Elon Musk’s multi-billion paycheck just got approved by stockholders. That could be a fraction of what’s coming

Tesla shareholders on Thursday confirmed they want Elon Musk to get a massive record pay package for running Tesla for the last six years. The question now is, how much will he get going forward?

Tesla shareholders on Thursday confirmed they want Elon Musk to get a massive record pay package for running Tesla for the last six years. The question now is, how much will he get going forward? The package, made up of 303 million stock options worth more than $47 billion based on the current value of Tesla shares, was thrown out in January by a judge in Delaware, where Tesla has been incorporated. Delaware Chancery Court Chancellor Kathaleen McCormick ruled in favor of a shareholder suit that the process by which Musk was awarded the options was “deeply flawed” and did not pass the burden of fairness. It’s not clear if even with the new shareholder vote that Musk will have the options returned to him, according to legal experts. “It’s not an automatic fix. It doesn’t override the decision,” Samantha Crispin, partner and chair of the corporate department at global law firm Baker Botts, told CNN. “The chancellor found a number of defects in the process.” But Tesla shareholders also approved moving Tesla’s state of incorporation to Texas, partly in reaction to the Delaware decision. So even if the courts in Delaware continue to rule against the pay package, the Tesla board could grant a new stock option award to Musk, although there would be negative tax implications for doing so rather than simply voting to restore the earlier options. Musk, who is not paid any kind of cash salary or bonus at Tesla, has been essentially working for free for more than a year, since Tesla hit the financial targets that awarded him the last of the options available in the 2018 package.