Benzinga·2025-09-19 04:34Core Insights - Tesla is experiencing a talent exodus, highlighted by the departure of Ashish Kumar, the AI Team Lead for the Optimus humanoid robot, who is set to join Meta Platforms Inc. [1][2] Group 1: Talent Departures - Ashish Kumar announced his decision to leave Tesla, stating that he had an incredible experience leading the Optimus AI team and emphasized the importance of AI in humanoid robots [3]. - Kumar mentioned that Tesla's financial upside was "significantly larger" than what he would receive at Meta, indicating that his departure was not primarily motivated by compensation [3]. - Other notable exits from Tesla include Omead Afshar, a close aide to Elon Musk, and Troy Jones, the North American VP of sales and service, who left after 15 years [4]. Group 2: Leadership Criticism - A Tesla engineer, Giorgio Balestrieri, criticized Elon Musk's leadership and political associations as reasons for his departure, suggesting that Musk's decision-making appears compromised [5]. Group 3: Strategic Focus - Tesla is shifting its focus towards robotics and the Optimus project, which Musk claims will represent over 80% of the company's future value [7]. - The company is currently rated well on Momentum and Growth metrics, while its Value rating is poor [7].