$30 billion? That’s a lot of cheddar (Scott Olson/Getty Images)

Tesla board approves nearly $30 billion Musk stock award, says “retaining Elon is more important than ever”

Analyst Dan Ives thinks the 96 million new shares will be enough to hold on to Musk through 2030.

8/4/25 8:19AM

Tesla shareholders and stakeholders pin a lot of value on having Elon Musk as CEO, and they showed just how much on Monday morning.

Tesla’s board approved an “interim” stock award of 96 million shares for Musk, valued at nearly $30 billion at Tesla’s Friday closing price. He can claim it in two years if he remains at the company as CEO or an executive officer, and if he doesn’t win the appeal for his prior $56 billion pay package, which has been struck down twice.

Shareholders cheered the move, sending shares up 2.5% in premarket trading. So if you’re counting, the pay package has added about $23 billion in market cap to the company this morning.

In a note on X, two members of the Tesla board’s special committee wrote that “now is the right time to take decisive action to recognize the extraordinary value that Elon created for Tesla shareholders” and that retaining Musk is “more important than ever.”

Wedbush Securities analyst Dan Ives is happy and thinks it will help retain Tesla’s “big asset.”

“We believe this grant will now keep Musk as CEO of Tesla at least until 2030 and removes an overhang on the stock,” Ives wrote this morning. Still, he added, the board will need a long-term compensation strategy ahead of the company’s November shareholder meeting.

Nia Warfield

12h

Fox and News Corp slide as investors digest $3.3 billion Murdoch succession settlement

Fox and News Corp shares dropped on Tuesday after Rupert Murdoch’s heirs agreed to a $3.3 billion settlement to resolve a long-running succession drama.

Under the deal, Prudence, Elisabeth, and James Murdoch will each receive about $1.1 billion, paid for in part by Fox selling 16.9 million Class B voting shares and News Corp selling 14.2 million shares. The stock sales will raise roughly $1.37 billion on behalf of the three heirs.

The new trust for Lachlan Murdoch will now control about 36.2% of Fox’s Class B shares and roughly 33.1% of News Corp’s stock, granting him uncontested voting authority over both companies for the next 25 years. Originally, the Murdoch trust was designed to hand over voting control of Fox and News Corp to Prudence, Elisabeth, Lachlan, and James after his death.

Investors are weighing the trade-off. Clear leadership under Lachlan may resolve conflict internally, but the share dilution, executed at a roughly 4.5% discount, means long-term investors now hold slightly less clout than before.

Both companies’ stocks were trading close to all-time highs prior to the announcement.

385 ✈️ 434

Max Knoblauch

12h

Boeing on Tuesday announced that it delivered 57 commercial jets in August, its best total for the month in seven years. That brings its year-to-date delivery total to 385 planes, eclipsing its full-year 2024 figure by about 11%.

The August figure marked Boeing’s second-highest delivery total of 2025 and represented a 43% jump from the same month last year. Through August, Boeing has boosted its deliveries by 50% from last year.

The plane maker is still trailing its European rival Airbus, which delivered 61 planes in August and 434 year to date.

Nia Warfield

9/8/25

Tariffs finally crept into retail's latest earnings results. Who were the winners and losers?

The long-awaited levies took a toll on nearly every retailer, but execution separated who could steer through the costs.