“Elon Musk, CEO of both electric automaker Tesla and rocket manufacturer SpaceX, splits his time between his two companies, which he also co-founded and financed with most of his early fortune from Paypal,” Fred Lambert reports for electrek. “Now Electrek has learned through sources that Musk will not be the only executive dividing his time between Tesla and SpaceX since the CEO hired Apple’s alloy expert Charles Kuehmann to lead materials engineering at both companies.”
“Kuehmann is now Vice-President of Materials Engineering at Tesla and SpaceX, where he is responsible for delivering materials innovations, something he is very familiar with after over two decades spent in materials science,” Lambert reports. “Musk often talked about the difficulties involved in running two companies, but he also acknowledged some advantages of being active in two different industries. SpaceX aims to dramatically reduce the cost of rockets and if there’s an industry who mastered the art of making complex vehicles cheap, it’s certainly the automotive industry.”
“Kuehmann is named as an inventor on dozens of patents, mainly for QuesTek and Northwestern, but also on a 2014 patent application from Apple for ‘Aluminum alloys with high strength and cosmetic appeal,'” Lambert reports. “Apple claims that the aluminum alloy developed for the Apple Watch is 60 percent stronger than standard alloys but just as light.”
Read more in the full article here.
MacDailyNews Take: Looks like Elon got the location of his graveyard wrong:
We always jokingly called Apple the “Tesla Graveyard.” If you don’t make it at Tesla, you go work at Apple. I’m not kidding. – Elon Musk, October 9, 2015
[Thanks to MacDailyNews Readers “Fred Mertz” and “Dan K.” for the heads up.]
Elon’s the Man. Within 10-15 years he’ll surpass Steve Jobs as the most important CEO of our era.
Elon will only surpass Jobs if he succeeds in making his car a mass market success, and if does the same with his space travel venture. Right now neither is guaranteed or even likely.
The Tesla seems to be a great automobile, but it’s expensive and has a very teeny tiny market. And someday in the not so distant future he may meet competition from a certain technology company.
I certainly admire the way he spends his money. He’s not a hoarder.
Elon
If you can hear me meet me at Bill, I have something to say to you and i need your help.
Sonya
Elon, the grave robber!