Summary
A Delaware judge upheld her earlier decision to void Elon Musk’s $56 billion Tesla CEO pay package, ruling it was improperly granted due to Musk’s control over Tesla and flawed board negotiations.
Tesla’s attempt to overturn the ruling through a shareholder vote was rejected, with the judge warning against revising judgments with new facts post-trial.
Musk called the ruling “absolute corruption” and plans to appeal.
Meanwhile, Musk’s net worth has surged, driven by Tesla’s stock jump following optimism about his alignment with Trump’s policies.
Tesla stocks (and quite a few other company’s stocks) are not based on ‘fundamentals’. They are based on hype, speculation, and perceived future value.
People investing in tesla either 1. Are ‘playing the game’ and trying to take advantage of the hype. Which incentives them to also hype because they benefit when more people buy the stock. Think crypto bro-esque grifting. Id also throw in people who do short term trading to time hype jumps. 2. Novice/uninformed investors who don’t understand fundamentals (who may be getting boozled)3. People that understand fundamentals but are also hedging against a miracle.
Elon isn’t a stupid guy. There is a reason why Musk is constantly hyping things. It keeps the stock high. It’s keeps the buzz going which gets more people to buy in. It keeps him rich which lets him do silly things like buying Twitter or donating to political campaigns and ingratiating him to the president elect.
But the overall valuation of Tesla absolutely, unequivocally is not based on fundamentals/realistic valuation of the company. It’s almost all a “bet” and people buying stocks are gambling.