Giorgio Balestrieri, a long-serving engineer at Tesla who had devoted nearly eight years to the company, has announced his decision to resign, citing profound dissatisfaction with the leadership and direction imposed by CEO Elon Musk. In a candid LinkedIn post published on Thursday, Balestrieri explained that his primary motivation for leaving stemmed from the belief that Musk has inflicted significant harm not only on Tesla’s founding mission of accelerating the world’s transition to sustainable energy but also on the broader landscape of democratic institutions across multiple nations.
Balestrieri, who began his Tesla career in 2017 and later played an influential role in the company’s sophisticated autobidder platform, articulated his loss of confidence with striking clarity. According to his statement, Musk’s capacity for sound judgment and effective leadership appears deeply undermined, leaving Tesla’s strategic mission jeopardized. While neither the engineer nor Tesla provided any additional comment when approached by Business Insider, his public remarks leave little ambiguity regarding his concerns.
According to Balestrieri’s LinkedIn profile, his work at Tesla culminated in a leadership role overseeing European energy trading algorithms. Yet despite his advancement, he confessed that he no longer felt capable of reconciling his professional commitment with Musk’s towering influence and substantial ownership stake in the company. He emphasized that his concerns extended far beyond the realm of partisan politics. Instead, he placed particular focus on what he perceives as Musk’s pattern of misinformation, manipulation of public dialogue, the deliberate targeting of marginalized groups, and tacit support for climate change deniers and political organizations aligned with the fossil fuel industry.
In his statement, Balestrieri went further to argue that the role of political leadership in shaping climate policy cannot be ignored, warning that the current U.S. administration has demonstrably slowed down progress in the indispensable transition toward renewable energy. He underscored that the pace of this transition is critically important and that any deceleration could expose humanity to the most catastrophic consequences of a rapidly warming planet. His decision to step away, therefore, was not merely a gesture of frustration but a moral stance rooted in the urgency of climate action and personal integrity.
Balestrieri’s career trajectory at Tesla illustrates the depth of his contributions. He joined as a data science intern before gradually ascending to the position of staff algorithms engineer. Notably, he was the first employee to work on Tesla’s autobidder platform in Europe, an automated energy trading system that allows Tesla’s advanced battery infrastructure to function as a dynamic, grid-interactive virtual power plant. This system enables real-time buying and selling of electricity, making it an essential pillar of Tesla’s energy storage enterprise and global decarbonization strategy.
His stinging criticism of Musk’s leadership arrives at a moment when Tesla as a company faces increasing scrutiny over its governance and the personal influence exerted by its CEO. Shareholders are scheduled to cast decisive votes in November on two contentious matters: a proposed compensation package that could ultimately render Musk’s pay worth as much as $1 trillion, and whether Tesla should allocate corporate funds to support his artificial intelligence startup, xAI. These proposals have already drawn backlash from certain investor groups. For instance, the SOC Investment Group, representing union pension funds, has called upon Nasdaq to examine whether Tesla violated stock exchange rules by failing to secure shareholder approval for an interim compensation arrangement.
Skepticism among longtime supporters continues to grow. Ross Gerber, the chief executive of Gerber Kawasaki Wealth and Investment Management and once a vocal advocate of Musk’s vision, has publicly reduced his firm’s Tesla holdings. He expressed unease about Musk’s strategic pivot from Tesla’s foundational electric vehicle business toward ambitious ventures in robotics and autonomous ride-hailing services, arguing that such shifts may undermine the company’s long-term sustainability.
Meanwhile, Musk’s foray into political financing has only compounded the turbulence surrounding Tesla. Last year, the billionaire reportedly spent more than $277 million to fund the presidential reelection campaign of Donald Trump. Although Musk and Trump eventually parted ways in a conspicuous public disagreement, the prospect of strained relations fueled lingering uncertainty, especially as Trump initially threatened to rescind lucrative government contracts awarded to Musk’s companies. Although more conciliatory tones later followed, Tesla has openly acknowledged that protectionist trade policies and hostility to electric vehicles from Trump came at a tangible cost to its revenue projections.
Importantly, Balestrieri’s departure is far from isolated. He joins a growing list of Tesla employees whose resignations have been accompanied by sharp disapproval of Musk’s behavior and management style. Earlier this year, another Tesla veteran of seven years revealed that he too had ultimately resigned because he could no longer bring himself to align with Musk, particularly criticizing Musk’s expansive involvement with Twitter, his direct role in electoral politics, and what he felt were ethically troubling attempts to sway voter sentiment through lavish giveaways.
Balestrieri’s decision underscores a broader dilemma confronting Tesla: while the company continues to champion itself as a force for clean energy innovation, internal dissent suggests that some of its most committed employees question whether Musk’s leadership is compatible with its founding ideals. As shareholder debates escalate and political controversies persist, Tesla stands at a crossroads, balancing its technological prominence against increasingly public doubts about the direction set by the man at its helm.
Sourse: https://www.businessinsider.com/tesla-engineer-quit-slam-elon-musk-leadership-linkedin-post-2025-9
