03:02 21-12-2025

Delaware Supreme Court reinstates Elon Musk’s $139B Tesla compensation package

The Delaware Supreme Court has reinstated Elon Musk’s Tesla compensation package, approved in 2018 and later overturned by a lower court. The award is currently estimated at about $139 billion, lifted by Tesla’s rising share price. For Musk, the significance appears to be less about cash and more about accelerating his influence inside the company, something he has signaled repeatedly in public.

The package consists of options to buy roughly 304 million Tesla shares at a preferential price once performance goals were met—benchmarks the company has, in essence, already passed. If Musk exercises the full grant, his stake could rise from about 12.4% to roughly 18.1% on an expanded share base. Market reaction was restrained: in after-hours trading the stock added less than 1 percent, a muted move that suggests the outcome was largely anticipated.

The dispute began with a minority shareholder lawsuit. In 2024, a court concluded that conflicts of interest and limited disclosure accompanied the plan’s approval. The Supreme Court has now said that voiding the award entirely was too harsh because it would leave the chief executive without compensation for years of work. In parallel, Tesla investors have already approved a new package that could prove even larger if future milestones are reached. For a company that leans on long-range goals, that vote reads like a bet on continuity.

Against that backdrop, Tesla has tightened its legal armor by shifting its state of incorporation to Texas, where the threshold for shareholder suits is higher. The move underscores a desire to curb courtroom risk as management sticks to its course.