Multinational automaker and Jeep-Chrysler-Fiat parent company Stellantis has announced significant changes to its previous remote work policy, coming as the company has also made major changes amongst executives.
Stellantis has shifted its previous 70-percent remote work policy to instead start requiring workers in-office for at least three days a week, as detailed by Human Resources Lead Xavier Chereau during the Paris Auto Show (via Bloomberg). Chereau says the company is actively working to revamp its offices to help welcome employees back, just as the company has aired profit warnings about its struggling brands.
“We need to be pragmatic and we are recalibrating,” Chereau said. “If there’s a difficult project that needs attention, then it’s all week in the office.”
Stellantis’ brand unveil Peugeot E-408 at the 2024 Paris Motor Show
Stellantis CEO Carlos Tavares was a vocal supporter of remote work during the COVID-19 lockdowns, especially as the company worked to downsize office space and real estate assets in efforts to cut costs. In recent weeks, Tavares has been under fire as Stellantis has had to slash its profit forecast for the year, along with pressure from unions in both Italy and the U.S.
“Given what the situation is today, I feel the need to be with my teams more often, to reassure, to communicate, to help make sense of things,” Chereau added.
Tesla began requiring remote workers to report to the office again in 2022, as detailed in a pair of letters CEO Elon Musk sent to other executives and larger staff. In the same year, General Motors (GM) also requested that employees come back to the office three days a week, though it didn’t begin requiring them to until 2023 following backlash.
Stellantis already started having auto engineers come back to the office more regularly in a shift earlier this year, but the executive says it will now broaden those plans to include R&D workers and several other roles. Chereau also says that re-training workers to prepare for the transition to electric vehicles (EVs) is a major undertaking, with the automaker set to spend 144 million euros (~$157 million) on retraining efforts.
The automaker has also confirmed that it is considering a successor for Tavares, though the CEO will finish his current contract before retiring in 2026. A special committee of the board is currently evaluating potential candidates to succeed Tavares, and it’s expected to complete this process by Q4 next year.
Stellantis officially announced the news in a press release last week, along with the appointing of Antonio Filosa as the North America COO alongside his role as CEO of Jeep. The company also named a handful of other executives stepping into new roles.
Last month, Italy’s largest metalworker’s unions announced plans to stage a strike on October 18 at Stellantis’ Fiat factory in Turin over the company’s declining production output at the factory.
Meanwhile, Stellantis remains in a legal battle with the United Automotive Workers (UAW) union in the U.S. After the UAW threatened to strike against the automaker over its failure to reopen a factory in Belvidere, Illinois, Stellantis has followed up by filing several lawsuits against the union alleging that such a strike would be illegal.
In the filings, Stellantis also claimed that the UAW was trying to re-boot a previously retired jobs bank program for striking workers to continue collecting wages, though the union has denied the allegation.
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Elon Musk
Elon Musk’s xAI celebrates nearly 3,000 headcount at Memphis site
The update came in a post from the xAI Memphis account on social media platform X.
xAI has announced that it now employs nearly 3,000 people in Memphis, marking more than two years of local presence in the city amid the company’s supercomputing efforts.
The update came in a post from the xAI Memphis account on social media platform X.
In a post on X, xAI’s Memphis branch stated it has been part of the community for over two years and now employs “almost 3,000 locally to help power Grok.” The post was accompanied by a photo of the xAI Memphis team posing for a rather fun selfie.
“xAI is proud to be a member of the Memphis community for over two years. We now employ almost 3,000 locally to help power @Grok. From electricians to engineers, cooks to construction — we’re grateful for everyone on our team!” the xAI Memphis’ official X account wrote.
xAI’s Memphis facilities are home to Grok’s foundational supercomputing infrastructure, including Colossus, a large-scale AI training cluster designed to support the company’s advanced models. The site, located in South Memphis, was announced in 2024 as the home of one of the world’s largest AI compute facilities.
The first phase of Colossus was built out in record time, reaching its initial 100,000 GPU operational status in just 122 days. Industry experts such as Nvidia CEO Jensen Huang noted that this was significantly faster than the typical 2-to-4-year timeline for similar projects.
xAI chose Memphis for its supercomputing operations because of the city’s central location, skilled workforce, and existing industrial infrastructure, as per the company’s statements about its commitment to the region. The initiative aims to create hundreds of permanent jobs, partner with local businesses, and contribute to economic and educational efforts across the area.
Colossus is intended to support a full training pipeline for Grok and future models, with xAI planning to scale the site to millions of GPUs.
News
Ford embraces Tesla-style gigacastings and Cybertruck’s 48V architecture
Ford Motor Company’s next-generation electric vehicles will adopt technologies that were first commercialized by the Tesla Cybertruck.
Ford Motor Company’s next-generation electric vehicles will adopt technologies that were first commercialized by the Tesla Cybertruck, such as the brutalist all-electric pickup’s 48-volt electrical architecture and its gigacastings.
The shift is expected to start with a roughly $30,000 small electric pickup that is expected to be released in 2027, which is part of Ford’s $5 billion investment in its new Universal EV platform, as noted in a CNBC report.
Ford confirmed that its upcoming EV platform will move away from the traditional 12-volt system long used across the auto industry. Instead, it will implement a 48-volt electrical architecture that draws power directly from the vehicle’s high-voltage battery.
Tesla was the first automaker to bring a 48-volt system to U.S. consumers with the Cybertruck in 2023. The architecture reduces wiring bulk, lowers weight, and improves electrical efficiency. It also allows power to be stepped down to 12 volts through new electronic control units when needed.
Alan Clarke, Ford’s executive director of advanced EV development and a former Tesla engineer, called 48-volt systems “the future of automotive” due to their lower costs and smaller wiring requirements. Ford stated that the wiring harness in its new pickup will be more than 4,000 feet shorter and 22 pounds lighter than that of its first-generation electric SUV.
Apart from the Cybertruck’s 48-volt architecture, Ford is also embracing Tesla-style gigacastings for its next-generation EVs. Ford stated that its upcoming electric vehicle will use just two major structural front and rear castings, compared with 146 comparable components in the current gas-powered Maverick.
Ford CEO Jim Farley has described the effort as a “bet” and a “Model T moment” for the company, arguing that system-level innovation is necessary to lower costs and compete globally. “At Ford, we took on the challenge many others have stopped doing. We’re taking the fight to our competition, including the Chinese,” Farley previously stated.
Energy
Tesla meets Giga New York’s Buffalo job target amid political pressures
Giga New York reported more than 3,460 statewide jobs at the end of 2025, meeting the benchmark tied to its dollar-a-year lease.
Tesla has surpassed its job commitments at Giga New York in Buffalo, easing pressure from lawmakers who threatened the company with fines, subsidy clawbacks, and dealership license revocations last year.
The company reported more than 3,460 statewide jobs at the end of 2025, meeting the benchmark tied to its dollar-a-year lease at the state-built facility.
As per an employment report reviewed by local media, Tesla employed 2,399 full-time workers at Gigafactory New York and 1,060 additional employees across the state at the end of 2025. Part-time roles pushed the total headcount of Tesla’s New York staff above the 3,460-job target.
The gains stemmed in part from a new Long Island service center, a Buffalo warehouse, and additional showrooms in White Plains and Staten Island. Tesla also said it has invested $350 million in supercomputing infrastructure at the site and has begun manufacturing solar panels.
Empire State Development CEO Hope Knight said the agency was “very happy” with Giga New York’s progress, as noted in a WXXI report. The current lease runs through 2029, and negotiations over updated terms have included potential adjustments to job requirements and future rent payments.
Some lawmakers remain skeptical, however. Assemblymember Pat Burke questioned whether the reported job figures have been fully verified. State Sen. Patricia Fahy has also continued to sponsor legislation that would revoke Tesla’s company-owned dealership licenses in New York. John Kaehny of Reinvent Albany has argued that the project has not delivered the manufacturing impact originally promised as well.
Knight, for her part, maintained that Empire State Development has been making the best of a difficult situation.
“(Empire State Development) has tried to make the best of a very difficult situation. There hasn’t been another use that has come forward that would replace this one, and so to the extent that we’re in this place, the fact that 2,000 families at (Giga New York) are being supported through the activity of this employer. It’s the best that we can have happen,” the CEO noted.
Elon Musk’s xAI celebrates nearly 3,000 headcount at Memphis site
Ford embraces Tesla-style gigacastings and Cybertruck’s 48V architecture
