Elon Musk, already the world's richest man, scored another huge windfall Friday when the Delaware Supreme Court reversed a decision that deprived him of a $55 billion pay package that Tesla doled out in 2018 as an incentive for its CEO to steer the automaker to new heights.
Besides padding Musk's current fortune of $679 billion, the restoration of the 2018 pay package vindicates his long-held belief that the Delaware legal system had overstepped its bounds in January 2024 when Chancellor Kathaleen St. Jude McCormick rescinded the compensation in a case brought by a disgruntled Tesla shareholder.
Tesla didn't immediately respond to a request for comment late Friday.
McCormick's ruling so incensed Musk that it spurred him to spurn Delaware and reincorporate Tesla in Texas. That decision also caused Tesla's board to scramble for ways to keep its CEO happy, including a successful effort to persuade the company's shareholders to reaffirm the pay package, which was valued at $44.9 billion at the time of the second vote 18 months ago.
With Musk still signaling discontent, Tesla upped the ante again this year by crafting another pay package that could pay him $1 trillion if he can lead the automaker down a road during the next decade that lifts the company's market value from its current $1.6 trillion to $8.5 trillion. Shareholders approved that pay package last month, to Musk's delight.
That may sound like a difficult task, but it also appeared like a long shot for Musk to hit all the targets to qualify for the payout that was dangled in the 2018 package. At that time, Tesla was still struggling to expand its production of electric vehicles and burning through cash.
At the time the 2018 pay package was drawn up, Tesla's market value was hovering in the $50 billion to $75 billion range. But then the company's manufacturing problems eased, enabling it to start meeting hot demand for its vehicles, which in turn pumped up its sales and stock price to a level that qualified Musk for the big payout that had been promised him.
But based on evidence that included Musk's testimony during a 2022 trial, McCormick ruled the pay package had been crafted by a board that was too cozy and beholden to the hard-charging Musk.
In its 49-page ruling, the Delaware Supreme Court cited a variety of errors in McCormick's 2024 decision and declared the 2018 pay package should be restored. It also awarded Tesla $1 in nominal damages.
FILE - Elon Musk attends the Saudi Investment Forum at the Kennedy Center, Wednesday, Nov. 19, 2025, in Washington. (AP Photo/Evan Vucci, File)
BOGUE CHITTO, Miss. (AP) — Powerful storms that included at least three tornadoes tore through several Mississippi counties, damaging around 500 homes, uprooting trees and injuring at least 17 people, authorities said Thursday.
There were no immediate reports of deaths after storms cut across the state's southwest on Wednesday night, said Scott Simmons, a spokesperson for the Mississippi Emergency Management Agency.
He said 12 of those hurt were transported from a hard-hit trailer park in the small community of Bogue Chitto, about an hour's drive south of the state capital in rural Lincoln County.
Most of the two dozen homes at Gene’s Mobile Home Supply were flattened into heaps of splintered boards and twisted metal. People picked through the debris Thursday morning under cloudy skies as a chainsaw buzzed in the background.
“I was just watching TikTok on my bed and thought it was thunder. I went to my living room. I went back to my room, and the room’s gone,” resident Max Mahaffey told WAPT-TV.
He said he wasn't injured, but his grandmother hurt her ankle and some of his neighbors suffered cuts and bruises.
One intact trailer lay flipped on its roof near the tree line. Several cars, some with hazard lights blinking, appeared to have been picked up by the storm.
“We know there were at least three tornadoes,” said Daniel Lamb, a meteorologist in the National Weather Service office in Jackson.
“The same storm produced at least two tornadoes from Franklin, Lincoln into Lawrence counties, and then there was another one from Lamar possibly into Forest County.”
He said there may have been more. “Those are just the ones that we are able to confirm by radar before even having gone down there.”
“Pray for Mississippi,” Gov. Tate Reeves posted online, saying the state Emergency Management Agency was coordinating response efforts.
Many roads were still blocked in Lincoln County and teams from the agency were assessing the damage.
“We ask that you please refrain from sightseeing as crews are working,” the department posted early Thursday.
The governor said a volunteer rescue group was providing a 50-person shelter pod, a high-powered generator and 10 pallets of supplies to the county, which reported at least 200 damaged homes.
Lamar County to the southeast reported about 275 homes damaged, according to the state emergency management agency. Another 10 to 12 homes were damaged in Lawrence County.
More storms were expected Thursday with the possibility of tornadoes across parts of Alabama, Georgia and Florida, the weather service said. Strong storms also were possible for parts of the Carolinas and Texas.
McCormack reported from Concord, New Hampshire.
In this frame grab from video taken by WDAM, damaged trees and a house or structure following a storm that tore through part of Lamar County, Mississippi, Wednesday, May 6, 2026. (WDAM via AP)
