“I’ve been far away from home for too long, and will need to spend more time with family abroad,” he wrote in the post. “I want to make it clear that this is the only reason, and has absolutely nothing to do with anything else. My support for [Elon Musk] and the team is ironclad—Tesla team forever.”
Musk later replied to the post on X, thanking Kovac for his contributions to the company and saying it had been an “honor” to work with him.
Tesla shares recovered some ground on Friday as Musk said he was open to making amends with Trump, though the stock still finished the week down 14% from January (still, Tesla shares are trading nearly 66% higher than they were this time last year.)
In his social media post, Kovac recounted how he had joined Tesla in 2016 as an engineer on its Autopilot team and that he had transitioned to lead the Optimus group in early 2022 when Tesla had “nothing but a couple Kuka arms arranged upside-down,” referring to the industrial robotic arms that are often used in automated factory systems.
Tesla did not respond to an immediate request for comment on Kovac’s departure.
