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These ex-Tesla supply chain managers started an AI inventory firm
The AI venture aims to revolutionize supply chain and demand management through its software platform.
Two former supply chain managers at Tesla have started their own AI inventory firm, which aims to make demand and inventory planning more efficient.
Neal Suidan, Tesla’s former Senior Manager of Global Demand Planning, and Michael Rossiter, former Director of Sales Operations and Senior Manager of Business Planning, announced the launch of Atomic on Tuesday, an AI platform geared toward supply planning. The launch was made alongside the announcement of a $3 million seed funding round from former DVx Ventures, the capital fund run by former Tesla President Jon McNeill, as well as the firm Madrona.
“Planners are the unsung heroes of consumer brands, holding together supply chains through spreadsheets and sheer force of will,” Suidan wrote in a post on LinkedIn. “But they deserve better tools. We built Atomic to be the inventory planning system we always wished we had.”
“Michael and Neil experienced this pain firsthand as leaders at Tesla in the supply chain, and I saw that work first hand — because they worked for me,” McNeill said in an interview with Tech Crunch.
The former Tesla president also explains how delicate the balance between supply and demand is, while a primary part of Atomic’s approach to the software platform is giving business operators the tools to manage these factors more quickly and easily.
“If you have too much capital tied up in inventory, you could really harm the business,” McNeill adds. “And if you have too little, where you don’t have the right things in stock when the customer is ready to purchase, then you’re costing yourself big time.”
Atomic says its AI planning software has previously helped early customers cut inventory costs by between 20 and 50 percent, allowing users to easily simulate scenarios based on real-time data and scenarios.
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Suidan worked with Tesla for nearly six years, while Rossiter was with the company for about two years. Both of the managers also worked closely with McNeill at the time.
The former Tesla president also highlighted the difficulty in ramping Model 3 production as part of the project’s inspiration, a period that Elon Musk has said brought the company weeks away from bankruptcy and had him sleeping on the Fremont factory floor.
McNeill also recalled the Model 3 production ramp in a post on LinkedIn:
Back in 2018, we had a big problem at Tesla.
We needed to scale Model 3 production from 20k to 100k cars per quarter. But the existing supply chain systems simply couldn’t handle this growth. With only a month of cash left, we had to keep the cars moving.
We were far too dependent on spreadsheets for planning. They couldn’t keep up with the business and it was having a serious negative impact.
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Neal Suidan and Michael Rossiter, both leading global demand planning, created something remarkable out of necessity: a unit-level planning system that could simulate and track individual cars through the entire supply chain and match them to demand. This reduced Tesla’s inventory from 75 days to just 15, unlocking billions of dollars in working capital at a time when every dollar mattered.
Fast forward 7 years and it occurred to us that thousands of companies can use this. They are now bringing that framework to customers with Atomic.
Several former Tesla employees and executives have gone on to start their own firms, most recently including former SVP Drew Baglino, who announced the grid hardware venture Heron Power last week. Another notable one includes JB Straubel, a Tesla co-founder, who went on to start the battery recycling company Redwood Materials.
This former Tesla engineer now heads a federal tech department
Elon Musk shed two new bits of detail on Starship following its 13th test launch, which was an overwhelming success.
SpaceX launched Starship for the 13th time last Friday after two delays: one on Monday when several Raptor engines did not ignite, and another on Thursday due to unfavorable weather conditions in Starbase, Texas.
The launch was overwhelmingly successful. SpaceX was able to complete a necessary test of the heat shield tiles by increasing the acceleration of Starship from launch throughout the flight; 20 Starlink v3 satellites were released with no issue; the Super Heavy Booster landed safely in the Gulf of America, Ship successfully reignited engines while in space; and it also splashed down without incident in the Indian Ocean.
SpaceX Starship just nailed something it’s never done before
Nevertheless, more details are coming out about Starship, and Musk is doing the talking.
Starship Will Be Retrieved in the Ocean
Musk revealed on Tuesday night that Starship would be recovered by a ship in the Indian Ocean. SpaceX routinely tries to recover Starship after splashdown in an effort to find out more about the flight by examining the spacecraft afterward.
We’re sending a ship out to recover Starship https://t.co/fUqUZTITO9
— Elon Musk (@elonmusk) July 28, 2026
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This helps engineers find out more about why things might have happened, allows them to examine any potential damage or anomalies that might have occurred, and increases the chances of an even more successful flight next time thanks to the additional information recovered.
Ship Could Have Been Caught by Tower Arms, Musk claims
Musk has already indicated that SpaceX will plan to attempt a catch of Starship with the 14th test flight. While this would be a major accomplishment, it would be an expected next step, considering the fact that the Super Heavy Booster has already been caught by the chopsticks on numerous occasions.
The ship landing was precise, meaning that it would have been caught by the tower arms https://t.co/6nbNrRfX9P
— Elon Musk (@elonmusk) July 29, 2026
A ship catch would be a great indication of where SpaceX stands in terms of reusability and launch cadence. A successful catch with relatively no incidents would be a good sign that SpaceX is nearing a more frequent launch of Starship, but also that the reusability of the massive rocket would be something many would expect in the near future.
It is a necessity to make life multiplanetary.
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Elon Musk has updated his timeline for when humans will walk on Mars and for when ships will simply get there.
The objective of getting to Mars has been one of Musk’s biggest goals since becoming a serial entrepreneur and realizing that time on Earth is limited. Musk has said several times he hopes to die on Mars, and not by impact.
Musk now believes that people will be on Mars in “roughly 5 to 7 years.” He said that a Mars lander will get there “a few years sooner.”
People on Mars in roughly 5 to 7 years.
Mars lander a few years sooner.
— Elon Musk (@elonmusk) July 29, 2026
The response from Musk comes after NASA Administrator Jared Isaacman said that SpaceX’s biggest priority is the Moon and not Mars. Because of this, Isaacman conceded that he believes nuclear power and propulsion investments will provide “potentially the pathway with the fewest miracles required to put four people on Mars in the next 10 to 15 years.”
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Of course, this is what NASA can do through taxpayer funding and nuclear investments, he added.
Musk’s grand ambitions are much more optimistic than most, and it is certainly a double-edged sword. This is not the first time timelines for Mars have been somewhat lofty, especially to those normal thinkers like you and me, not super geniuses like Musk.
In fact, the SpaceX and Tesla frontman has said on at least a dozen occasions that we could be on Mars in the coming years. Musk said 2020 would be the big year as early as 2009. In 2020, he was “highly confident” of a landing in 2026, and had even said 2024 in a best-case scenario.
The point is, the range has varied, and it’s anyone’s guess when we’ll get there. This latest adjustment to the timeline is typical of Musk, and while the Moon has seemingly taken priority over Mars, it is still worth mentioning that the ultimate goal is to make life multiplanetary, and it starts potentially with the Red Planet.
SpaceX (NASDAQ: SPCX) got an absolutely crazy price target rating from Raymond James after the company experienced a tough first few weeks following its Initial Public Offering (IPO).
Despite the tumultuous start, SpaceX has plenty of believers, and the company’s massively successful Starship launch last Friday, its 13th test flight of the massive rocket, went so smoothly that Raymond James analysts pushed its price target on the company to roughly 7 times its current trading level.
SpaceX Starship just nailed something it’s never done before
The firm officially put a “Strong Buy” rating and an $800 price target on the stock. It currently trades at around $113. Its all-time high is $225.64, reaching this trading level shortly after shares first went public.
Raymond James’ price target is tied to the firm’s confidence after Starship’s 13th test flight. Analysts at the firm said it was an incremental step that reduces engineering risks, citing the widely successful heat shield test that CEO Elon Musk recently detailed, the smooth deployment of Starlink V3 satellites, and a successful in-space engine relight.
SpaceX also managed to see Starship splash down safely in the Indian Ocean, while the Super Heavy Booster fell down to the Gulf of America with no incidents.
It is interesting to see these launches have such a tremendous impact on the stock and what investors think of it. After SpaceX initially delayed the Starship launch last week, shares fell tremendously. Most probably did not realize that the stand-down is a standard practice, especially if everything is not perfect.
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The mission was initially aborted due to an issue with Raptor engines. This was resolved, and Starship launched last Friday after another delay on Thursday, which was caused by weather.
Now that analysts have seen what SpaceX launches are capable of and how impressive the feat is, firms are adjusting their price targets accordingly, making it known that they have high expectations for the space exploration company.
Elon Musk sheds two new bits of detail on Starship after 13th test launch
Elon Musk updates the SpaceX timeline for Mars
