The Tesla directors who just proposed giving Elon Musk a trillion dollars say it’s “critical” he stay out of politics
Even still, the company doesn’t appear to be putting up hard guardrails for Musk’s political ambitions.
Tesla jumped more than 2% premarket on Friday after the company proposed an unprecedented roughly $1 trillion pay package for CEO Elon Musk, according to proxy filings.
To receive the massive payout, Musk will have to increase the company’s market cap to $8.5 trillion from the approximately $1 trillion it is today over the next 10 years.
The pay package also requires that Musk expand Tesla’s product offerings to include 1 million Robotaxis in commercial operation and the “delivery of 1 million AI Bots.” Currently the company has about 30 autonomous robotaxis in its invite-only Austin ride-hailing service, though this week the company expanded the waitlist for the service to everyone. Tesla's Optimus robots are still under development.
Musk would also have to take part in his own succession planning and develop a framework for who’s to follow him.
Investors have historically tied the fate of Tesla with Musk, so holding on to him for an extended period of time and having his blessing for the succession plan is typically seen as good news for the stock.
“We believe that Elon’s singular vision is vital to navigating this critical inflection point,” the filing reads. “Simply put, retaining and incentivizing Elon is fundamental to Tesla achieving these goals and becoming the most valuable company in history.”
A judge twice struck down Musk’s previous $56 billion compensation package. Last month the board approved a $30 billion interim pay package, saying that “retaining Elon is more important than ever.”
Shareholders will vote on the pay package at their annual meeting on November 6.
Gap pops as the denim giant takes a big swing into beauty and accessories
The retailer is piloting beauty through shop-in-shops at Old Navy before rolling it out to Gap stores next year.
JetBlue boosts its third-quarter revenue forecast after strong late summer travel demand
Empty August offices gave JetBlue a boost, and the carrier on Thursday announced improved guidance for its current quarter.
The carrier now expects operating revenue per available seat mile to decline between 1.5% and 4% in the third quarter, an improvement from its previous forecast that it would drop between 2% and 6%. JetBlue also lifted the floor on its capacity guidance, from a 1% drop to flat.
“Momentum from earlier in the summer carried forward into August and through the Labor Day holiday, both of which were marked by strength for bookings,” the company said.
JetBlue posted an earnings beat in its second quarter, though it reported its fourth straight quarterly net loss. The carrier has made a profit in just four out of its last 14 quarters.
The company on Thursday also announced a new deal with Amazon to adopt its Project Kuiper satellite broadband network to power in-flight Wi-Fi on some planes beginning in 2027.
EVs power Ford to its sixth straight month of sales growth as tax credits wind down
Ford sales grew 3.9% year over year in August, the automaker’s sixth consecutive month of US growth.
Electric vehicles, which saw more than 19% sales growth on the month, led the charge, while hybrid sales climbed by more than 14%. Buyers have rushed to scoop up electric vehicles ahead of the end of the $7,500 EV tax credit, which was scrapped as part of the Trump administration’s One Big Beautiful Bill Act and ends after September 30.
About half of Ford EV owners said they wouldn’t have bought their vehicle without the credit, according to recent survey data. Despite the August boost, Ford EV sales are still down from last year eight months into the year.
Ford’s EV growth comes as the company has shifted its electric production strategy, leaving the single assembly line behind to speed up manufacturing and utilize fewer workers. Last month, the company announced that the first vehicle built through its new system will be an electric truck starting at $30,000.
McDonald’s is bringing the value back to value meals — but Wall Street is watching
The Big Mac maker is leaning back into value deals as traffic cools and Goldman bets on a rebound.
Tesla began selling its vehicles in India for the first time in mid-July. So far, it’s received only 600 orders from the highly anticipated new market, Bloomberg reports. Tesla now plans to ship between 350 to 500 cars to India from Shanghai this year — much lower than the 2,500 annual quota it had expected to hit.
Tesla European sales fell in some markets and were outpaced by BYD in August
A number of European countries have reported August vehicle registration data and, for the eighth month in a row, Tesla has seen its sales decline in some of those markets. Sales were down year over year in Sweden, the Netherlands, France, Denmark, and Italy, but were up in Norway, Portugal and Spain, Reuters reports.
Reuters noted that in Norway and Spain, where Tesla sales were up, Tesla competitor BYD outpaced its American counterpart last month and saw sales growth of more than 200% and 400%, respectively. Tesla’s monthly sales in any one European country are usually in the hundreds or low thousands, allowing for big monthly percentage swings over just a few hundred cars. Across the continent, BYD outsold Tesla again in July; August data for the entire EU will be out later this month.
Tesla has struggled in Europe, which is its third-biggest market this year, with CEO Elon Musk blaming the lack of approval for supervised full self-driving technology there, while others cite Musk’s unwelcome political machinations in European markets. BYD has said Tesla’s problem is not enough options, with the American company currently offering only two models on the continent.
Reuters noted that in Norway and Spain, where Tesla sales were up, Tesla competitor BYD outpaced its American counterpart last month and saw sales growth of more than 200% and 400%, respectively. Tesla’s monthly sales in any one European country are usually in the hundreds or low thousands, allowing for big monthly percentage swings over just a few hundred cars. Across the continent, BYD outsold Tesla again in July; August data for the entire EU will be out later this month.
Tesla has struggled in Europe, which is its third-biggest market this year, with CEO Elon Musk blaming the lack of approval for supervised full self-driving technology there, while others cite Musk’s unwelcome political machinations in European markets. BYD has said Tesla’s problem is not enough options, with the American company currently offering only two models on the continent.
BYD keeps outselling Tesla in Europe
BYD sold nearly 50% more vehicles in the European Union than Tesla did last month, according to new data from the European Automobile Manufacturers’ Association (ACEA), moving about 9,700 units versus Tesla’s 6,600 in July. Earlier country-specific data hadn’t been looking good for the American EV company.
While BYD, a Chinese company that sells both EVs and plug-in hybrids, outsold Tesla in Europe for the first time in April, Tesla’s January through July sales have outpaced BYD’s by nearly 20,000.
BYD Executive Vice President Stella Li has credited her company’s success to its wide variety of offerings relative to Tesla. Tesla, on the other hand, recently halted new orders of two of its four models available in Europe.
In Tesla’s defense, CEO Elon Musk said on the company’s last earnings call, “It’s worth noting that we do not actually yet have approval for supervised FSD [full self-driving] in Europe. So our sales in Europe, we think, will improve significantly once we are able to give customers the same experience that they have in the US.”
In case you were worried, Nvidia hasn’t forgotten about gaming
As seen in its second-quarter earnings results, posted on Wednesday, Nvidia continues to build upon its gamer roots.
The chip designer’s gaming division (its golden goose long before generating images of celebrities eating spaghetti was even a thought) scored $4.29 billion in revenue in the second quarter, up 49% year over year — a record.
The figure came in significantly higher than the $3.74 billion analysts polled by FactSet expected. That nearly 15% surprise is far better than Nvidia’s core data center business, which missed estimates by less than a percent.
CrowdStrike sinks after-hours following the release of its second-quarter earnings
Shares of cybersecurity firm CrowdStrike fell by more than 6% after-hours, following the release of the company’s second-quarter earnings report.
CrowdStrike posted earnings of $0.93 per share, better than the $0.83 earnings per share analysts expected. Its quarterly revenue grew 21% year over year to $1.17 billion, better than the $1.15 billion consensus from analysts polled by FactSet. Annual recurring revenue climbed 20% to $4.66 billion.
The company’s third-quarter revenue guidance — between $1.21 billion and $1.22 billion — came in slightly below Wall Street estimates.
The second quarter marked the one-year anniversary of CrowdStrike’s massive IT outage last July that caused thousands of flight cancellations globally. Costs related to the outage have reached more than $75 million on the year.
CrowdStrike on Wednesday afternoon also announced plans to acquire Onum, a company that specializes in data management.
Boeing benefits from another Trump trade deal with a $36 billion jet order from Korean Air
Another day, another Trump trade deal resulting in a massive jet order in the books for Boeing.
Amid Monday’s Oval Office meeting between President Trump and South Korean President Lee Jae Myung, Korean Air formalized a $50 billion investment in US aviation. $36.2 billion will go to Boeing for 103 planes, and $13.7 billion to GE Aerospace for spare engines and a maintenance contract, according to the airline.
It’s the largest-ever jet order by Korean Air, more than doubling Boeing’s share of its fleet. Boeing shares ticked up in premarket trading Tuesday.
Multibillion-dollar Boeing jet orders have repeatedly followed trade talks this year. As of the end of July, the plane maker had received 699 gross orders to Airbus’ 501 on the year. Last week, it was reported that China is in talks to sign an order for up to 500 Boeing planes as part of its trade deal with the US.
Elon Musk asked Mark Zuckerberg to help buy OpenAI
When Elon Musk, the CEO of a combined social media and AI company (xAI), unsuccessfully tried to buy OpenAI earlier this year, he turned to Mark Zuckerberg, the CEO of a combined social media and AI company (Meta) for help, new court filings show.
Musk, who is also the CEO of Tesla and a cofounder of OpenAI, is taking OpenAI to court next March for changing its corporate structure. OpenAI has counterclaimed that Musk engaged in a “years-long harassment campaign” against the startup.
For what it’s worth, Musk and Zuckerberg also have a long-running beef. Neither Meta nor Zuckerberg signed Musk’s letter of intent “about potential financing arrangements or investments,” so it’s still unclear if they’ve buried the hatchet.
For what it’s worth, Musk and Zuckerberg also have a long-running beef. Neither Meta nor Zuckerberg signed Musk’s letter of intent “about potential financing arrangements or investments,” so it’s still unclear if they’ve buried the hatchet.