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Elon Musk’s $56B pay package under review by new Tesla committee  

Tesla forms a special board committee to reassess Elon Musk’s 2018 compensation. New performance-based options may be on the table for Musk.

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Wcamp9, CC BY 4.0 , via Wikimedia Commons

Tesla’s board has established a special committee to evaluate CEO Elon Musk’s pay package. The move comes as the company navigates a pivotal shift in its strategic direction.

According to the Financial Times, the new committee could craft a new stock options package. The committee, comprising Tesla board Chair Robyn Denholm and independent director Kathleen Wilson-Thompson, is tasked with reviewing Musk’s compensation, noted sources familiar with the matter.

The group will explore alternative compensation methods for Musk’s past contributions if the 2018 $56 billion pay package is not reinstated. Any new stock options would be tied to Tesla meeting financial, operational, and share price targets. Musk’s 2018 pay package is currently under appeal.

Last month, Tesla disclosed the formation of a special committee to address compensation matters involving Musk, though details were sparse. In March 2025, Musk appealed to restore his record-breaking $56 billion compensation, arguing that Delaware Chancery Court Judge Kathleen McCormick made “multiple legal errors” in rescinding it. The appeal began on March 11, 2025. Musk along with current and former Tesla directors are challenging McCormick’s application of the entire fairness standard in her ruling.

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Tesla is at a crossroads as it pushes forward with robotaxis and humanoid robots. This shift repositions Tesla as an AI and robotics leader rather than a traditional automaker. Elon Musk is Tesla’s largest shareholder, holding a 13% stake. Earlier this month, Denholm refuted a Wall Street Journal report suggesting the board was seeking a replacement for Musk, reaffirming his central role in the company.

The committee’s review underscores Tesla’s efforts to align Musk’s compensation with its evolving goals amid legal and strategic challenges. As the appeal progresses and Tesla doubles down on AI-driven innovation, the outcome could shape the company’s leadership and market trajectory. With Musk’s vision steering Tesla toward uncharted territory, the compensation debate highlights the high stakes of balancing shareholder value with transformative ambition.

Maria--aka "M"-- is an experienced writer and book editor. She's written about several topics including health, tech, and politics. As a book editor, she's worked with authors who write Sci-Fi, Romance, and Dark Fantasy. M loves hearing from TESLARATI readers. If you have any tips or article ideas, contact her at maria@teslarati.com or via X, @Writer_01001101.

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Elon Musk

Tesla’s Elon Musk considers insane Cybertruck mod: ‘Maybe we should make this’

The Cybertruck won’t do what the video shows (at least not in our lifetime), but a very entry-level version of it could be developed.

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Credit: Cybertruck | X

Tesla CEO Elon Musk has teased what could potentially be the company’s next big project, and while it is likely many, many years away, it shows the company truly has its sights set on the craziest things the world has seen.

Musk shared a video created by Grok Imagine, the AI tool that is able to take images and turn them into videos, showing a Cybertruck flying above the clouds and buildings of what appears to be a very futuristic city.

There are also massive robots roaming around in the video, so it is obviously an illustration of what life could look like in several generations.

However, Musk, who does not shy away from some really optimistic projects and goals, shared the video on X and said, “Maybe Tesla should make this.”

What is depicted in the video is not what we’d see Tesla create anytime soon. However, the company could potentially engineer something to make the Cybertruck hover, as it plans to do with the Roadster.

Of course, this is likely a huge “if” considering the current state of the car industry. Vehicles are becoming more advanced with every passing day as companies like Tesla, Waymo, and others are working to sort out things like autonomous and driverless travel.

Tesla has been working on somewhat of a similar idea with the Roadster, a vehicle that has been delayed on several occasions because of Musk’s spectacular imagination. Earlier this year, Tesla’s Chief Designer, Franz von Holzhausen, revealed Musk wanted to push the limits of that vehicle even more.

The new Tesla Roadster will be able to fly: Elon Musk

It seems it could be on the way soon, considering Tesla has teased an “epic” demo for the car, which could come before the end of the year.

Tesla has been working to make the Roadster hover, using SpaceX cold gas thrusters. It will also utilize these for what could be an incredibly fast 1.1-second 0-60 MPH acceleration rate that has been teased countless times.

This project that Musk is teasing with the Cybertruck is likely one that we will not see in our lifetimes. However, this is just one example of the outlandish ideas Musk continues to tease for Tesla in the future.

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Elon Musk

Tesla Robotaxi gets shade thrown on it by ex-Waymo CEO

“If they were striving to re-create today’s Bay Area Uber experience, looks like they’ve absolutely nailed it.”

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Credit: @AdanGuajardo/X

Tesla Robotaxi is getting more shade thrown on it by skeptics from all corners of the industry. Recently, it received some criticism from ex-Waymo CEO John Krafcik, who led the currently sits on the board of Tesla rival Rivian.

Robotaxi is Tesla’s self-driving ride-hailing service that operates in both Austin, Texas, and the San Francisco Bay Area.

In Austin, it launched on June 22, and it was the first city where Tesla launched driverless rides to a select group of invited guests. That group, as well as the geofence in Austin, has expanded several times in the roughly two months since its launch.

In the Bay, Tesla is not legally allowed to call the platform “Robotaxi,” so it refers to it as its ride-hailing service. This was confirmed by CEO Elon Musk.

However, Krafcik, who was with Waymo for about seven years, is skeptical of the Robotaxi fleet, basically calling it less than impressive and stating that it is a lot like Uber in San Francisco.

In an interview with Business Insider, Krafcik revealed his true thoughts about Tesla’s efforts:

“If they were striving to re-create today’s Bay Area Uber experience, looks like they’ve absolutely nailed it.”

He went on to say that the company’s decision to keep Safety Monitors in the vehicle for the time being makes the vehicle not a Robotaxi. In Austin, there is not a Safety Monitor in the driver’s seat, only in the front passenger’s seat.

In the Bay Area, there is a Safety Monitor in the driver’s seat, which is a regulatory requirement with the platform currently.

Krafcik continued:

“Please let me know when Tesla launches a robotaxi — I’m still waiting. It’s (rather obviously) not a robotaxi if there’s an employee inside the car.”

The presence of a Safety Monitor is only a measure of precaution currently, and Tesla has said that it is purely a move to ensure riders are kept out of danger.

Musk said recently that Tesla is being “paranoid” over safety, and for good reason. Any instance of an accident could set Tesla, or any self-driving program for that matter, back years.

Unfortunately, Krafcik said he has no desire to try Robotaxi, so it won’t get a fair shot at changing his mind.

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Tesla bear Guggenheim sees nearly 50% drop off in stock price in new note

Tesla bear Guggenheim does not see any upside in Robotaxi.

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tesla showroom
Credit: Tesla

Tesla bear Guggenheim is still among the biggest non-believers in the company’s overall mission and its devotion to solving self-driving.

In a new note to investors on Thursday, analyst Ronald Jewsikow reiterated his price target of $175, a nearly 50 percent drop off, with a ‘Sell’ rating, all based on skepticism regarding Tesla’s execution of the Robotaxi platform.

A few days ago, Tesla CEO Elon Musk said the company’s Robotaxi platform would open to the public in September, offering driverless rides to anyone in the Austin area within its geofence, which is roughly 90 square miles large.

Tesla CEO Elon Musk confirms Robotaxi is opening to the public: here’s when

However, Jewsikow’s skepticism regarding this timeline has to do with what’s going on inside of the vehicles. The analyst was willing to give props to Robotaxi, saying that Musk’s estimation of a September public launch would be a “key step” in offering the service to a broader population.

Where Jewsikow’s real issue lies is with Tesla’s lack of transparency on the Safety Monitors, and how bulls are willing to overlook their importance.

Much of this bullish mentality comes from the fact that the Monitors are not sitting in the driver’s seat, and they don’t have anything to do with the overall operation of the vehicle.

Musk also said last month that reducing Safety Monitors could come “in a month or two.”

Instead, they’re just there to make sure everything runs smoothly.

Jewsikow said:

“While safety drivers will remain, and no timeline has been provided for their removal, bulls have been willing to overlook the optics of safety drivers in TSLA vehicles, and we see no reason why that would change now.”

He also commented on Musk’s recent indication that Tesla was working on a 10x parameter count that could help make Full Self-Driving even more accurate. It could be one of the pieces to Tesla solving autonomy.

Jewsikow added:

“Perhaps most importantly for investors bullish on TSLA for the fleet of potential FSD-enabled vehicles today, the 10x higher parameter count will be able to run on the current generation of FSD hardware and inference compute.”

Elon Musk teases crazy new Tesla FSD model: here’s when it’s coming

Tesla shares are down just about 2 percent today, trading at $332.47.

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