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Musk responds to pay case lawyers requesting $6 billion in Tesla shares
Elon Musk has responded to lawyers in the recent Delaware case regarding his Tesla compensation package, after the attorneys this week requested legal awards of 29 million Tesla shares — worth almost $6 billion.
Musk’s pay package at Tesla was rejected in late January by Judge Kathaleen McCormick of the Delaware Court of Chancery, as part of a 2018 case brought forward by shareholder Richard Tornetta. Following the decision to void Musk’s $55.8 billion compensation package just over a month ago, Tornetta’s lawyers argued in a filing on Friday that they deserve over 29 million Tesla shares as their legal fees, worth around $5.95 billion at the company’s current valuation (via Bloomberg).
In the filing, the lawyers also explained why they requested the fee in Tesla stock instead of cash.
“We are prepared to ‘eat our cooking,’” Tornetta’s lawyers wrote. “This structure has the benefit of linking the award directly to the benefit created and avoids taking even one cent from the Tesla balance sheet to pay fees. It is also tax-deductible by Tesla.”
Tornetta’s case was brought to the court on behalf of shareholders, so roughly 267 million Tesla shares that would have been a part of Musk’s pay package are now expected to be returned to the company, according to the filing.
Tulane University Corporate Law Professor Ann Lipton says the legal team’s payout could be the largest attorney fee ever requested, at least that she’s familiar with.
“Now, to be fair, the case involved the largest compensation award ever to an executive,” Lipton added to Bloomberg.
“I assume the plaintiffs’ attorneys figured if they sought $6 billion in cash in fees it could cripple Tesla,” she says. “Since the case involved a stock award to Musk, they thought it would be appropriate to ask for the fee in shares so it wouldn’t be as rough for Tesla shareholders. That makes a lot of sense to me.”
Following the filing, multiple Tesla executives responded, including Musk himself.
In a flurry of posts on X on Saturday, Musk criticized the request, calling it “utterly disgraceful,” “ironic,” “criminal,” and saying that the the lawyers were “evil” in two separate replies. You can see just a couple of his posts below.
The lawyers who did nothing but damage Tesla want $6 billion. Criminal. https://t.co/JI6eQPTxQ2
— Elon Musk (@elonmusk) March 2, 2024
The system is broken.
Best to get out of Delaware as soon as possible possible.
— Elon Musk (@elonmusk) March 2, 2024
Rohan Patel, Tesla’s Vice President of Public Policy and Business Development, also responded to the reports, noting that he believed other employees at the company would be “equally disgusted” by the news.
Nearly every single @Tesla employee is an owner/shareholder of the company. Tens of thousands of them have had a life-changing experience as a result of the company/stock growth. Some truly inspiring stories…our employees work very hard and are positively changing multiple… https://t.co/gB9WlVlTG2
— Rohan Patel (@rohanspatel) March 2, 2024
After Judge McCormick’s decision to void Musk’s compensation package, made on January 30, the multi-company executive has motioned to move the incorporations of SpaceX, The Boring Company and Neuralink out of Delaware, and he’s expected to do the same with Tesla.
Musk has also been outspoken since the decision, noting that Tesla plans to appeal the decision and pointing to how much the lawyers representing Tornetta could profit from this trial. In response to an early February report, Musk said it was “so deeply and utterly wrong that a law firm that harmed Tesla could stand to gain billions.”
THIS TIME LAST YEAR:
Elon Musk’s lawyers to make closing arguments in CEO’s pay package case
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News
Tesla Optimus is learning martial arts in new video teasing capabilities
For the past few months, Tesla has been refining its capabilities and making some serious progress on what Optimus is capable of. This morning, Musk released a new video showing Optimus learning Kung Fu, perhaps its most impressive feat yet.

Tesla Optimus is learning martial arts, a new video released by CEO Elon Musk shows, a crazy development and advancement in the robotics project the company has been working on for a few years.
Optimus has been a major focus of Tesla for the past several years, especially as Musk has said he believes it will be the biggest product of all time and could be the biggest contributor to the company’s valuation.
For the past few months, Tesla has been refining its capabilities and making some serious progress on what Optimus is capable of. This morning, Musk released a new video showing Optimus learning Kung Fu, perhaps its most impressive feat yet:
Tesla Optimus learning Kung Fu pic.twitter.com/ziEuiiKWn7
— Elon Musk (@elonmusk) October 4, 2025
The video shows Optimus working with a Kung Fu teacher, known as a Shifu, going through what appears to be some sort of routine of combinations. It’s quite impressive to see the fluidity of the movements and Optimus’s ability to keep up with Shifu.
Tesla has been “working hard” to scale Optimus production, Musk said last week, a project that has obviously confronted both AI and manufacturing teams with a variety of challenges.
The plan is to have an annual production run-rate of one million units by 2030, and there were plans to build 5,000 units this year.
Musk still believes Optimus will make up roughly 80 percent of Tesla’s value. In January, he said it would be “overwhelmingly the value of the company.”
Tesla plans to launch the Gen 3 version of Optimus soon, and although a video of a new-look prototype was released by Marc Benioff, the CEO of Salesforce, the company’s frontman stated that this was not what the next-generation prototype would look like.
Elon Musk confirms Tesla has never shown Optimus V3 design yet
This video seems to show there is still significant progress being made on the Optimus project, and it will be perhaps one of the most impressive humanoid robots available to consumers in the coming years.
Elon Musk
Tesla Full Self-Driving v14 gets new release date, Elon Musk details
“Last minute bug cropped up with V14. Released is pushed to Monday, but that gives us time to add a few more features.”

Tesla’s Full Self-Driving version 14 has gotten a new release date after new details from CEO Elon Musk opened up some new perspectives on the suite.
Originally slated for an “early wide release” of v14 this past week, then a launch of v14.1 and v14.2 this week and next week, respectively, delays arose after Tesla’s Autopilot team found some issues within the software.
Tesla FSD V14 set for early wide release next week: Elon Musk
Musk detailed on X this morning that a “last minute bug” appeared before release, which has now pushed FSD v14’s release back to this Monday:
Last minute bug cropped up with V14. Released is pushed to Monday, but that gives us time to add a few more features.
— Elon Musk (@elonmusk) October 4, 2025
Musk also said the delay would give Tesla the ability to “add a few more features,” which seems like an added advantage, although he did not provide any additional details on what these features could be.
In classic Musk fashion, he has teased the capabilities of this version of the FSD suite since it became public knowledge that Tesla was working on it. He said that it is the second most important update for the AI/Autopilot team since FSD v12.
V14 will have a parameter count that is ten times what previous iterations were, which should provide more accuracy and a more human-like operation.
🚨 Tesla is making “significant improvements” in FSD software and plans to increase parameter count by roughly 10x from what people are currently experiencing pic.twitter.com/r974W6ToGi
— TESLARATI (@Teslarati) July 23, 2025
Musk has said v14 “feels alive” and has used the word “sentient” to describe its performance. The goal with the new FSD rollouts is to eliminate as many interventions as possible, making it as close to human driving as possible.
Investor's Corner
Tesla just got a weird price target boost from a notable bear

Tesla stock (NASDAQ: TSLA) just got a weird price target boost from a notable bear just a day after it announced its strongest quarter in terms of vehicle deliveries and energy deployments.
JPMorgan raised its price target on Tesla shares from $115 to $150. It maintained its ‘Underweight’ rating on the stock.
Despite Tesla reporting 497,099 deliveries, about 12 percent above the 443,000 anticipated from the consensus, JPMorgan is still skeptical that the company can keep up its momentum, stating most of its Q3 strength came from leaning on the removal of the $7,500 EV tax credit, which expired on September 30.
Tesla hits record vehicle deliveries and energy deployments in Q3 2025
The firm said Tesla benefited from a “temporary stronger-than-expected industry-wide pull-forward” as the tax credit expired. It is no secret that consumers flocked to the company this past quarter to take advantage of the credit.
The bump will need to be solidified as the start of a continuing trend of strong vehicle deliveries, the firm said in a note to investors. Analysts said that one quarter of strength was “too soon to declare Tesla as having sustainably returned to growth in its core business.”
JPMorgan does not anticipate Tesla having strong showings with vehicle deliveries after Q4.
There are two distinct things that stick out with this note: the first is the lack of recognition of other parts of Tesla’s business, and the confusion that surrounds future quarters.
JPMorgan did not identify Tesla’s strength in autonomy, energy storage, or robotics, with autonomy and robotics being the main focuses of the company’s future. Tesla’s Full Self-Driving and Robotaxi efforts are incredibly relevant and drive more impact moving forward than vehicle deliveries.
Additionally, the confusion surrounding future delivery numbers in quarters past Q3 is evident.
Will Tesla thrive without the EV tax credit? Five reasons why they might
Tesla will receive some assistance from deliveries of vehicles that will reach customers in Q4, but will still qualify for the credit under the IRS’s revised rules. It will also likely introduce an affordable model this quarter, which should have a drastic impact on deliveries depending on pricing.
Tesla shares are trading at $422.40 at 2:35 p.m. on the East Coast.
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