Elon Musk’s polarizing political actions since acquiring Twitter, later rebranded X, in 2022 dramatically hurt the automaker’s U.S. sales, underscoring how deeply its fortunes are intertwined with the billionaire’s persona.

It's not the first time Tesla has pushed for a massive pay package for its CEO, but there are several differences between 2018 and 2025.

Elon Musk’s political activities — buying Twitter, renaming it X, and letting election deniers and white supremacists back on; donating nearly $300 million to elect Donald Trump; heading DOGE — have dramatically harmed Tesla’s financial fortunes,

TSLA stock dropped 73.6% from a peak of $409.97 on 4 November 2021 to $108.10 on 3 January 2023, compared to a peak-to-trough decline of 25.4% for the S&P 500. Since then, the stock rose to a maximum of $479.86 on 17 December 2024 and is currently trading at $452.42

Electric vehicle manufacturer Tesla has made headlines twice recently after proposing two gargantuan compensation packages for CEO Elon Musk despite a yearslong lawsuit brought by an investor who believes its board of directors sought to overpay Musk.

Meanwhile, TV host Jim Cramer has backed Musk's $1 trillion pay packet, which has drawn criticism from proxy advisory firms like International Shareholder Services (ISS) and Glass Lewis. Cramer said that Musk, as the CEO of Tesla, "was actually worth" the package.

Tesla faces a challenging future as former Stellantis CEO Carlos Tavares predicts the company may exit the automotive sector amid competition from BYD.

Tesla chief Elon Musk said in a call with investors on Wednesday that his team is “on the cusp of something really tremendous” with Optimus, the humanoid robot that it’s been working on since 2021.