Elon Musk responds to Tesla pay proposal by buying $1 billion worth of stock

Elon Musk is responding to the unprecedented pay package proposal from Tesla’s board of directors by increasing his stake in the company. Musk bought $1 billion in Tesla stock through an irrevocable trust on September 12th, according to a regulatory filing released Monday. Tesla shares were trading up over 5 percent on the news, pushing the company’s value into positive territory for the year.

It was Musk’s first open-market purchase of Tesla stock in over five years, according to Bloomberg. He offloaded more than $20 billion of the company’s shares in 2022, which was the year he acquired Twitter. Other Tesla executives have similarly sold off some of their shares this year, including several board members.

The purchase comes more than a week after Tesla’s board proposed a pay package that, if enacted, would make Musk the world’s first trillionaire. Musk would need to meet a series of ambitious milestones to receive the compensation, including producing over a million robots, a million robotaxis, and creating $7.5 trillion in value for Tesla’s shareholders.

It was Musk’s first open-market purchase of Tesla stock in over five years.

Musk is currently Tesla’s largest shareholder, with a 13 percent stake in the company. But the CEO has said that he wants more control over the company in order to have more sway over its mission — which the board’s plans aims to produce.

Tesla’s stock price has been on a rollercoaster this year, as rising competition in the EV market combined with Musk’s political activities have weighed on the once high-flying company. The company’s share of the EV market in the US slipped below 40 percent recently, as EV sales continue to slow and other models lure buyers away.

Musk is betting the company’s future on AI and robotics, recently releasing a new master plan that appears to downplay Tesla’s core business of making and selling electric cars. But he has also cautioned that the company could be in for a “few rough quarters” as the US government phases out EV incentives and sales are expected to fall even more.

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