Elon Musk wins legal battle as court restores multibillion-dollar Tesla pay deal

Elon Musk has secured a major legal victory after the Delaware Supreme Court restored his controversial 2018 compensation package from Tesla, a deal that was once valued at $56 billion and later swelled far beyond that figure.

The ruling overturned a lower court decision that had invalidated the pay plan and labeled it “unfathomable.”

That earlier judgment had sparked sharp criticism from Musk and raised concerns about Delaware’s long-standing reputation as a business-friendly jurisdiction for major corporations.

At the time it was approved, Musk’s 2018 pay package was the largest of its kind in corporate history.

Since then, Tesla shareholders have gone on to approve an even more ambitious compensation framework in November, reportedly approaching $1 trillion in potential value.

The restored plan allows Musk to finally receive compensation tied to milestones he has already achieved since 2018, a period during which Tesla evolved from a cash-strapped automaker into one of the world’s most valuable companies.

Under the agreement, Musk was granted stock options to buy roughly 304 million Tesla shares at a heavily discounted price, contingent on performance targets that were ultimately met.

Although Tesla initially estimated the package’s value at $56 billion, the sharp rise in its share price pushed that figure to around $120 billion by early November.