Tesla is laying off a bunch of its Shanghai Gigafactory workers, weeks after Elon Musk visited and praised their hard work

• Tesla is laying off some staff at the Shanghai Gigafactory, Bloomberg reported.
• That comes just five weeks after Elon Musk said their hard work "warms my heart."
• Musk visited the factory late at night as he finished a tour of China which included meetings with government officials.

Tesla is laying off some staff at its Gigafactory in Shanghai, Bloomberg reported, five weeks after Elon Musk praised them.

Musk visited the Shanghai Gigafactory at the end of May as part of a two-day visit to China, which also included meetings with senior government officials and a lavish 16-course meal. 

A video of the world's richest person giving a late-night speech to his Tesla staff was then shared by the Chinese state newspaper Global Times. 

"Thank you for being here late at night," he began. "It's been incredibly impressive how you have been able to overcome so many difficulties and so many challenges."

"I just want to let you know, it warms my heart," Musk said, tapping his chest before making a fist pump.

Before leaving on a private jet back to the US, Musk also purchased burgers and soft drinks for 100 of the Gigafactory workers. 

But just over a month after Musk's visit, some of those workers have lost their jobs, Bloomberg reported, citing unnamed sources familiar with the matter. The precise number of people who've been laid off is unspecified and some of these employees have been given the option to transfer to another part of the factory, these sources said. Insider reached out to Tesla for comment but did not immediately hear back. 

Bloomberg reports that Tesla began notifying battery-production staff that they would be laid off earlier this week.  That department makes up less than 1,000 of the Gigafactory's 20,000 staff, per Reuters. 

The reason for these layoffs is also not clear. According to data from local trade group – the China Passenger Car Association – which was cited by CNN, deliveries from Tesla's Shanghai factory more than doubled in the second quarter of 2023 and accounted for over half of its global sales. 

Six weeks before Musk's visit in May, the Shanghai plant came into the news after some staff took to social media to complain that they had their performance bonuses unfairly cut, Reuters reported. 

Tesla workers then criticized Musk on Chinese social media, and some people even complained to his mom on Twitter.

Last year, Musk praised Tesla's Chinese staff for working until 3 a.m. — as some workers were required to sleep on the factory floor to keep production going during the country's strict COVID-19 lockdowns.