SpaceX, Tesla, and Boring Company execs are helping Elon Musk at Twitter, records reveal - CNBC

Elon Musk led a $44 cardinal acquisition of Twitter and appointed himself CEO determination successful precocious October. Ever since, helium has enlisted high-ranking executives and engineers from his different businesses, including SpaceX, Tesla and The Boring Company, to assistance retired astatine the societal media company, according to interior records obtained by CNBC and conversations with caller Twitter employees.

Musk has besides enabled partners from concern firms who participated successful the Twitter buyout entree to enactment wrong the societal media company.

It wasn't instantly wide however galore hours each idiosyncratic had worked truthful acold astatine Twitter, oregon however overmuch of their enactment whitethorn beryllium done remotely versus successful Twitter's San Francisco office oregon different offices.

Shareholders stay acrophobic astir however Musk's fiscal commitments, divided docket and arguable decisions astatine Twitter whitethorn interaction the automaker. Tesla shares person declined astir 25% since helium took implicit Twitter connected Oct. 27.

Internal records obtained by CNBC indicated that much than 50 Tesla employees, mostly Autopilot bundle engineers, were authorized to enactment for Musk astatine Twitter instantly aft helium took over, and were inactive authorized to enactment determination arsenic of aboriginal December. Included among the names are radical previously reported by CNBC, arsenic good as:

• Director of Software Engineering Silvio Brugada
• Director of Infrastructure Engineering and Info Security Rajasekar Jegannathan
• Senior Manager of DevOps Michael Outland
• Director of Battery Manufacturing Engineering Andrew Ross
• Chief Information Officer Nagesh Saldi
• Autopilot Project Manager RJ Sekator

Attorneys asked Elon Musk successful a Delaware tribunal successful November astir his usage of Tesla endowment astatine Twitter. The suit and trial is to find whether Tesla's committee followed the instrumentality erstwhile it granted Musk a monolithic CEO wage bundle backmost successful 2018.

The attorneys asked, "Did anyone suggest to you that possibly arsenic a nationalist company, it mightiness not beryllium a bully thought to usage the resources of the nationalist institution for your backstage company?"

In his testimony, Musk characterized Tesla employees' enactment for him astatine Twitter arsenic "just a voluntary thing." He besides said: "This was benignant of an after-hours, conscionable if you're funny successful evaluating the — helping maine measure Twitter engineering, that would beryllium nice. It was precise short-term. I deliberation it lasted for a fewer days and it was over."

Musk besides said, "I didn't truly respect this arsenic utilizing Tesla assets, arsenic I had asked conscionable for a voluntary basis, and I did not specify immoderate fig of people. I don't cognize what the fig was, but I don't deliberation it was rather 50. But it was a tiny number. There's 120,000 radical astatine the company, conscionable to beryllium clear, truthful this is de minimis."

A Tesla worker told CNBC that astir radical astatine the electrical conveyance institution would beryllium honored if they were asked to enactment further hours astatine different Musk companies. However, they said astir would besides consciousness it was intolerable to crook down a nonstop petition from Musk without aboriginal facing mediocre show reviews oregon different consequences. This idiosyncratic declined to beryllium named due to the fact that they were not authorized by the institution to speech to the press.

In summation to Tesla employees, Musk has besides enlisted execs and employees from SpaceX, the reusable rocket and outer net services institution helium founded successful 2002, to assistance him astatine Twitter. SpaceX is simply a large U.S. defence contractor whose gross is derived from contracts with NASA and the U.S. Air Force, among others.

More than a twelve SpaceX employees were authorized to enactment astatine Twitter arsenic of aboriginal December, including:

• VP of Human Resources Brian Bjelde
• Chief Financial Officer and Head of Strategic Acquisitions Bret Johnsen
• Director of Information Technology Joshua Ursenbach

At slightest 3 of Musk's apical execs from his tunneling business, The Boring Company, are besides authorized to enactment for him astatine Twitter arsenic of aboriginal December. They are:

• President Steve Davis
• Director of Electrical and Software Engineering Riccardo Biasini
• Chief of Operations Jehn Balajadia

In summation to employees from his different companies, Musk has enlisted longtime friends and investors who person a involvement successful "Twitter 2.0" nether his leadership. Some of those radical authorized to enactment astatine the institution arsenic of aboriginal December include:

• Angel capitalist Jason Calacanis
• DFJ Growth Partner and Founder Randy Glein
• Andreessen Horowitz General Partner Sriram Krishnan (who is simply a erstwhile Twitter employee)
• Sutter Hill Ventures' Managing Director Samuel Pullara
• Craft Ventures' Partner and co-founder David Sacks
• Five radical from Valor Equity Partners, including the firm's founder, Antonio Gracias, and Elon Musk's erstwhile main of unit astatine Tesla and SpaceX, Sam Teller, who is present a task spouse astatine Valor.

A existent Twitter worker told CNBC that Musk has been "flattening" the organizational operation astatine the institution since aboriginal November truthful that galore managers person implicit 20 nonstop reports each. Most had person to 10 earlier the Tesla CEO took over, which near them clip for mentoring.

Now, it's besides harder for employees to ascertain who is moving connected what projects wrong Twitter due to the fact that Musk's squad has eliminated a instrumentality called Birdhouse that was antecedently utilized arsenic an interior directory and organizational guide.

Spokespeople from Twitter and Musk's different companies did not instantly respond to requests for comment.