Musk wins US appeal to restore 2018 Tesla pay package
In December 2025, the Delaware Supreme Court overturned a lower court's decision, restoring Elon Musk's 2018 Tesla compensation package, initially valued at $56 billion.
The story so far
- Dec 10
- Dec 19
How outlets cover it
3 outletsNot rated on the left–right scale. It describes Western party politics and doesn’t fit state media or outlets outside that system, so we show ownership and country instead.
Open questions and key claims
Elon Musk says he would not lead the Department of Government Efficiency (Doge) again.
Doge's website claims to have saved an estimated $214bn so far this year.
Musk said Doge had 'stopped a lot of funding that really just made no sense'.
Tesla’s shares lost close to half their value between January, when Doge was initiated, and March, but have since recovered.
More than 200,000 federal workers had been laid off and roughly 75,000 had accepted buyouts as a result of purges by Musk’s team.
The Delaware Supreme Court restored Elon Musk's 2018 pay package from Tesla, once worth $56bn.
A lower court struck down the compensation deal as “unfathomable”.
Tesla shareholders approved a new pay plan of nearly $1 trillion in November.
Who and where
Related stories over time
same people and places- Dec 10, 2025 – Dec 19, 2025◆ This story
- Jan 2 laterTesla loses place as world’s top electric vehicle seller to China’s BYD3 articles · 3 outlets
- Jan 28 – Feb 1 later
- Jan 31 – Feb 3 laterElon Musk merges SpaceX with xAI at $1.25tn valuation6 articles · 5 outlets
- Feb 3 – Feb 4 later
- Apr 1 – Apr 2 laterElon Musk's SpaceX set to go public in $1 trillion share listing3 articles · 3 outlets
- Jun 3 – Jun 15 laterCan you spend $1 trillion? We hand you Musk’s fortune to find out14 articles · 5 outlets
- Jun 22 – Jun 24 laterUS opens second federal investigation of deadly Tesla crash into Texas home6 articles · 3 outlets
- Oct 20 – Oct 21 laterMusk says Tesla and SpaceX are exploring a merger; no terms agreed
Elon Musk has said that special committees at Tesla and SpaceX are exploring a possible merger of the two companies, which would be one of the largest corporate combinations on record. No agreement on terms has been reached, and any deal would need shareholder approval. Tesla also reported third-quarter earnings above Wall Street projections around the same announcement.
6 articles · 4 outlets