Musk's Tesla shareholders vote to restore $44 billion pay package

In a reversal of fortune, billionaire Elon Musk may still receive a proposed $44.9 billion pay package after Tesla shareholders voted in favor of restoring the CEO’s controversial compensation package on Thursday.

The pay package, originally valued at $55 billion, was thrown out by a Delaware judge in January after a lawsuit to deny Musk the package was filed on behalf of all Tesla shareholders in April 2023.

In a post-trial report, the judge said her decision – after a full hearing and testimony from dozens of witnesses and board members – was due to a “deeply flawed” negotiation process, as well as the personal ties Musk had with those “tasked with negotiating on Tesla’s behalf.”

At the time, the honorary Chancellor Kathleen St. Jude McCormick described the pay package “as the largest potential compensation opportunity ever observed in public markets by multiple orders of magnitude.”

Still, even with the latest shareholder decision in favor of Musk’s all-stock compensation, the case is expected to play out in the Delaware and Supreme courts through a lengthy appeals process that will take months.

Musk was labeled the richest person in the world in January 2024, with a net worth of $229 billion, according to Investopedia.