Faraday Future is almost out of money and forcing some workers to take unpaid leave: Report

Faraday Future

Faraday Future's planned FF91 SUV.

• The electric vehicle startup Faraday Future is close to running out of money as it forces some workers to take unpaid leave, The Verge reports.
• Faraday Future CEO Jia Yueting reportedly said in an email to employees that workers who started on or after May 1 of this year will be placed on unpaid leave until the automaker receives new funding.
• Nick Sampson, one of the automaker's founders, reportedly resigned on Tuesday, saying Faraday Future is "effectively insolvent" in an email to employees.
• Faraday Future did not immediately respond to Business Insider's request for comment.

The electric vehicle startup Faraday Future is close to running out of money as it forces some workers to take unpaid leave, The Verge reports.

According to the publication, the automaker has halted some operations at its headquarters in Gardena, California, and factory in Hanford, California. Faraday Future CEO Jia Yueting reportedly said in an email to employees that workers who started on or after May 1 of this year will be placed on unpaid leave until the automaker receives new funding. Full-time employees who started before May 1 can continue working on a reduced salary of $50,000 per year and hourly employees who have been working for over six months can choose to remain at Faraday Future for minimum wage, Yueting reportedly said.

Nick Sampson, one of the automaker's founders, reportedly resigned on Tuesday, saying Faraday Future is "effectively insolvent" in an email to employees.

"The company is effectively insolvent in both its financial and personnel assets, it will at best will [sic] limp along for the foreseeable future. I feel that my role in Faraday Future is no long [sic] a path that I can follow, so I will leave the company, effective immediately," Sampson reportedly wrote.

Faraday Future did not immediately respond to Business Insider's request for comment.

A Faraday Future representative told Business Insider last week, following a report from The Verge, that it would reduce the wages of hourly and salaried employees by 20% while laying off an undisclosed number of workers. The representative added that Yueting would lower his salary to $1 as some members of the automaker's leadership team decreased their salaries by more than 20%.

Faraday Future was founded in 2014 and has struggled to build its planned FF91 electric SUV amid financial concerns and a battle with investor Evergrande Health Industry Group over funding. Faraday Future has faced lawsuits and liens from suppliers who claim they have not been paid, and the first pre-production version of the FF91 caught fire hours after it was shown to employees and their families, according to The Verge.

Yueting, who is also the founder and chairman of the Chinese tech company LeEco, last year had $182 million in assets frozen by the Chinese government because of unfulfilled loan payments.