Investor's Corner
Over 5.8k Tesla investors representing $4.1 billion are speaking out in support of Elon Musk
Thousands of retail Tesla (NASDAQ:TSLA) investors have banded together to express their support of CEO Elon Musk’s and his 2018 compensation plan, which was rescinded by a Delaware judge last week. The judge’s decision, which concluded a legal complaint started by a thrash metal drummer with nine Tesla shares, was met with polarizing reactions.
The Tesla investors’ goal was simple. They wanted to specifically affirm their vote of support for Musk’s 2018 compensation plan, whose targets have already been met, and they also requested that the Tesla Board of Directors design a new compensation plan for Musk that could take him back to 25% of the EV maker’s voting shares. The group also expressed their support to the idea of Tesla moving its state of incorporation from Delaware to Texas.
The initiative was admirable. What started as a collaborative effort on social media led by accounts such as Alexandra Merz (@TeslaBoomerMama) and Amy Steffens (@_sftahoe) ballooned to 5,821 Tesla shareholders representing 23,337,127 shares signing a letter addressed to the Tesla Board of Directors in just four days. The Tesla investors’ accumulated shares are substantial, as it corresponds to over $4 billion worth of shares as of Monday’s intraday.
?
Have never heard of a company able to mobilize
– in only 4 short days (including a weekend)
the commitment of
– 5,821 shareholders with
– 23,337,127 shares.
Retail investors showing their deep appreciation of @elonmusk and @Tesla's Board of Directors.
Now Austin bound. pic.twitter.com/s9Nr36Yn5m— Ale?andra Merz (@TeslaBoomerMama) February 5, 2024
The Tesla shareholders’ letter can be viewed below.
Shareholder Letter to Tesla’s Board of Directors
The shareholders (listed in the attachment)
- Support unequivocally that Tesla’s state of incorporation is changed from Delaware to Texas, where Tesla is already headquartered. Tesla staying incorporated in Delaware is untenable if Shareholder Votes will be rescinded.
- Would like the Board to explore options to affirm the shareholder vote in support of keeping the Tesla’s 2018 CEO Compensation Plan active and in place. Tesla shareholders don’t want their votes disenfranchised. Tesla shareholders elected the Tesla Board of Directors and were aware of the Board members’ relationship with Elon Musk. The shareholders chose them. The recent decision by Judge McCormick to rescind the 2018 CEO compensation plan is a dangerous precedent for all shareholders in American corporations.
- Would like the Board to design a new CEO Compensation Plan along the lines of the 2018 Plan. The new Plan tranches will require Tesla to achieve ambitious performance and market cap milestones.
- The performance milestones could include FSD reaching level 5 autonomy, Tesla Energy achieving annual kWh goals, the next generation EV platform reaching volume production, and Optimus in volume production. The market capitalization milestones could reflect each $500 billion- or $1 trillion-dollar increase in Tesla’s overall value, or whatever intermediate milestones make sense, as well as one for surpassing the combined value of Saudi Aramco and Apple. The new Plan’s tranches will vest shares to Mr. Musk in such a way as to ultimately grant him 25+ percent of voting shares. If Tesla incorporates in a State allowing super voting shares, we endorse this, too.
The shareholders filling out this form agree that their name and details will be disclosed to the Board of Directors of Tesla and may become public.
TESLA SHAREHOLDER LETTER:
?Final numbers! ?? over 5800 investors representing over 23,335,217 Million Shares. (Or 4.3 BILLION Dollars of shares at current market value).
?Letter is being mailed to Tesla Corporate Secretary. Final letter & Cover Letter and note re:… https://t.co/57KPRJIYSK pic.twitter.com/g3XQHjBHCK— Amy (@_SFTahoe) February 5, 2024
What is quite remarkable about the Tesla investors’ efforts is the fact that it included shareholders from across the spectrum. As per the group’s letter, the 5,821 Tesla shareholders comprise investors that hold anywhere from one TSLA share to thousands of TSLA shares. They also include investors who have been with the EV maker since 2010 and those who only bought shares last month. Overall, the retail investors’ efforts are quite admirable, and they show that Tesla still has a dedicated following among its shareholders until today.
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Elon Musk
Elon Musk will give ‘every kid in America’ a SpaceX share in 2027
Elon Musk said he is planning to give “every one of his SpaceX shares to every kid in America” in 2027, stating that “this will be the first of many.”
SpaceX went public earlier this year, and its stock price has been relatively stable since leveling off shortly after its IPO. Based on its current price, it’s a gift of just over $10 billion to children across the United States.
It appears to be closely related to President Donald Trump’s bank accounts for children, which were set up earlier this year as Trump Accounts.
Just hours earlier, Anthropic had announced the establishment of its Anthropic Public Benefit Fund, “a new wholly-owned entity dedicated entirely to public benefit.” Musk responded by stating he recommended “giving the shares directly to the public,” and that he would be doing it that way.
Just a little bit later, Musk said children across the U.S. would be getting a share from him:
Next year, I will give one of my SpaceX shares to every kid in America.
This will be the first of many.
— Elon Musk (@elonmusk) October 19, 2026
There are roughly 70 million children, meaning someone under the age of 18, in the United States, according to the Federal Interagency Forum on Child and Family Statistics. Musk’s ownership of SpaceX stock shows he has around 849 million Class A shares of SpaceX stock, according to filings with the SEC.
Investor's Corner
SpaceX’s biggest earnings test yet lands Tuesday, and Tesla shareholders should be watching
SpaceX reports earnings Tuesday as Wall Street watches AI spending, Starlink growth and Tesla merger
SpaceX reports third quarter results after the market closes Tuesday, with a webcast at 4:30 p.m. ET streamed on X, and Tesla follows a day later. Bloomberg consensus, cited by Pepperstone, calls for revenue of $12.89 billion, adjusted EBITDA of $6.62 billion and adjusted EPS near $0.15. That would be about 65% growth from the second quarter and SpaceX’s first profitable quarter since its IPO. Analysts expect roughly $6.4 billion from AI and $4.9 billion from Starlink, which is projected to reach 14.3 million consumer subscribers. Capital spending is forecast at $19.6 billion, leaving free cash flow near negative $11.6 billion.
The numbers matter because SpaceX has spent months trying to win over a skeptical market. It priced its record IPO at $135, spiked to $225.64, then sank near $105 in early August. Friday’s close of $146.03 sits about 28% below the June high. The Q2 report beat on revenue at $7.8 billion and put Starlink at 12 million subscribers, but $18.4 billion of capex hurt the stock. Since then SpaceX reached orbit on Starship Flight 14 with 26 Starlink V3 satellites, agreed to buy 800 MHz spectrum for about $8 billion as part of its Starlink Mobile push, and signed a fourth compute hosting deal in four months worth roughly $13 billion a year from December. Management is targeting more than 2 gigawatts of compute by year end and a $100 billion annualized revenue run rate. Evercore ISI, which raised its target to $275, said the quarter may be judged more on those targets than the reported figures
All of this sits under the Tesla merger question. Barclays analyst Dan Levy expects an all stock deal in which SpaceX buys Tesla at a premium, using reference values of $2.1 trillion and $1.5 trillion, and said an announcement would need to come by late October or early November to be voted on at Tesla’s December 6 annual meeting. Barclays estimates Musk would hold about 37% of the combined company and 56% of the votes. Musk said in July that combining companies cannot be discussed on an earnings call, but an investor question asking when SpaceX will merge with Tesla is sitting on SpaceX’s Q&A platform, and Teslarati has tracked how the Roadster demo revived the talk.
If a deal happens, Tuesday’s result would effectively set the price Tesla holders would receive. Their shares would convert into SpaceX stock, along with exposure to a company with a heavy investment on AI, while Tesla itself expects 2026 capex above $25 billion. A strong quarter and calmer spending would make that exchange easier to sell. Another round of heavy capex and a falling stock would make it harder.
Investor's Corner
Tesla’s flying Roadster just revealed something bigger than the car
Analysts say the Roadster demo puts a Tesla and SpaceX merger back on the table.
The Roadster unveiling near Waco ended Thursday night, and by Friday morning much of the investor reaction had less to do with the car than with who owns the rocket technology inside it.
Wedbush analyst Dan Ives said the event “puts the Tesla/SpaceX relationship on the table in a tangible way,” pointing to the propulsion, pressure vessel and control hardware sitting on a Tesla product. Gene Munster of Deepwater Asset Management called the demo “a ridiculous display of engineering” with “no commercial value” beyond embarrassing traditional automakers, though he said it showed Musk wants the two companies together.
The more specific forecast came a day earlier from Barclays. Analyst Dan Levy told clients a deal could be announced before Tesla’s annual meeting, which must happen by December 6, and that an announcement in late October or early November could make shareholder approval harder. Barclays expects SpaceX to be the buyer in an all stock deal, with Tesla holders receiving SpaceX shares at a premium, based on market values of roughly $2.1 trillion for SpaceX and $1.5 trillion for Tesla. If nothing lands around the meeting, the bank still sees an announcement within 6 to 12 months.
The Roadster demo just added more weight to merger speculations. Tesla’s demo used cold gas thrusters and pressure tanks of the kind SpaceX uses on Falcon 9, and Musk described the car as a collaboration between Tesla and SpaceX engineers, as we mentioned in our breakdown of the three Roadster configurations.
Musk has not publicly addressed a deal since the event, as far as we have seen. His most direct answer remains the one he gave at the All In Summit, when he said that with so much collaboration, “who can imagine what action one might take” without ruling anything out. Ives has held to a 2027 timeline since his March note, and Musk pushed back on the China piece of the speculation when ARK floated a year end announcement in August.
The next test is Tesla’s third quarter earnings call on October 21. However, we recall in July that Musk told analysts, “we can’t talk about combining companies and that kind of thing on an earnings call,” so a clear answer wouldn’t be expected.