

Investor's Corner
Tesla billionaire investor Ron Baron supports ratification of Musk’s 2018 pay package
Legendary investor Ron Baron has noted that he would be voting in favor of the ratification of Elon Musk’s 2018 CEO Performance Award. Baron’s rationale behind his vote was highlighted in an open letter and discussed in a segment on CNBC’s Squawk Box.
In his open letter, Baron noted that Musk’s 2018 compensation package included aggressive performance metrics that — at the time when the CEO Performance Award was approved — few believed were possible. Baron highlighted that had Musk not met his very aggressive performance goals, he would have received nothing from the electric vehicle maker.
However, since he achieved his performance goals as Tesla’s CEO, shareholders should honor Musk’s pay package. He also noted that he believes Tesla has the potential to grow even more in the years to come. “When the contract was signed, the company’s market value was $53 billion. It got as high as a trillion, and it’s now $550 billion. I think in the next ten years, we’ll make 4-5 times our money again in Tesla,” Baron noted.
Ron Baron supporting @elonmusk this morning on cnbc @BaronCapital $tsla vote your shares!!!! pic.twitter.com/jwZk3nvZqd— Jim Hall (@jhall) June 5, 2024
Following is Baron’s open letter in support of Musk’s 2018 compensation plan.
Baron Capital supports Elon Musk’s 2018 compensation contract for the following reasons:
In 2018, 73% of Tesla’s disinterested shareholders voted in support of Elon’s compensation contract. The will of those owners of the company should be honored. The contractual agreement between the company and Elon should be honored. The voice of shareholders and legally binding contracts should not be permitted to be undone by a shareholder for hire and his strike suit lawyers. The plaintiff shareholder in question owned nine (9) Tesla shares, and the lawyers who represented him have requested they be awarded $5.6 billion in fees! Further, the plaintiff’s lawyers requested their fees be paid in Tesla shares…after its stock price has been depressed by this controversy! Does anyone honestly believe the motivation of the plaintiff and his lawyers was to serve the best interests of Tesla and its shareholders?
Elon’s compensation contract contained aggressive performance metrics that few in 2018 believed could be achieved. If these aggressive performance metrics had not been achieved, Elon would have received nothing. When Tesla achieved targeted earnings, revenues, and market cap metrics, Tesla’s shareholders benefitted greatly. Tesla’s market cap when Elon’s pay package was approved on March 21, 2018 was $53.5 billion. It is approximately $550.75 billion today, after having reached a high watermark of $1.24 trillion in November of 2021. He performed under his compensation contract. He earned his pay.
Elon is the ultimate “key man” of key man risk. Without his relentless drive and uncompromising standards, there would be no Tesla. Especially considering how he slept on the floor of Tesla’s Fremont factory when the company was going through what he called “production hell!”
If shareholders want to protect and grow their investment, they must AGAIN approve his compensation contract.
Shareholders should ask themselves this question: is Tesla better off with or without Elon…whom we believe is the reason 6 million people applied for 12,000 jobs last year to work with this extraordinary individual. Because that is what is at stake. At Baron Capital, our answer is clear, loud, and unequivocal: Tesla is better with Elon.
Tesla is Elon.
Ron
June 4, 2024
Ron Baron’s full open letter in support of Elon Musk’s 2018 CEO Performance Award can be fully viewed below.
Baron Capital Tesla Elon Musk Compensation 6.5.2024 by Simon Alvarez on Scribd
Don’t hesitate to contact us with news tips. Just send a message to simon@teslarati.com to give us a heads up.
Elon Musk
Tesla analysts believe Musk and Trump feud will pass
Tesla CEO Elon Musk and U.S. President Donald Trump’s feud shall pass, several bulls say.

Tesla analysts are breaking down the current feud between CEO Elon Musk and U.S. President Donald Trump, as the two continue to disagree on the “Big Beautiful Bill” and its impact on the country’s national debt.
Musk, who headed the Department of Government Efficiency (DOGE) under the Trump Administration, left his post in May. Soon thereafter, he and President Trump entered a very public and verbal disagreement, where things turned sour. They reconciled to an extent, and things seemed to be in the past.
However, the second disagreement between the two started on Monday, as Musk continued to push back on the “Big Beautiful Bill” that the Trump administration is attempting to sign into law. It would, by Musk’s estimation, increase spending and reverse the work DOGE did to trim the deficit.
Every member of Congress who campaigned on reducing government spending and then immediately voted for the biggest debt increase in history should hang their head in shame!
And they will lose their primary next year if it is the last thing I do on this Earth.
— Elon Musk (@elonmusk) June 30, 2025
President Trump has hinted that DOGE could be “the monster” that “eats Elon,” threatening to end the subsidies that SpaceX and Tesla receive. Musk has not been opposed to ending government subsidies for companies, including his own, as long as they are all abolished.
How Tesla could benefit from the ‘Big Beautiful Bill’ that axes EV subsidies
Despite this contentious back-and-forth between the two, analysts are sharing their opinions now, and a few of the more bullish Tesla observers are convinced that this feud will pass, Trump and Musk will resolve their differences as they have before, and things will return to normal.
ARK Invest’s Cathie Wood said this morning that the feud between Musk and Trump is another example of “this too shall pass:”
BREAKING: CATHIE WOOD SAYS — ELON AND TRUMP FEUD “WILL PASS” 👀 $TSLA
She remains bullish ! pic.twitter.com/w5rW2gfCkx
— TheSonOfWalkley (@TheSonOfWalkley) July 1, 2025
Additionally, Wedbush’s Dan Ives, in a note to investors this morning, said that the situation “will settle:”
“We believe this situation will settle and at the end of the day Musk needs Trump and Trump needs Musk given the AI Arms Race going on between the US and China. The jabs between Musk and Trump will continue as the Budget rolls through Congress but Tesla investors want Musk to focus on driving Tesla and stop this political angle…which has turned into a life of its own in a roller coaster ride since the November elections.”
Tesla shares are down about 5 percent at 3:10 p.m. on the East Coast.
Elon Musk
Tesla investors will be shocked by Jim Cramer’s latest assessment
Jim Cramer is now speaking positively about Tesla, especially in terms of its Robotaxi performance and its perception as a company.

Tesla investors will be shocked by analyst Jim Cramer’s latest assessment of the company.
When it comes to Tesla analysts, many of them are consistent. The bulls usually stay the bulls, and the bears usually stay the bears. The notable analysts on each side are Dan Ives and Adam Jonas for the bulls, and Gordon Johnson for the bears.
Jim Cramer is one analyst who does not necessarily fit this mold. Cramer, who hosts CNBC’s Mad Money, has switched his opinion on Tesla stock (NASDAQ: TSLA) many times.
He has been bullish, like he was when he said the stock was a “sleeping giant” two years ago, and he has been bearish, like he was when he said there was “nothing magnificent” about the company just a few months ago.
Now, he is back to being a bull.
Cramer’s comments were related to two key points: how NVIDIA CEO Jensen Huang describes Tesla after working closely with the Company through their transactions, and how it is not a car company, as well as the recent launch of the Robotaxi fleet.
Jensen Huang’s Tesla Narrative
Cramer says that the narrative on quarterly and annual deliveries is overblown, and those who continue to worry about Tesla’s performance on that metric are misled.
“It’s not a car company,” he said.
He went on to say that people like Huang speak highly of Tesla, and that should be enough to deter any true skepticism:
“I believe what Musk says cause Musk is working with Jensen and Jensen’s telling me what’s happening on the other side is pretty amazing.”
Tesla self-driving development gets huge compliment from NVIDIA CEO
Robotaxi Launch
Many media outlets are being extremely negative regarding the early rollout of Tesla’s Robotaxi platform in Austin, Texas.
There have been a handful of small issues, but nothing significant. Cramer says that humans make mistakes in vehicles too, yet, when Tesla’s test phase of the Robotaxi does it, it’s front page news and needs to be magnified.
He said:
“Look, I mean, drivers make mistakes all the time. Why should we hold Tesla to a standard where there can be no mistakes?”
It’s refreshing to hear Cramer speak logically about the Robotaxi fleet, as Tesla has taken every measure to ensure there are no mishaps. There are safety monitors in the passenger seat, and the area of travel is limited, confined to a small number of people.
Tesla is still improving and hopes to remove teleoperators and safety monitors slowly, as CEO Elon Musk said more freedom could be granted within one or two months.
Investor's Corner
Tesla gets $475 price target from Benchmark amid initial Robotaxi rollout
Tesla’s limited rollout of its Robotaxi service in Austin is already catching the eye of Wall Street.

Venture capital firm Benchmark recently reiterated its “Buy” rating and raised its price target on Tesla stock (NASDAQ: TSLA) from $350 to $475 per share, citing the company’s initial Robotaxi service deployment as a sign of future growth potential.
Benchmark analyst Mickey Legg praised the Robotaxi service pilot’s “controlled and safety-first approach,” adding that it could help Tesla earn the trust of regulators and the general public.
Confidence in camera-based autonomy
Legg reiterated Benchmark’s belief in Tesla’s vision-only approach to autonomous driving. “We are a believer in Tesla’s camera-focused approach that is not only cost effective but also scalable,” he noted.
The analyst contrasted Tesla’s simple setup with the more expensive hardware stacks used by competitors like Waymo, which use various sophisticated sensors that hike up costs, as noted in an Investing.com report. Compared to Tesla’s Model Y Robotaxis, Waymo’s self-driving cars are significantly more expensive.
He also pointed to upcoming Texas regulations set to take effect in September, suggesting they could help create a regulatory framework favorable to autonomous services in other cities.
“New regulations for autonomous vehicles are set to go into place on Sept. 1 in TX that we believe will further help win trust and pave the way for expansion to additional cities,” the analyst wrote.
Tesla as a robotics powerhouse
Beyond robotaxis, Legg sees Tesla evolving beyond its roots as an electric vehicle maker. He noted that Tesla’s humanoid robot, Optimus, could be a long-term growth driver alongside new vehicle programs and other future initiatives.
“In our view, the company is undergoing an evolution from a trailblazing vehicle OEM to a high-tech automation and robotics company with unmatched domestic manufacturing scale,” he wrote.
Benchmark noted that Tesla stock had rebounded over 50% from its April lows, driven in part by easing tariff concerns and growing momentum around autonomy. With its initial Robotaxi rollout now underway, the firm has returned to its previous $475 per share target and reaffirmed TSLA as a Benchmark Top Pick for 2025.
-
Elon Musk1 day ago
Tesla investors will be shocked by Jim Cramer’s latest assessment
-
News6 days ago
Tesla Robotaxi’s biggest challenge seems to be this one thing
-
News2 weeks ago
Tesla’s Grok integration will be more realistic with this cool feature
-
Elon Musk2 weeks ago
Elon Musk slams Bloomberg’s shocking xAI cash burn claims
-
News2 weeks ago
Tesla China roars back with highest vehicle registrations this Q2 so far
-
News2 weeks ago
Texas lawmakers urge Tesla to delay Austin robotaxi launch to September
-
News2 weeks ago
Tesla dominates Cars.com’s Made in America Index with clean sweep
-
Elon Musk1 week ago
First Look at Tesla’s Robotaxi App: features, design, and more