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Tesla’s board of directors has offered Chief Executive Officer, Elon Musk, a fresh stock award worth nearly $30 billion in a bid to keep him committed to leading the electric car company. The announcement was made on July 29, 2025, following growing concerns about Musk’s future with Tesla and the ongoing legal battle over his earlier controversial pay deal.
According to a statement signed by Tesla board members Robyn Denholm and Kathleen Wilson-Thompson, the new package includes 96 million restricted shares. However, the shares will only be fully given to Musk if he stays on as a top executive at Tesla for at least two more years, and he cannot sell them for the next five years.
This offer is coming at a time when Tesla is shifting focus from just building electric cars to entering into more advanced areas like artificial intelligence (AI) and robotics. The board said the stock award shows their confidence in Musk’s ability to lead the company through this new phase of growth.
Musk, who is currently the richest man in the world, is still fighting a legal case in Delaware over a 2018 compensation package worth about $55.8 billion. A Delaware judge cancelled that pay deal in 2024, saying it was awarded through an unfair process by a board that lacked independence. Some of the same board members who approved that old deal are still part of the panel that approved this new one.
If Musk eventually wins the court case and gets back the 2018 stock package, then this new $30 billion offer will no longer be valid.
Denholm and Wilson-Thompson explained that Musk’s leadership has helped Tesla become one of the most successful and innovative companies in the world. They said the company cannot afford to lose him now, especially when there is an intense global battle to recruit the best talents in AI and technology. According to them, many tech companies are now paying millions of dollars to individual engineers, but even among these top talents, no one matches Musk’s skills and track record.
Over the years, Musk has helped build Tesla into a global leader in electric vehicles, clean energy, and now emerging technologies like self-driving cars and humanoid robots. However, there have been concerns that Musk’s attention is being divided across too many of his other companies, such as SpaceX, X (formerly Twitter), and xAI.
Last year, Musk made headlines when he posted on X that he was not comfortable building Tesla’s AI department without having at least 25 per cent voting control in the company. He said unless he had enough influence to shape the direction of Tesla, he might take his AI projects elsewhere.
Tesla shareholders showed their support by voting to restore the 2018 compensation plan, but the Delaware court has not yet accepted the vote. The matter is now before the Delaware Supreme Court, and a final judgment is still pending.
Meanwhile, analysts say this new stock award is likely meant to settle concerns about Musk’s future at Tesla. Dan Ives, a tech analyst from Wedbush Securities, said on Monday that the package would help keep Musk in place as Tesla’s CEO until at least 2030, and remove any uncertainty that might affect Tesla’s share price.
Still, some investors are worried that this new pay package may also face legal challenges, just like the previous one. Critics argue that the board is not independent enough and that it gives Musk too much power without proper checks.
In a recent earnings call, Musk said he is concerned about his level of control in Tesla, especially now that the company is investing heavily in robotics and artificial intelligence. He said he does not want to be in a position where he has built a powerful company, only to be removed by activist shareholders.
“As I’ve mentioned before, I think my control over Tesla should be enough to ensure that it goes in a good direction, but not so much control that I can’t be thrown out if I go crazy,” he said.
Tesla has scheduled its annual shareholders meeting for November 2025, where these issues are expected to be discussed in detail. Until then, the $30 billion stock award stands as a clear sign that Tesla is ready to do what it takes to keep Elon Musk focused on the company’s long-term goals.
