(Reuters) – Tesla Inc Chief Executive Officer Elon Musk on Friday sent an email to his executives ordering a hiring freeze and job cuts, making the email his most direct message on the risks of a recession.
The billionaire has taken to Twitter several times in the recent past to share his thoughts on a possible recession.
DATE COMMENTS
May 26 When asked by a Twitter user if he still thinks
that “we are approaching” a recession, Musk
replied, “Yes, but this is actually a good thing.
It has been raining money on fools for too long.
Some bankruptcies need to happen.”
May 26 When a Twitter user asked how long he thinks the
recession will last: “Based on past experience,
about 12 to 18 months,” Musk responded.
“Companies that are inherently negative cash flow
(ie value destroyers) need to die, so that they
stop consuming resources. “
May 20 In response to a Twitter thread by former Meta
Platforms CTO Mike Schroepfer, wherein he
commented about a tech downturn and said, “Nobody
can predict what is going to happen over the next
12 months but we haven’t had a real bad tech
downturn since 2000″, Musk said “I ‘member” and
called the thread “accurate.”
May 16 Remotely addressing the All-In Summit in Miami
Beach, Musk said “I think we are probably in a
recession and that recession will get worse.”
“It’ll probably be some tough going for, I don’t
know, a year, maybe 12 to 18 months, is usually
the amount of time that it takes for a correction
to happen,” he added.
Dec. 30 In reply to a tweet asking Musk to predict when
the next recession will be, the world’s richest
man said, “Predicting macroeconomics is
challenging, to say the least. My gut feel is
maybe around spring or summer 2022, but not later
than 2023.”
Nov. 30 In response to a report shared on Twitter, Musk
said, “If a severe global recession were to dry
up capital availability / liquidity while SpaceX
was losing billions on Starlink & Starship, then
bankruptcy, while still unlikely, is not
impossible.”
“GM & Chrysler went BK last recession. ‘Only the
paranoid survive.’ – Grove”
(Reporting by Chavi Mehta in Bengaluru; Editing by Maju Samuel)
