Tesla Vice President of Finance Palani to Resign

Source: Global Market Broadcast

Tesla Vice President of Finance Sendil Palani is set to leave the company after 17 years, adding another name to the growing roster of top executives departing as Elon Musk leads the company further away from the automotive sector and into autonomous driving and robotics technologies.

Palani was one of the last senior leaders at Tesla who held an executive position from pre-IPO days, and his departure intensifies the talent drain Tesla has experienced across nearly all key business areas in the past two years.

Tesla is urging investors to weigh its progress in autonomous driving technologies more heavily than traditional auto delivery data. This shift comes as its Chinese competitor BYD is rapidly increasing sales in the European market, while Tesla’s own sales figures remain uneven.

Palani joined Tesla’s finance team in January 2009, just days after the company nearly went bankrupt over Christmas 2008. At that time, Tesla had only about 300 employees, produced one car per day, and had just enough cash to operate for around four weeks.

Having served as Tesla's Vice President of Finance since 2021, Palani posted on X on Tuesday that he is about to wrap up an “incredible seventeen years” at the company, recalling how he joined during the so-called “Tesla death watch” period. He praised Elon Musk for “demonstrating the power of thinking from first principles at any time and on anything,” and described his finance team as “heroes within a heroic company.”

Musk responded by thanking Palani for his “epic contributions” to Tesla over the years.

Palani did not specify the reasons for his departure, but his exit continues a trend that cannot be ignored. Since mid-2024, Tesla has lost senior leaders responsible for nearly all core business functions.

The list is striking. Drew Baglino, who had 18 years’ experience in powertrain and energy engineering, left in April 2024. Software chief David Lau is set to leave in 2025. Tesla has replaced four global sales chiefs in less than two years, including Omead Afshar, who was fired in June 2025.

The pace accelerated in 2026. Another manufacturing director left in January. Tesla replaced another North American sales chief in February. Cybercab Project Manager Victor Nechita resigned days after the first production unit rolled off the line. Just this week, Thomas Dmytryk, who headed Tesla’s OTA and Robotaxi infrastructure, departed after 11 years with the company.