Tesla shares rose on early Monday to a new all time high of $498.82 after Delaware’s highest court reinstated Elon Musk’s 2018 compensation package.
The process comes to an end after several years of legal fight over the record-setting award, now worth nearly $150 billion.
The Delaware Supreme Court ruled Friday that a lower court’s decision to rescind the pay plan was too extreme a remedy, even as it upheld findings that Tesla‘s board improperly approved the share grant.
“Total rescission leaves Musk uncompensated for his time and efforts over a period of six years,” the court wrote.
The justices reversed the cancellation and awarded $1 in nominal damages, effectively restoring 303 million shares to the chief executive officer.
Governance Concerns Remain
The ruling resolves the closely watched case brought by Tesla shareholder Richard J. Tornetta, who accused Musk and the board of breaching their fiduciary duties.
While the Supreme Court restored the compensation, it left intact other findings from the Court of Chancery, including conclusions about Musk’s influence over Tesla and flaws in the board’s approval process.
New Pay Package Stands
The original ruling in 2024 prompted Tesla to reincorporate in Texas and seek to reaffirm Musk’s compensation through a second shareholder vote.
Investors approved an even larger package in November, potentially worth as much as $1 trillion if all the ambitious performance thresholds are met over the next decade.
Tesla‘s board had also granted Musk an interim $29 billion award earlier this year, which the company said it would withdraw now that the 2018 package has been reinstated.
Separately the company started giving employees rides in unsupervised Full Self-Driving vehicles in Austin, as EV reported Monday, moving closer to its target of fully driverless operations by year end.
