Financial Times earlier reported the $800 billion valuation target.

News of SpaceX’s valuation sent shares of EchoStar Corp., a satellite TV and wireless company, up as much as 18%. Last month, EchoStar had agreed to sell spectrum licenses to SpaceX for $2.6 billion, adding to an earlier agreement to sell about $17 billion in wireless spectrum to Musk’s company.

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The world’s most prolific rocket launcher, SpaceX dominates the space industry with its Falcon 9 rocket that lifts satellites and people to orbit.

SpaceX is also the industry leader in providing internet services from low-Earth orbit through Starlink, a system of more than 9,000 satellites that is far ahead of competitors including Amazon.com Inc.’s Amazon Leo.

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SpaceX is among an elite group of companies that have the ability to raise funds at $100 billion-plus valuations while delaying or denying they have any plan to go public. 

An IPO of the company at an $800 billion value would vault SpaceX into another rarefied group — the 20 largest public companies, a few notches below Musk’s Tesla Inc. 

If SpaceX sold 5% of the company at that valuation, it would have to sell $40 billion of stock — making it the biggest IPO of all time, well above Saudi Aramco’s $29 billion listing in 2019. The firm sold just 1.5% of the company in that offering, a much smaller slice than the majority of publicly traded firms make available.

A listing would also subject SpaceX to the volatility of being a public company, versus private firms whose valuations are closely guarded secrets. Space and defense company IPOs have had a mixed reception in 2025. Karman Holdings Inc.’s stock has nearly tripled since its debut, while Firefly Aerospace Inc. and Voyager Technologies Inc. have plunged by double-digit percentages since their debuts.

SpaceX executives have repeatedly floated the idea of spinning off SpaceX’s Starlink business into a separate, publicly traded company — a concept President Gwynne Shotwell first suggested in 2020. 

However, Musk cast doubt on the prospect publicly over the years and Chief Financial Officer Bret Johnsen said in 2024 that a Starlink IPO would be something that would take place more likely “in the years to come.”

The Information, citing people familiar with the discussions, separately reported on Friday that SpaceX has told investors and financial institution representatives that it’s aiming for an IPO of the entire company in the second half of next year.

Read More: How to Buy SpaceX: A Guide for the Eager, Pre-IPO

A so-called tender or secondary offering, through which employees and some early shareholders can sell shares, provides investors in closely held companies such as SpaceX a way to generate liquidity.

SpaceX is working to develop its new Starship vehicle, advertised as the most powerful rocket ever developed to loft huge numbers of Starlink satellites as well as carry cargo and people to moon and, eventually, Mars.



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National Park Service drops free admission on MLK Day and Juneteenth while adding Trump’s birthday

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The National Park Service will offer free admission to U.S. residents on President Donald Trump’s birthday next year — which also happens to be Flag Day — but is eliminating the benefit for Martin Luther King Jr. Day and Juneteenth.

The new list of free admission days for Americans is the latest example of the Trump administration downplaying America’s civil rights history while also promoting the president’s image, name and legacy.

Last year, the list of free days included Martin Luther King Jr Day and Juneteenth — which is June 19 — but not June 14, Trump’s birthday.

The new free-admission policy takes effect Jan. 1 and was one of several changes announced by the Park Service late last month, including higher admission fees for international visitors.

The other days of free park admission in 2026 are Presidents Day, Memorial Day, Independence Day, Constitution Day, Veterans Day, President Theodore Roosevelt’s birthday (Oct. 27) and the anniversary of the creation of the Park Service (Aug. 25).

Eliminating Martin Luther King Jr. Day and Juneteenth, which commemorates the day in 1865 when the last enslaved Americans were emancipated, removes two of the nation’s most prominent civil rights holidays.

Some civil rights leaders voiced opposition to the change after news about it began spreading over the weekend.

“The raw & rank racism here stinks to high heaven,” Harvard Kennedy School professor Cornell William Brooks, a former president of the NAACP, wrote on social media about the new policy.

Kristen Brengel, a spokesperson for the National Parks Conservation Association, said that while presidential administrations have tweaked the free days in the past, the elimination of Martin Luther King Jr. Day is particularly concerning. For one, the day has become a popular day of service for community groups that use the free day to perform volunteer projects at parks.

That will now be much more expensive, said Brengel, whose organization is a nonprofit that advocates for the park system.

“Not only does it recognize an American hero, it’s also a day when people go into parks to clean them up,” Brengel said. “Martin Luther King Jr. deserves a day of recognition … For some reason, Black history has repeatedly been targeted by this administration, and it shouldn’t be.”

Some Democratic lawmakers also weighed in to object to the new policy.

“The President didn’t just add his own birthday to the list, he removed both of these holidays that mark Black Americans’ struggle for civil rights and freedom,” said Democratic Sen. Catherine Cortez Masto of Nevada. “Our country deserves better.”

A spokesperson for the National Park Service did not immediately respond to questions on Saturday seeking information about the reasons behind the changes.

Since taking office, Trump has sought to eliminate programs seen as promoting diversity across the federal government, actions that have erased or downplayed America’s history of racism as well as the civil rights victories of Black Americans.

Self-promotion is an old habit of the president’s and one he has continued in his second term. He unsuccessfully put himself forwardfor the Nobel Peace Prize, renamed the U.S. Institute of Peace after himself, sought to put his name on the planned NFL stadium in the nation’s capital and had a new children’s savings program named after him.

Some Republican lawmakers have suggested putting his visage on Mount Rushmore and the $100 bill.



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JPMorgan CEO Jamie Dimon says Europe has a ‘real problem’

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JPMorgan Chase & Co. Chief Executive Officer Jamie Dimon called out slow bureaucracy in Europe in a warning that a “weak” continent poses a major economic risk to the US.

“Europe has a real problem,” Dimon said Saturday at the Reagan National Defense Forum. “They do some wonderful things on their safety nets. But they’ve driven business out, they’ve driven investment out, they’ve driven innovation out. It’s kind of coming back.”

While he praised some European leaders who he said were aware of the issues, he cautioned politics is “really hard.” 

Dimon, leader of the biggest US bank, has long said that the risk of a fragmented Europe is among the major challenges facing the world. In his letter to shareholders released earlier this year, he said that Europe has “some serious issues to fix.”

On Saturday, he praised the creation of the euro and Europe’s push for peace. But he warned that a reduction in military efforts and challenges trying to reach agreement within the European Union are threatening the continent.

“If they fragment, then you can say that America first will not be around anymore,” Dimon said. “It will hurt us more than anybody else because they are a major ally in every single way, including common values, which are really important.”

He said the US should help.

“We need a long-term strategy to help them become strong,” Dimon said. “A weak Europe is bad for us.”

The administration of President Donald Trump issued a new national security strategy that directed US interests toward the Western Hemisphere and protection of the homeland while dismissing Europe as a continent headed toward “civilizational erasure.”

Read More: Trump’s National Security Strategy Veers Inward in Telling Shift

JPMorgan has been ramping up its push to spur more investments in the national defense sector. In October, the bank announced that it would funnel $1.5 trillion into industries that bolster US economic security and resiliency over the next 10 years — as much as $500 billion more than what it would’ve provided anyway. 

Dimon said in the statement that it’s “painfully clear that the United States has allowed itself to become too reliant on unreliable sources of critical minerals, products and manufacturing.”

Investment banker Jay Horine oversees the effort, which Dimon called “100% commercial.” It will focus on four areas: supply chain and advanced manufacturing; defense and aerospace; energy independence and resilience; and frontier and strategic technologies. 

The bank will also invest as much as $10 billion of its own capital to help certain companies expand, innovate or accelerate strategic manufacturing.

Separately on Saturday, Dimon praised Trump for finding ways to roll back bureaucracy in the government.

“There is no question that this administration is trying to bring an axe to some of the bureaucracy that held back America,” Dimon said. “That is a good thing and we can do it and still keep the world safe, for safe food and safe banks and all the stuff like that.”



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