Investor's Corner
Major Tesla shareholder criticizes Elon Musk amidst pay vote
One of Tesla’s largest individual shareholders has spoken out against CEO Elon Musk and his stake in the company, as investors vote on the CEO’s recently rejected 2018 pay package.
After a Delaware judge ruled in favor of a shareholder in a lawsuit in January, officially voiding Musk’s 2018 compensation package worth $55.8 billion, Tesla is now holding an investor vote over whether to approve or deny the pay plan as part of its upcoming Annual Shareholder’s Meeting. Musk has also requested a new compensation package with more stock, and thus, more voting control, even threatening to develop artificial intelligence elsewhere if he doesn’t get them.
Leo KoGuan, who is one of Tesla’s largest individual stakeholders, posted on X on Friday criticizing Musk for selling shares over the last few years, despite his asking for more voting control as part of the ongoing compensation vote. KoGuan also called Musk a “magician,” his supporters “brainless suckers,” and he referred to the proposed package as a “robbery attempt.”
He also notes that, although Musk has sold around $39 billion Tesla shares since the stock peaked in 2021, he still has a 13.4-percent stake in the company, although he wants an additional 10 percent. KoGuan says that he paid significantly more for his very small amount of shares in the company, amounting to around $3.5 billion for just 0.8 percent of the company’s shares.
Paid $3.5 billion for measly 0.8% of Tesla in the market. What is your skin in Tesla? Whereas the Magician is minus -$39 billion and already got 13.4% of Tesla. Robbery of ten thousand years! But he wanted 10% more. Brainless SUCKERS cluelessly are assisting this robbery attempt. https://t.co/SxGfrbjtCY
— KoGuan Leo (@KoguanLeo) May 5, 2024
The statements followed a similar post made by KoGuan just 20 minutes earlier, in which he claimed that Tesla’s mission to accelerate the world’s transition to sustainable energy was just a “ruse to suck in naive investors and engineers.” He followed up with another post blatantly saying shareholders should vote no:
https://twitter.com/KoguanLeo/status/1786942715411972167
This isn’t the first time that KoGuan has been critical of Musk, though he was generally a supporter of the Tesla CEO just a few years ago. KoGuan said last month that Musk should consider “fading away and appointing his replacement” if he isn’t willing to spend more time on Tesla. He also said in January that Musk is “killing shareholders and Tesla,” adding that he wouldn’t have invested in the company had he known this before.
Voting on the package and other proposals began when Board Chair Robyn Denholm filed the company’s proxy statement. Tesla and Denholm have both expressed support for the ratification of Musk’s pay package, as well as for the company’s intent to move incorporation from Delaware to Texas.
“We do not agree with what the Delaware Court decided, and we do not think that what the Delaware Court said is how corporate law should or does work,” Denholm wrote in the filing. “So we are coming to you now so you can help fix this issue—which is a matter of fundamental fairness and respect to our CEO.”
Tesla will hold its Annual Shareholder Meeting on June 13, and shareholders can vote on ratifying Musk’s 2018 pay plan between now and then. The company has also launched a dedicated web page detailing how to cast shareholder votes and suggesting that investors vote yes on two proposals, which you can see here. You can also find Tesla’s full proxy statement here.
What are your thoughts? Have you voted on Tesla’s Shareholder Meeting proposals yet? Let me know how you voted at zach@teslarati.com, find me on X at@zacharyvisconti, or send us tips at tips@teslarati.com.
Elon Musk
SpaceX Starship Flight 13 aborted at Zero and Musk just told us what broke
Four Raptor engines failed to ignite at T-zero, forcing SpaceX to scrub Starship Flight 13 Thursday.
SpaceX scrubbed the Starship Flight 13 launch attempt Thursday evening at the last possible moment, after four of the Super Heavy booster’s 33 Raptor 3 engines failed to ignite during the startup sequence. The 90-minute window had opened at 6:45 p.m. EDT from Starbase in Boca Chica, Texas, and the countdown had proceeded without issue all day, with more than 11.5 million pounds of liquid methane and liquid oxygen being fully loaded into the rocket before the automated abort triggered. SpaceX’s launch directors posted on X, “Standing down from today’s flight test attempt,” and shut down the livestream shortly after.
Musk confirmed the root cause within hours. “Some of the engines didn’t start, triggering an automatic launch abort,” he wrote on X. “To be confident of a good flight, 2 Raptors will be removed and replaced. Most probable launch timing is early next week.” SpaceX engineers began draining propellant tanks immediately and Booster 20 was rolled back to its hangar for inspection.
The timing adds a layer of significance that did not exist during any of the previous 12 Starship flights. This is the first time SpaceX has attempted to launch Starship since the company made its stock market debut in June, listing under ticker SPCX at $135 per share. Public investors are now watching every Starship outcome in real time, and a last-second abort carries more visibility than it would have six months ago.
Flight 13 was designed to be one of the most consequential tests in the program’s history. It was set to carry 20 Starlink V3 satellites, the first operational payload Starship has ever attempted to deploy. Six of those satellites carried external cameras to photograph Starship’s heat shield from the outside during flight, which would act as a self-inspection approach SpaceX has never attempted before. The mission also needed to complete a Raptor engine relight in space, a step SpaceX skipped on Flight 12 in May after losing an engine during ascent. That Flight 12 booster also flipped 90 degrees off course during its boostback burn when five engines failed to reignite.
SpaceX has not announced an official next launch date. Musk’s “early next week” window points to July 21 or 22 at the earliest, pending the engine swap and a return to the pad.
Lucid CEO Silvio Napoli responded to rumors of an imminent bankruptcy that was reportedly being mulled after a report stated the automaker was working with the firm AlixPartners to iron out its next steps.
The company felt a massive loss on Wall Street yesterday, as the report essentially pushed the stock down as much as 55 percent on Tuesday.
The report, published initially by Eletric-Vehicles.com, claimed Lucid was essentially in dire straits and was told by AlixPartners, a commonly used restructuring advisor, to either take shares private or file for Chapter 11 bankruptcy protection.
Lucid’s head of Communications, Nick Twork, immediately challenged the report and stated the company “has sufficient liquidity to carry its operations well into next year.”
Now, the company’s CEO is chiming in as well, stating that the report is “so far from the facts that they require a direct response.”
Napoli said:
“Lucid is not considering bankruptcy or a transaction to take the company private. Those reports are false. The Board did not explore either scenario. Period.
As disclosed in our most recent quarterly filing, Lucid has sufficient liquidity to fund its operations well into next year.
We work with outside advisors to improve operational performance and execution. They are not advising Lucid on a take-private transaction or bankruptcy, and any suggestion that they have recommended either course of action to management or the Board is false.
My priority is clear: turn this company around. That is where the leadership team and I are focused.
I look forward to providing a full update during our quarterly earnings call on August 4th.”
🚨 Lucid CEO Silvio Napoli calls rumors of financial issues “so far from the facts that they require a direct response.”
Read his full remarks here: https://t.co/t3Pg1NHvzy pic.twitter.com/LvHUPhO4Qf
— TESLARATI (@Teslarati) July 15, 2026
It seems pretty clear that Lucid is confident things will be okay, and, to be honest, they should not have much to worry about, especially considering the company has been backed by the Saudi Public Investment Fund (PIF) for years. It has solid financial backing, and its sales, while weak, are pretty much right on par with a company of this age.
Lucid also sent a Cease & Desist letter to the publication for their report.
Lucid shares have rebounded nicely and are up nearly 21 percent at the time of publication. As soon as the company dispelled the rumors of bankruptcy yesterday, the stock began to climb back toward more reasonable levels.
Electric vehicle maker Lucid Group has denied rumors of an imminent bankruptcy after a report from this morning sent the stock on a dramatic drop on Wall Street, seeing losses of more than 40 percent during trading hours.
Lucid’s Director of Communications, Nick Twork, responded to the report from Eletric-Vehicles.com, which stated the company’s restructuring advisor, AlixPartners, was asked to review two decisions: taking Lucid shares private or filing for Chapter 11 bankruptcy protection.
The report also claims AlixPartners told the Lucid board to “concentrate on Gravity production while improving its quality, and to temporarily hold back the Lucid Air, the sedan that has defined the company since its launch.”
Twork said:
$LCID The rumors are completely false. The company has sufficient liquidity to carry its operations well into next year, as recently published in its last quarterly filings, and it has not formed any special Board committee to explore the scenarios reported today. Our focus is…
— Nick Twork (@ntwork) July 14, 2026
Shares rebounded after the response to the report, halving its losses as the trading day neared 3 p.m. Eastern.
Lucid has struggled to get its sales off the ground and into more respectable numbers, but the company is in its early years, when things are hard to begin with. It is also backed by several notable investors, including the Saudi Public Investment Fund (PIF), which has nearly limitless money and likely would not ditch an investment of this size so soon.
Lucid shares were down just 14 percent at the time of publication, a far cry from the 55 percent its losses topped out at during the day.
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