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Tag: Elon Musk

  • Tesla approves share award worth $29 billion to CEO Elon Musk

    Tesla approves share award worth $29 billion to CEO Elon Musk

    Tesla has granted 96 million new shares worth about $29 billion to CEO Elon Musk, a move aimed at keeping the billionaire entrepreneur at the helm as he fights a court ruling that voided his original pay deal for being unfair to shareholders.

    In 2024, a Delaware court voided Musk’s 2018 compensation package, valued at over $50 billion, citing that the Tesla board’s approval process was flawed and unfair to shareholders.

    Musk kicked off an appeal in March against the order, claiming a lower court judge made multiple legal errors in rescinding the record compensation. Earlier this year, Tesla said its board had formed a special committee to consider some compensation matters involving Musk, without disclosing details.

    Tesla is at a turning point as Musk, its largest shareholder with a 13% stake, shifts focus from a promised affordable EV platform to robotaxis and humanoid robots, positioning the company more as an AI and robotics firm than an automaker.

    The new award is designed to gradually boost Musk’s voting power, something he and shareholders have consistently said was key to keeping him focused on Tesla’s mission, the special committee said in the filing.

    “While we recognize Elon’s business ventures, interests and other potential demands on his time and attention are extensive and wide-ranging … we are confident that this award will incentivize Elon to remain at Tesla,” the committee said in a regulatory filing on Monday.

    It added that if the Delaware courts fully reinstate the 2018 CEO Performance Award, the new interim grant will either be forfeited or offset and there will be no “double dip,” it added.

    The interim award shares vest only if Musk remains in a key executive role through 2027. They also come with a five-year holding period except to cover tax payments or the purchase price.

    Musk must pay Tesla $23.34 per share of restricted stock that vests, which is equal to the exercise price per share of the 2018 CEO Award, the company said in Monday’s filing.

    Tesla shares rose more than 2% in premarket trading.

    FALLING SALES

    The stock has lost about a quarter of its value so far this year as the company grapples with a decline in sales wrought by its aging vehicle line-up, tough competition and Musk’s political stances that have alienated some potential buyers.

    The challenges have been worsened by US government cuts in support for EVs, with Musk saying at a post-earnings call last month that the waning subsidies could lead to a “few rough quarters” for the company before a wave of revenue from self-driving software and services begins late next year.

    Data from research firm S&P Global Mobility shared exclusively with Reuters on Monday showed that Tesla’s brand loyalty had plunged since Musk endorsed US President Donald Trump last summer.

    Tesla’s aging lineup also faces stiffer competition from an array of EVs from legacy automakers, including General Motors, Hyundai and BMW.

    Cybertruck, the only new model Tesla has released since 2020, has proved to be a flop despite Musk’s prediction of hundreds of thousands of annual sales.

  • India grants licence to Musk’s Starlink

    India grants licence to Musk’s Starlink

    New Delhi : The US president has supported diplomacy, but recent statements suggest he may back military action as a form of coercion.

    New Delhi had granted a licence to Elon Musk’s Starlink satellite internet service, opening India’s “next frontier of connectivity”, according to the country’s communications minister.

    The launch of Starlink, which provides high-speed internet access to remote locations using low Earth orbit satellites, has sparked fierce debate in India over issues ranging from predatory pricing to spectrum allocation.

    Communications minister Jyotiraditya Scindia said he held a “productive meeting” with Gwynne Shotwell, president and chief operating officer of Starlink owner SpaceX.

    Shotwell “appreciated the license granted to Starlink, calling it a great start to the journey”, the minister said late Tuesday on Musk-owned social media platform X.

    It follows two of India’s biggest telecom service providers — Jio Platforms and its rival Bharti Airtel — in March announcing deals with SpaceX to offer Starlink internet to their customers.

    SpaceX owner Musk has butted heads with Asia’s richest man and Jio Platforms owner Mukesh Ambani over how the satellite spectrum should be awarded.

    While Musk’s business interests in India are currently limited to X, the tech mogul’s electric vehicle maker Tesla is preparing its entry into the country.

  • Elon Musk’s Starlink to launch Internet services in India within two months, offers one-month free trial. Details here

    Elon Musk’s Starlink to launch Internet services in India within two months, offers one-month free trial. Details here

    Elon Musk’s satellite internet service Starlink is gearing up to start operations in India within the next two months after receiving a licence last week, reported ANI.

    Starlink is the third company to get a licence from the Department of Telecommunications (DoT). Before Starlink, the DoT had approved the operations of Eutelsat’s OneWeb and Reliance Jio to provide services in the country.

    Subscription cost and free trial

    As part of the brand’s launch strategy, Starlink plans to offer a complimentary one-month trial period with each device purchase, allowing customers to test the service before starting regular monthly payments, said ANI.

    The company has also finalised its pricing structure for the Indian market, setting the cost of the required satellite dish device at approximately ₹33,000. Customers are expected to be charged ₹3,000 for the monthly unlimited data plan, ANI reported.

    What is Starlink’s agenda?

    The satellite internet service is preparing to shake up connectivity in India’s remote and underserved regions, where traditional broadband infrastructure has been challenging to establish or simply non-existent, as per the report.

    Starlink’s low Earth orbit satellite constellation promises to deliver high-speed internet access to far-flung locations previously unreachable by conventional terrestrial networks.

    ANI reported that the pricing structure remains consistent with Starlink’s regional strategy, as the device costs remain the same as neighbouring countries. In Bangladesh, the Starlink device is priced at ₹33,000, while Bhutan maintains the same ₹33,000 price point for the equipment.

    Musk’s firm present in 100 countries

    Starlink currently operates in over 100 countries, offering both residential and roaming plans. In most regions, the residential service is divided into two categories: Residential Lite, designed for light usage and smaller households, and Residential, suited for larger households with higher data needs, according to Financial Express.

  • Indonesia minister says Musk to consider offer to build EV battery plant in country

    Indonesia minister says Musk to consider offer to build EV battery plant in country

    Indonesia’s coordinating minister of investment said that Elon Musk will consider an offer to build an electric vehicle battery plant in the country, after the CEO of Tesla met with President Joko Widodo on Monday.

    Musk was not immediately available for comment after minister Luhut Pandjaitan made his remarks to reporters.

    Musk and Widodo met in Indonesia’s Bali after both attended the World Water Forum on Monday. “We made an offer, is it possible to build an EV battery plant here, precursor cathode. And he will consider it,” Luhut told reporters.

    Luhut said Widodo also asked Musk to consider investing in an AI centre in the Southeast Asian country and for SpaceX to build a launchpad in Biak island in Indonesia’s Papua province, an offer the government has made before.

    Indonesia’s government has been trying for years to lure Tesla to build manufacturing plants related to electric vehicles as the government wants to develop its EV sector using the country’s rich nickel resources.

    On Sunday, Musk had launched SpaceX’s satellite internet service for the health sector in Indonesia.

    Starlink was now available commercially, but the government would focus its services first on outer and underdeveloped regions.

    SpaceX’s Starlink, which owns around 60% of the roughly 7,500 satellites orbiting earth, is dominant in the satellite internet sphere.

  • Elon Musk’s X could lose $75 million in ad revenue following antisemitic content backlash

    Elon Musk’s X could lose $75 million in ad revenue following antisemitic content backlash

    X, the social network formerly known as Twitter, typically earns the most money in the last months of the year, as brands ramp up their advertising campaigns for the holiday shopping season. According to The New York Times, though, the company’s earnings report for this quarter might look different than usual. Based on internal documents The Times has seen, over 100 brands and even other types of advertisers, such as political candidates, have fully paused their ads on the website, while dozens more are considering pulling their campaigns. If advertisers don’t come back, X could lose up to $75 million in ad revenue earnings this year.

    The documents reportedly track how X would be affected by brands leaving the website, including the first ones that paused their ads shortly after Elon Musk’s controversial tweet, wherein he agreed with an antisemitic conspiracy theory. Shortly after he posted his tweet, media watchdog Media Matters published a report showing ads on the website right next to antisemitic content. In response, X filed a lawsuit against the organization, accusing it of “knowingly and maliciously [manufacturing] side-by-side images depicting advertisers’ posts on X Corp.’s social media platform beside Neo-Nazi and white national fringe content.”

    X said in its complaint that Media Matters deliberately created an environment to show ads from some of the platform’s biggest advertisers next to “extreme, fringe content.” Linda Yaccarino, the company’s CEO, defended X in a post and said that only two users saw Apple’s ad next to unpalatable content on the platform. One of them was Media Matters, she added. The organization called X’s lawsuit “frivolous” in a statement to Engadget and said it looks forward to winning in court.

    IBM, Apple and Disney were among the brands that quickly pulled their ads from X after the incidents. Lionsgate specifically cited Musk’s tweet as its reason for suspending its advertising campaigns, while Ubisoft was one of the first video game companies to withdraw its ads from X. According to The Times’ report, Airbnb has halted over $1 million worth of advertising on X, and Netflix has pulled $3 million in ads. X could also lose $4 million in ad revenue due to Microsoft’s subsidiaries pausing their campaigns. Uber and Coca-Cola are two other well-known brands that have chosen to put their advertising on X on hold.

    In a statement to the publication, the company said the figures it viewed were either outdated or “represented an internal exercise to evaluate total risk.” It also said that the revenue at risk was only around $11 million and that the exact amount keeps fluctuating as some advertisers return or increase their ad spending.

  • Taiwan tells Elon Musk it is ‘not for sale’

    Taiwan tells Elon Musk it is ‘not for sale’

    By Peter Hoskins & Derek Cai
    BBC News

    Taiwan has told billionaire Elon Musk it is “not for sale” after he said the island was a part of China.

    “Listen up, Taiwan is not part of the PRC [People’s Republic of China] & certainly not for sale!,” foreign minister Joseph Wu said on Mr Musk’s X.

    At a business summit this week, Mr Musk compared Taiwan to Hawaii, calling it an “integral part” of China.

    Beijing claims self-governed Taiwan and tensions between the two have ratcheted up over the past year.

    Just this week, China conducted air and naval drills around Taiwan, in what has become a routine show of military might around the island. Taiwan said that it had detected more than 40 Chinese military aircraft and about 10 ships in its waters.

    This is not the first time that Mr Musk, who has business interests in China, has angered Taiwan’s government with his comments. In October, he suggested that tensions between Beijing and Taipei could be resolved by giving China some control over Taiwan.

    He said then in an interview with the Financial Times that he believed the two governments could reach a “reasonably palatable” arrangement. China’s ambassador to the US had praised Mr Musk but his Taiwanese counterpart said something similar to Mr Wu – that freedom is “not for sale”.

    Mr Wu also posted on X: “Hope Elon Musk can also ask the CCP [Chinese Community Party] to open X to its people.” Mr Musk’s micro-blogging platform X, formerly known as Twitter, is banned in China.

    Mr Wu had previously said that China’s military drills were intended to influence Taiwan’s elections in January.

    “The PRC [People’s Republic of China] has made it clear it wants to shape Taiwan’s coming national election. Well, it’s up to our citizens to decide, not the bully next door,” he wrote on X.

    Mr Musk’s electric car maker Tesla has a large manufacturing plant in Shanghai and he most recently visited the country in May. He met top Chinese officials and the Chinese foreign ministry said that Tesla was willing to expand its business in the country.

    His visit drew much attention given relations between China and the US have plummeted in recent years. Despite resuming high-level dialogue, the two countries still disagree on a range of issues, including Taiwan, which has emerged as one of the biggest flashpoints between them. The US has long been Taipei’s chief ally.