Elon Musk’s massive 2018 Tesla pay package restored by Delaware court
Elon Musk’s controversial $56bn pay package from Tesla was reinstated by the Delaware supreme court on Friday, two years after a lower court struck down the vast compensation deal as “unfathomable”.The reinstated pay package could be worth as much as $139bn today, according to the New York Times.The decision comes less than two months after Tesla shareholders approved a new plan that could be worth $1tn to Musk, already the world’s richest person, in a decade’s time.Musk’s fortune currently stands at an estimated $600bn.Rescinding the pay deal would be “inequitable”, and would leave Musk “uncompensated for his time and efforts over a period of six years”, the Delaware supreme court justices wrote, echoing arguments from Tesla board members earlier this year.
At the company’s annual meeting in Austin, Texas, this November, shareholders had approved a stopgap measure for Musk, ensuring – regardless of how the Delaware supreme court ruled on this appeal – that he would get the $56bn his supporters say he is owed.Tesla did not immediately respond to a request for comment or for more details on Friday’s ruling.Both of the compensation packages, as well as other pay plans approved by Tesla shareholders, require Musk to meet a number of lofty goals related to product development and increasing the company’s value to $8.5tn in order to cash out on those awards.The case that first invalidated the original pay package was launched seven years ago when a Tesla stockholder, who held just nine shares at the time, filed a suit arguing that the plan was set up to overpay the world’s richest person.
That first ruling voided the billions Musk was to receive, which left the Tesla co-founder less than pleased.Not only did Musk relocate Tesla to Texas from Delaware, where it was incorporated at the time the suit began, he also publicly lashed out against the state and specifically its court of chancery and chief judge, Chancellor Kathaleen McCormick.“She has done more to damage Delaware than any judge in modern history,” he wrote on X, his social media platform, in February 2024.Tesla stockholders in 2024 were again asked to vote on the 2018 pay package.They approved it, and once again, McCormick struck it down, ruling that the “Superstar CEO”, as she called him, had undue influence in developing his own pay package and that stockholders weren’t fully informed ahead of the vote.
Musk has voiced his displeasure ever since.“Any lawyer still recommending incorporation in Delaware at this point should be sued for malpractice,” he posted online earlier this year.In Friday’s opinion, the justices agreed with McCormick’s earlier findings that there was a breach of fiduciary duty in developing the original package and presenting it to shareholders.They ordered $1 be paid to the plaintiff in nominal damages.However, the five judges agreed that rescinding Musk’s full pay package wasn’t appropriate.
While Musk has publicly called for other companies to follow his lead and leave Delaware – which has historically been home to more than 60% of Fortune 500 companies – experts have tracked only a few dozen companies that have actually done so.That includes big companies including Dropbox and Coinbase, while other tech companies like Meta have only threatened to leave.
TikTok signs Trump-backed deal to avoid US ban
TikTok has reached a deal to form a joint venture that will allow it to continue operating in the US, five years after Donald Trump threatened to ban the social media platform over privacy and national security concerns, a move that further strained relations with China.ByteDance, TikTok’s Chinese owner, has signed a deal with Larry Ellison’s Oracle, the private-equity group Silver Lake and Abu Dhabi’s MGX that will allow it to retain control of its core US operations.Under the arrangement, the joint venture will take over part of TikTok’s US business, including data protection, algorithm security and content moderation.However, TikTok’s chief executive, Shou Zi Chew, told employees in a memo that ByteDance would continue to run US operations, including its main revenue drivers such as e-commerce, advertising and marketing.The deal ends five years of uncertainty over the future of TikTok in the US, where the platform has more than 130 million users
What will your life look like in 2035?
“Does it hurt when I do this?”“You seem to have dislocat…”A Eye: “NOOOO! The problem is a sprain in the brachial plexus due to you lifting that 10kg carton on Wednesday at 2.58pm and not eating enough blah blah”“Wow, err, thanks”In 2035, AIs are more than co-pilots in medicine, they have become the frontline for much primary care. Gone is the early morning scramble to get through to a harassed GP receptionist for help. Patients now contact their doctor’s AI to explain their ailments. It quickly cross-checks the information against the patient’s medical history and provides a pre-diagnosis, putting the human GP in a position to decide what to do next
AI boom has caused same CO2 emissions in 2025 as New York City, report claims
The AI boom has caused as much carbon dioxide to be released into the atmosphere in 2025 as emitted by the whole of New York City, it has been claimed.The global environmental impact of the rapidly spreading technology has been estimated in research published on Wednesday, which also found that AI-related water use now exceeds the entirety of global bottled-water demand.The figures have been compiled by the Dutch academic Alex de Vries-Gao, the founder of Digiconomist, a company that researches the unintended consequences of digital trends. He claimed they were the first attempt to measure the specific effect of artificial intelligence rather than datacentres in general as the use of chatbots such as OpenAI’s ChatGPT and Google’s Gemini soared in 2025.The figures show the estimated greenhouse gas emissions from AI use are also now equivalent to more than 8% of global aviation emissions
Third of UK citizens have used AI for emotional support, research reveals
A third of UK citizens have used artificial intelligence for emotional support, companionship or social interaction, according to the government’s AI security body.The AI Security Institute (AISI) said nearly one in 10 people used systems like chatbots for emotional purposes on a weekly basis, and 4% daily.AISI called for further research, citing the death this year of the US teenager Adam Raine, who killed himself after discussing suicide with ChatGPT.“People are increasingly turning to AI systems for emotional support or social interaction,” AISI said in its first Frontier AI Trends report. “While many users report positive experiences, recent high-profile cases of harm underline the need for research into this area, including the conditions under which harm could occur, and the safeguards that could enable beneficial use
From Nvidia to OpenAI, Silicon Valley woos Westminster as ex-politicians take tech firm roles
When the billionaire chief executive of AI chipmaker Nvidia threw a party in central London for Donald Trump’s state visit in September, the power imbalance between Silicon Valley and British politicians was vividly exposed.Jensen Huang hastened to the stage after meetings at Chequers and rallied his hundreds of guests to cheer on the power of AI. In front of a huge Nvidia logo, he urged the venture capitalists before him to herald “a new industrial revolution”, announced billions of pounds in AI investments and, like Willy Wonka handing out golden tickets, singled out some lucky recipients in the room.“If you want to get rich, this is where you want to be,” he declared.But his biggest party trick was a surprise guest waiting in the wings
Hackers access Pornhub’s premium users’ viewing habits and search history
Hackers have accessed the search history and viewing habits of premium users of Pornhub, one of the world’s most popular pornography websites.A gang has reportedly accessed more than 200m data records, including premium members’ email addresses, search and viewing activities and locations. Pornhub is a heavily used site and says it has more than 100m daily visits globally.The hack was reportedly carried out by a western-based group called ShinyHunters, according to the website BleepingComputer, which first reported the incident. The site reported that the data included premium members’ email addresses, search and viewing activity and location
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