The Delaware Supreme Court has cut more than $100 million from a legal fee award tied to a shareholder lawsuit challenging compensation paid to Tesla directors between 2017 and 2020. 

The ruling leaves the case’s underlying settlement intact while significantly reducing what the plaintiffs’ attorneys will receive.

Delaware Supreme Court trims legal fees

As noted in a Bloomberg Law report, the case targeted pay granted to Tesla directors, including CEO Elon Musk, Oracle founder Larry Ellison, Kimbal Musk, and Rupert Murdoch. The Delaware Chancery Court had awarded $176 million to the plaintiffs. Tesla’s board must also return stock options and forego years worth of pay. 

As per Chief Justice Collins J. Seitz Jr. in an opinion for the Delaware Supreme Court’s full five-member panel, however, the decision of the Delaware Chancery Court to award $176 million to a pension fund’s law firm “erred by including in its financial benefit analysis the intrinsic value” of options being returned by Tesla’s board.

The justices then reduced the fee award from $176 million to $70.9 million. “As we measure it, $71 million reflects a reasonable fee for counsel’s efforts and does not result in a windfall,” Chief Justice Seitz wrote.

Other settlement terms still intact

The Supreme Court upheld the settlement itself, which requires Tesla’s board to return stock and options valued at up to $735 million and to forgo three years of additional compensation worth about $184 million. 

Tesla argued during oral arguments that a fee award closer to $70 million would be appropriate. Interestingly enough, back in October, Justice Karen L. Valihura noted that the $176 award was $60 million more than the Delaware judiciary’s budget from the previous year. This was quite interesting as the case was “settled midstream.”

The lawsuit was brought by a pension fund on behalf of Tesla shareholders and focused exclusively on director pay during the 2017–2020 period. The case is separate from other high-profile compensation disputes involving Elon Musk.

Tesla Litigation by Simon Alvarez

SpaceX is reportedly in advanced discussions to merge with artificial intelligence startup xAI. The talks could reportedly result in an agreement as soon as this week, though discussions remain ongoing.

The update was initially reported by Bloomberg News, which cited people reportedly familiar with the matter.

SpaceX and xAI advanced merger talks

SpaceX and xAI have reportedly informed some investors about plans to potentially combine the two privately held companies, Bloomberg’s sources claimed. Representatives for both companies did not immediately respond to requests for comment.

A merger would unite two of the world’s largest private firms. xAI raised capital at a valuation of about $200 billion in September, while SpaceX was preparing a share sale late last year that valued the rocket company at roughly $800 billion.

If completed, the merger would bring together SpaceX’s launch and satellite infrastructure with xAI’s computing and model development. This could pave the way for Musk’s vision of deploying data centers in orbit to support large-scale AI workloads.

Musk’s broader consolidation efforts

Elon Musk has increasingly linked his companies around autonomy, AI, and space-based infrastructure. SpaceX is seeking regulatory approval to launch up to one million satellites as part of its long-term plans, as per a recent filing. Such a scale could support space-based computing concepts.

SpaceX has also discussed the feasibility of a potential tie-up with electric vehicle maker Tesla, Bloomberg previously reported. SpaceX has reportedly been preparing for a possible initial public offering (IPO) as well, which could value the company at up to $1.5 trillion. No timeline for SpaceX’s reported IPO plans have been announced yet, however.

Tesla will build Optimus 4 in Giga Texas, and its production line will be massive. This was, at least, as per recent comments by CEO Elon Musk on social media platform X.  

Optimus 4 production

In response to a post on X which expressed surprise that Optimus will be produced in California, Musk stated that “Optimus 4 will be built in Texas at much higher volume.” This suggests that while the first Optimus line will be set up in the Fremont Factory, and while the line itself will be capable of producing 1 million humanoid robots per year, the real ramp of Optimus’ production will happen in Giga Texas. 

This was not the first time that Elon Musk shared his plans for Optimus’ production at Gigafactory Texas. During the 2025 Annual Shareholder Meeting, he stated that Giga Texas’ Optimus line will produce 10 million units of the humanoid robot per year. He did not, however, state at the time that Giga Texas would produce Optimus V4. 

“So we’re going to launch on the fastest production ramp of any product of any large complex manufactured product ever, starting with building a one-million-unit production line in Fremont. And that’s Line one. And then a ten million unit per year production line here,” Musk stated. 

How big Optimus could become

During Tesla’s Q4 and FY 2025 earnings call, Musk offered additional context on the potential of Optimus. While he stated that the ramp of Optimus’ production will be deliberate at first, the humanoid robot itself will have the potential to change the world. 

“Optimus really will be a general-purpose robot that can learn by observing human behavior. You can demonstrate a task or verbally describe a task or show it a task. Even show it a video, it will be able to do that task. It’s going to be a very capable robot. I think long-term Optimus will have a very significant impact on the US GDP. 

“It will actually move the needle on US GDP significantly. In conclusion, there are still many who doubt our ambitions for creating amazing abundance. We are confident it can be done, and we are making the right moves technologically to ensure that it does. Tesla, Inc. has never been a company to shy away from solving the hardest problems,” Musk stated.