Tesla's CFO *JUST* Quit.

well well well Zachary kirkorn off Tesla

just stepped down and a lot of people

are wondering uh oh is this a really bad

sign of things to come over at Tesla the

last time this happened was actually

when Zach got his job it was when Deepak

left in January of 2019. Tesla stock

dropped about four percent right after

that because usually people associate a

CFO leaving with some kind of impending

either legal investigation into finances

declines in the business or some kind of

other massive stress coming up at the

business otherwise why would you leave a

job that pays pretty dang well at least

when you look up the latest reports Zach

the current well now leaving CEO was

paid around a base salary of just

upwards of two hundred sixty thousand

dollars but stock based comp was in

excess of 40 plus million dollars to

where Zach could have created a net

worth of potentially as much as a

hundred million dollars just by working

at Tesla as a CFO for the last four

years and a total tenure a Tesla of 13

years he started out as an intern at

Microsoft and eventually got into the

finance department at Tesla where he

worked his way up to CFO

so now it's worth analyzing all right

what do we potentially think is

happening here because as we know Elon

told us in the last shareholder meeting

the annual shareholder meeting that this

next year will be difficult not only is

Tesla going to be launching the Cyber

truck but it's going to continue scaling

Austin Berlin Northeast Mexico it's

going to be dealing with Supply chains

staff changes margin changes pressure

from Elon and Zach mentioned in his last

earnings call that he conducted that the

company is now going to take more of a

focus

on operating margins instead of just

vehicle margins and this is a pretty

interesting transition Zach claimed that

this was due to the company's greater

Focus or greater growth rates from the

energy side of the business and so

therefore it would make sense to

evaluate the company based on operating

margin rather than just gross vehicle

margin of course others say Elon Musk

hopping in and suggesting we could sell

these cars for basically no gross

vehicle margin and make it all up in FSD

could potentially have been a place

where Elon and Zach had major

differences especially since recognizing

revenues for full self-driving a product

that still is in beta outside the

autopilot portion still in the works and

this idea well I mean actually being

able to fully recognize this Revenue

isn't really possible until you have a

complete product right then on top of

that

you also gotta remember hey Elon said in

the last earnings call hey we're

thinking about licensing our FSD or

autopilot to other uh manufacturers like

maybe a Ford or GM but then again Elon

also said that a few years ago so this

has been said before which all kind of

goes back to hmm is there potentially a

high expectation from Zach to do exactly

as Elon wishes and under the pressure of

Elon potentially the high stress levels

of the job lead to something where Zach

who's now 39 says I'm out it's entirely

possible in fact Fortune just put

together a piece talking about how

during these recessionary environments

it's extremely common for individuals

who are working at a company like Zach

and uh his husband apparently they got

married in May 6 2018 means that they've

been together for a bit here uh Daniel

by the way used to work at UH open table

and now works at uh I think it's a like

a medical startup also in Austin Texas

both of them live in Austin Texas in

fact uh they moved to Austin when Elon

moved to Austin and ended up buying a

3.3ish million dollar Lakefront home in

Austin so clearly seemed committed to

Austin even the husband moved with to

Austin from the Bay Area when Zach moved

his position over to Austin they knew

Tesla headquarters but again what's the

big thing that we analyze well Zach

being 39 having made a lot of money at

Tesla maybe has gotten to the stage of

burnout and this is kind of what Fortune

had been alluding to Fortune Magazine

had been alluding to this idea that

Executives during recessionary times

and now tend to leave they tend to burn

out because transitions are happening so

rapidly and the job just isn't what it

used to be now every company is not

focused just on Revenue growth but on

margins layoffs artificial intelligence

looking at dealing with investor

relations in a different more uncertain

and potentially frustrated way these are

all things that add serious stress to a

job and don't get me wrong Zach was

compensated extremely well which is a

sign that Tesla highly valued Zach but

that doesn't mean the job isn't

stressful and so when I kind of think

about what are reasons why Zach could

have left and I break them out there are

a few particular reasons number one

would be

bad numbers coming for Tesla Elon kind

of alluded that the next year would be

difficult but if it was just bad numbers

sex compensated enough to get through

that right

another option is stress basically what

I've been outlining this whole video I

think this is much more likely some kind

of stress and executive burnout made

enough money what is extra money at this

level actually matter like you're 39 you

got plenty of money maybe just retire

without actually calling it retirement

some people say maybe Zach's open to a

new opportunity or some kind of startup

and I think while in the future he

probably will be I think this is kind of

going to be like a breakup where you you

need some transition time before you

just hop over right into a new

opportunity and I don't think somebody

would have been willing to pay Zach as

much as he was making at Tesla to

convince him to transition to a new

opportunity so I don't think it's a new

opportunity I don't necessarily think

it's just bad numbers for Tesla because

again you're compensated well enough I

think this is much more likely to be

burnt route I think it is hard though to

say and I think this is why we don't see

it in his outgoing LinkedIn message I

think it's hard to say oh uh yeah I'm

gonna retire after my 13 years at Tesla

because I'm burned out I think people

would look at this and go really like

you're 39 seriously you're burned out

like put some pants on and and get with

the program

but I think that actually could be the

real reason that this is a very

stressful role and being willing to say

oh yeah I'm retiring is not exactly

going to be the most popular thing to

say at 39 so it's much easier to say hey

look I had 13 years here I'm going to

help the company transition through the

end of the year thanks so much team

Tesla which is basically what we got

here it's also worth noting that if

there was really bad blood suddenly

between Zach and Tesla Zach probably

wouldn't stay around to the end of the

year though the extent of which he'll

actually end up staying around to the

end of the year nobody knows he could

say that today and quite literally pack

his bags tomorrow and be gone because

they're like all right we're good

transition over we're good right so

there is a real potential in my opinion

that there was definitely pressure and

stress from Elon to make sure we're

recognizing that FSD Revenue to uh you

know streamline the number of staffers

working in the g a portion which

includes the finance department is

definitely going to be pressure on

margins and stress and I think it's

likely that after four years of CFO and

13 total years of the company it's

totally possible that Zach just decided

you know what it's time for me to step

down obviously this is leading Tesla

star to sell off remember in 2019 it

sold out four percent on a CFO departure

and that didn't really affect the

long-term outcome of Tesla it is a

little surprising though because Zach

was often seen as the person who could

basically run Tesla earnings calls and

talk to Tesla investors the way a

finance person should rather than sort

of the more theoretical uh way that Elon

likes to talk to people on earnings

calls or scientific ways some like to

say instead people like numbers and Zach

was kind of seen as not only somebody

who could run those earnings calls but

also potentially somebody who could take

over as CEO in the future

both of these things a little bit of uh

well let's just put it this way they

both Mark a sad day for Tesla as Sac

will certainly be missed and a lot of

people will be very uh you know

disappointed in Zach's departure though

I personally think

this is all related to a combination of

rough year for Tesla stress got plenty

of funds time to move on maybe focus on

traveling or focus on you know spending

time with family it's hard to publicly

say spending time with family if you

don't already have kids I don't believe

Zach has kids uh so it's harder to say

oh yeah I'm gonna retire I'm gonna spend

time with family when you don't even

have kids but maybe that's part of the

next chapter maybe they have a surrogate

and they're getting ready to have a

child who knows there's so many things

that could be going on I can't really

pinpoint exactly what it is because

nobody will truly know the right reason

do I think this is a reason to look at

Tesla and say that's it uh elon's going

into surgery Zach's stepping down the

company screwed sell the stock no of

course not in fact the broader Market is

unpricing a lot of the recent Euphoria

we've had in the stock market you can

see that most heavily when you zoom in

to some of the smaller cap stocks that

have really had some run recently here

look for example uh up star or you could

look at uh you know Quantum over here

you could look at camber energy you

could look at c3ai moderna Redfin a lot

of these companies Beyond me open door a

lot of these companies that have gone

really euphoric I mean open to almost

five dollars now back down to 330.

Redfin was running like crazy and all of

a sudden now resetting back down a lot

of this recent stock market hype and

Euphoria is definitely being corrected

back down and to some extent that's very

healthy it's part of the Nike Swoosh

recovery and I've always called it a

volatile Nike Swoosh I can't say that uh

it has been a very volatile Nike Swoosh

so far it's basically felt like very

straight up but I've always called for

volatility and this is what we're seeing

here so I don't think anything here is

super fundamental or super concerning

and so in my opinion I think this is

just more of the same stock volatility

and we've got to wish sack the best

that's my take good luck out there and

we'll see you soon now I want you to

know this when it comes to AI

time is what's going to make you money

and if you can prove that value to an

employer you'll always be able to be

employed so this is another way of

making sure that you don't get replaced

by artificial intelligence if you can

Master AI by starting on the ground

floor

let's go