Michael So joins Aalo as VP of Programs

We’re excited to welcome Michael So as our VP of Programs at Aalo Atomics, transitioning from Head of Cybercab Launch at Tesla! Michael joins us with a rare depth of experience bridging ambitious hardware design and mass production at some of the most demanding engineering organizations in the world.

A Career of Launching The Impossible

Since 2014, Michael has led product launches at Tesla, GM, and Rolls-Royce, bringing six products from concept to full-scale production:

• GMC Sierra and Chevrolet Silverado at General Motors, operating at the complexity and scale of America’s highest-volume truck platforms. 
• Cruise’s autonomous vehicle, translating frontier AV technology into a manufacturable product.
• Tesla Model Y and Cybertruck, respectively Tesla’s highest-volume and highest-profile platforms requiring novel manufacturing and production advancements. 
• Tesla Cybercab, Michael is transitioning from Head of Cybercab Launch, where he is responsible for production scale-up of the two-passenger fully autonomous vehicle.

Michael was New Product Introduction (NPI) employee #1 at Tesla’s Giga Texas and built the team to 100+ people under insanely aggressive timelines that measurably reduced the world’s carbon footprint and launched platforms responsible for the top-selling vehicle platform globally every year since 2023. 

Michael holds a BS in Mechanical Engineering from SUNY Binghamton and an MS in Aerospace Engineering from the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign, specializing in materials and structural mechanics.

Why Aalo?

Michael’s move to Aalo is mission-first: "I believe it is our duty to leave the world a better place than we found it," he says. "Aalo Atomics is how we can achieve it, by unlocking clean, limitless energy. I'm excited to solve that with the exceptional talent at Aalo."

Scaling Aalo's New Products

At Aalo, Michael will lead the launches of new products including the Aalo-X and Aalo Pod, applying the same rigor, repeatability, and speed that defined his work at Tesla and General Motors to the deployment of factory-built nuclear systems in service of delivering global energy abundance.

His focus will include:

• Bridging design with production as Aalo’s reactor technology transitions from prototype to commercial factory production.
• Scaling manufacturing systems to deliver Aalo Pods with high-volume precision and reliability as Aalo’s factory footprint expands. 
• Building launch teams capable of executing on aggressive timelines in safety-oriented environments. 

With Michael’s experience launching technically innovative world-changing products and his ability to build high-performance teams from the ground up, Aalo will accelerate in our delivery of clean, firm nuclear power at the scale the world demands.  

Welcome aboard, Michael!