Judge Invalidates Musk’s ‘Incomprehensible’ $56 Billion Tesla Compensation

A judge in Delaware has invalidated a $55.8 billion pay deal awarded to Elon Musk by Tesla in 2018. The lawsuit was filed by a shareholder who argued that the payment was excessive. Judge Kathaleen McCormick ruled that Tesla directors, who negotiated the deal, were influenced by Musk’s celebrity status and did not adequately inform shareholders. She described the deal as “unfathomable” and ordered its cancellation. The pay deal, the largest in US corporate history, helped make Musk the world’s richest person. Bloomberg and Forbes estimated his net worth to be between $198 billion and $220 billion in November 2023.