$30 billion? That’s a lot of cheddar (Scott Olson/Getty Images)

Tesla board approves nearly $30 billion Musk stock award, says “retaining Elon is more important than ever”

Analyst Dan Ives thinks the 96 million new shares will be enough to hold on to Musk through 2030.

8/4/25 8:19AM

Tesla shareholders and stakeholders pin a lot of value on having Elon Musk as CEO, and they showed just how much on Monday morning.

Tesla’s board approved an “interim” stock award of 96 million shares for Musk, valued at nearly $30 billion at Tesla’s Friday closing price. He can claim it in two years if he remains at the company as CEO or an executive officer, and if he doesn’t win the appeal for his prior $56 billion pay package, which has been struck down twice.

Shareholders cheered the move, sending shares up 2.5% in premarket trading. So if you’re counting, the pay package has added about $23 billion in market cap to the company this morning.

In a note on X, two members of the Tesla board’s special committee wrote that “now is the right time to take decisive action to recognize the extraordinary value that Elon created for Tesla shareholders” and that retaining Musk is “more important than ever.”

Wedbush Securities analyst Dan Ives is happy and thinks it will help retain Tesla’s “big asset.”

“We believe this grant will now keep Musk as CEO of Tesla at least until 2030 and removes an overhang on the stock,” Ives wrote this morning. Still, he added, the board will need a long-term compensation strategy ahead of the company’s November shareholder meeting.

Nia Warfield5h

Better Home soars after Opendoor kingmaker Eric Jackson dubs it the “Shopify of mortgages”

Shares of Better Home & Finance soared over 160% Monday after EMJ Capital founder Eric Jackson posted on X, dubbing the online mortgage lender the “Shopify of mortgages.” The post drew attention to BETR’s rapid growth.

He went further, calling BETR a “potential 350-bagger in 2 years.” In a subsequent post, Jackson argued that Better ought to be worth $626 per share today, and claimed that it should be worth $12,000 per share in two years.

Now, these are bold claims, but Jackson is coming off a rather successful called shot as the primary architect of the rally in Opendoor Technologies. After a similar series of posts where Jackson argued that Opendoor would be the next Carvana, retail interest in the real estate stock soared, mobilizing an “$OPEN Army” that has managed to gain the ear of management as they propel the stock upward.

Needless to say, when Jackson talks up a stock, retail at least will hear him out.

Better Home & Finance stock is now up a massive 682% year to date.

Millie Giles11h

Fox Corp.’s Lachlan and Rupert Murdoch might be part of the TikTok deal, Trump says

President Trump has said that Rupert Murdoch and his son Lachlan, the chief executive of Fox, are “probably” going to be involved in the investor group looking to buy TikTok in the US.

In an interview with Fox News that aired on Sunday, Trump suggested that the conservative media magnates would join partners including Oracle and Dell in the proposed US deal for the popular social media app.

Trump Says the Murdochs May Join TikTok Investors

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Microsoft is hiking US Xbox prices for the second time in five months

Microsoft said on Friday that it is once again hiking the price of Xbox consoles in the US, this time by up to $70. According to the company, the new prices will take effect on October 3.

A Series X special edition console will now cost $800, up from $730. The standard Series X is now $650, up from $600. Pricing outside of the US will stay the same, Microsoft said.

If you’re feeling deja vu, that’s because Microsoft just did this back in May when it hiked its Xbox prices by up to $100 in the US. The standard edition of the Series X was $500 at launch, meaning the nearly 5-year-old console has seen a 30% price hike this year.

The update is “due to changes in the macroeconomic environment,” according to Microsoft, language mirroring that of rivals Sony and Nintendo when each hiked their own console prices last month. Industry analysts have long warned that tariffs like those imposed by President Trump could substantially increase the costs of video game console production.

Claire Yubin Oh

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Casio is about to start selling a furry AI-powered pet robot in the US, as it bets on loneliness

The watchmaker behind G-Shock is betting on the growing loneliness epidemic to save its struggling business.

Still life of Ozempic and Wegovy with weight scale.

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