Faraday Future, a California-based electric-car startup and Tesla’s once rival, generated buzz in 2015 as the company poached top talent from Tesla, BMW, Audi, Ford, and Ferrari. Called “Tesla killer,” Faraday’s meteoric rise in notoriety occurred on dubious underpinnings — the company did not promise a product, nor did it announce any concrete plans for its first few years of operation.
The mystery surrounding Faraday was only matched by its enigmatic cofounder and CEO, Jia “YT” Yueting, the billionaire businessman who founded multiple telecom companies in China but left abruptly to become the CEO of Faraday. We took a look at YT and Faraday Future’s promise, the financial woes that led them both to bankruptcy, and YT’s relationship with the reanimated Faraday today.