Tesla CEO Elon Musk arrives at federal court, April 4, 2019 in New York City. A federal judge will hear oral arguments this afternoon in a lawsuit brought by the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) that seeks to hold Musk in contempt for violating a settlement deal.

Tesla CEO Elon Musk told employees in a companywide email Thursday that $2 billion in new funds raised this month were only enough to get through 10 months if Tesla keeps spending as it did in the first quarter of 2019. He requested that everyone at the company take "hardcore" measures to pull back on spending.

Musk wrote in the email to employees, which was obtained by CNBC, that he would take extreme action to control spending. He also urged employees to do the same. He said Tesla's CFO will review and sign every expense going forward. Musk said he will personally sign off on every 10th page of expenses.

"It is important to bear in mind that we lost $700 million in the first quarter this year, which is over $200 million per month," Musk wrote in the email. "Investors nonetheless were supportive of our efforts and agreed to give us $2.4 billion (our net proceeds) to show that we can be financially sustainable."

Tesla shares dipped Friday by more than 5% after safety regulators determined that its Autopilot (driver-assist system) was engaged at the time of a fatal Model 3 crash in Florida in March 2019.

That deadly crash was at least the third where federal investigators concluded Autopilot was engaged before impact. Their findings raised questions about the safety and integrity of its cars and semi-autonomous systems.

In recent weeks, Musk touted the company's future as a self-driving technology business that would be operating robotaxis, commercially, taking on not just other electric car makers, but money-losing ride-hailing platforms like Uber and Lyft.

Autonomous vehicle tech should grow the company into a $500 billion market-cap business, Musk said on a recent investor call. Those promises helped Tesla raise more than $2 billion to support its next stage of growth.

A Tesla spokesperson was not immediately available to comment.

Here's the full email Musk sent to Tesla employees: