Tesla CEO Elon Musk has begun an appeal process to restore the $56,000,000,000 pay package from the electric car company that he claims was denied in a ‘legal error’.

Despite being undeniably the richest man in the world, Elon Musk continues his crusade for more money by pushing for an ‘unfathomable’ pay package from Tesla that he claims he is rightfully owed.

Awarded all the way back in 2018, this particular pay package resulted in major growth for the electric car manufacturer, as per Reuters, but was ordered to be rescinded by Chancellor Kathaleen McCormick through Delaware law proceedings.

Musk has filed an appeal after his claim to an ‘unfathomable’ Tesla pay package was denied (Saul Loeb/AFP via Getty Images)

Chancellor McCormick indicated that the staggering pay package was “unfathomable” and unfair to shareholders, as directors were ‘beholden’ to Musk as CEO, alongside accusations that Tesla withheld key information from investors before they successfully voted to approve the pay package.

Musk has now launched his own appeal to McCormick’s decision, claiming instead that multiple legal errors were made in the application of the ‘entire fairness’ legal standard.

His legal representatives argue that Chancellor McCormick incorrectly determined that the Tesla directors that approved the pay package were conflicted in their business efforts, and that her assessment of the company’s failure to disclose information was a fault.

What remains critical about this particular pay package is it’s relevance to the current stock price of Tesla, even with a rapidly falling valuation over the past few weeks despite a push of support from President Trump.

The pay package, if successfully awarded, allows Musk to purchase roughly 303 million stock options in the company at around $23 each, which is essentially 10% of the most recent $230.58 closing price on Tuesday (March 11) night, and pales in comparison to the highs of around $492.77 at the end of last year.

Having access to this pay package would significantly increase Musk’s net worth and control over Tesla, despite stock value drops (Andrew Harnik/Getty Images)

Musk’s purchase price if awarded these stocks would be around $6,969,000,000 – which is around just 2.2% of his total current net worth – but if he sold it at that $230.58 closing price he’d earn himself $69,865,740,000, which would boost his net worth by 20%.

Conversely, Musk will likely feel as if he’s lost significant value due to the fact that Tesla is significantly lower than it’s all-time high on the stock market, and if he had indeed held this pay packet at the $492.77 evaluation then his net worth would have almost doubled, increasing by $149,309,310,000.

This is quite a different approach compared to key rival Sam Altman, who currently holds no stock options for OpenAI and only receives a $76,000 yearly wage from the company, and in addition Musk has threatened to move his efforts elsewhere and procure development outside of Tesla if he cannot increase his stake in the company.

Elon Musk’s fortunes have taken a downward trend in the past few months, reportedly dropping $116,000,000,000 from his peak net worth.

Although, he still holds his position as the richest man in the world by a considerable margin.

While there’s no doubt that Elon Musk was incredibly rich, his net worth catapulted to heights never seen before following Donald Trump’s US election victory last November.

Musk was a keen supporter and close ally of Trump in the months prior to his victory and benefitted greatly from this connection as the market predicted that his companies would soar through relaxed regulation and increased support.

Trump’s election victory greatly benefitted Musk’s net worth and companies (Chip Somodevilla/Getty Images)

Tesla‘s stock price over doubled between the end of October and the middle of December, and a tender offer indicated that SpaceX had become the world’s most valuable private firm at $350 billion.

In just a short few months his net worth increased from around $250,000,000,000 to a staggering $464,000,000,000, almost doubling on its own and sitting around $200 billion higher than the next richest on the list.

However, while he remains still the richest individual in the world, his overall net worth has dropped by $116,000,000,000 from it’s highest point, which many point towards the dip in Tesla value, as reported by Forbes.

The publication’s real-time billionaires index indicates that Musk’s current net worth is $347.7 billion, which is over $100 billion more than Meta CEO Mark Zuckerberg ($221 billion) and Amazon founder Jeff Bezos ($219 billion).

Bloomberg’s billionaires index also indicates that Musk has reported a year-to-date drop of $96.5 billion, or around 22.3% of his overall net worth.

The aforementioned Tesla drops are likely at the heart of this decline, as the car company’s closing price of $272 is the lowest end-of-day share price since November 5, or Election Day in the United States.

Recent developments have put a chainsaw to Musk’s net worth, causing it to drop by $116 billion from its peak (Saul Loeb/AFP via Getty Images)

It’s likely also linked to the tariffs announced by President Trump on China, as the country is Tesla’s second largest customer base and also produces most of the world’s materials that are necessary for the manufacturing of electric vehicles.

SpaceX remains strong still, especially as private industry efforts appear to be ramping up on the Moon, and xAI – Musk’s artificial intelligence company – continues to grow despite conflict with OpenAI which he previously co-founded alongside Sam Altman.

One intriguing point indicated by Forbes is that while Musk’s $116 billion drop might seem like not that much relative to his existing net worth, that figure alone is higher than all but 11 of the world’s richest individuals’ net worth.

The amount that Musk has lost in the last three months is more than the net worth of people like Nvidia’s Jensen Huang, Charles Koch, and Walmart-heir Alice Walton.

Elon Musk has once again spoken out against skits involving his White House antics on late night TV, as a Daily Show ‘Tesla Auto Mall’ video has drawn a ‘brutal’ response from the car company’s CEO on X.

You begin to lose count of the people that Elon Musk has clashed with on X in the past few months alone, as he’s had fiery spats with everyone from horror icon Stephen King to Mike Myers and SNL.

He’s certainly giving these detractors plenty of ammunition to play with due to his new high profile role in American politics at the right hand of US President Donald Trump, and it’s once again not taken much to strike the nerve of the richest man in the world.

Following a bizarre publicity stunt that saw President Trump promoting Tesla outside of the White House alongside it’s CEO and ‘founder’ Musk, Jon Stewart’s The Daily Show decided to produce a satirical advert depicting the White House as an ‘auto mall’.

It’ll instantly make you recall trashy adverts for dodgy used car dealerships, with Trump’s breakdown of the electric vehicle’s qualities at the heart of it all.

“So don’t waste your time going to those other Tesla dealerships with riots and flaming Cybertrucks, you’ve gotta come down to White House Tesla Auto Mall,” the skit ends.

Naturally it caught the attention of Musk after being posted to his own social media platform, to which he offered his own five word response:

“Thanks for helping sell Teslas!! [laughing emoji]” Musk joked, but if recent reports of a sales decline and significant stock market losses are anything to consider, he might well need all the help he can get.

He’s certainly getting that from the President though, as The Daily Show’s sketch – like Myers’ portrayal of Musk – isn’t too far from the truth.

Trump’s appearance alongside a MAGA-esque red Tesla was nothing short of an advertisement, as he claimed that he’s buying a ‘brand new Tesla’ despite the fact that he’s not actually allowed to drive one himself.

On top of this, President Trump indicated that anyone who ‘messes with’ Tesla will be put ‘through hell’ after outlining that people targeting Tesla dealerships will be treated as ‘domestic terrorists’.

Musk and Trump were promoting Tesla on the White House lawn (Andrew Harnik/Getty Images)

You don’t need to look back too far to see a wildly different stance from Trump on the rise of electric vehicles, as resurfaced comments show that he believed they were ‘destroying our once great USA’ and should ‘rot in hell’.

Close affiliation with Musk appears to have cured this distaste for EVs despite once claiming that they were “the idea of the Radical Left Fascists, Marxists, & Communists,” much like his opinion shift on Musk himself.

As the U.S. government faces another potential shutdown, a single emoji from Elon Musk has sprouted a new cause for concern, since it implies what he thinks should happen to furloughed workers.

The latest development stemmed from White House correspondent journalist, Natalie Winters, who took to social media to drop her post on X (formerly Twitter) – asking: “If the government shuts down, what if we just never brought most furloughed workers back?”.

After Musk noticed the post, his response was as short as it could be, merely replying with the above thinking-face emoji.

While it might not seem like much, but coming from the CEO of Tesla, SpaceX, and X itself, it’s more than enough to raise eyebrows. That’s because as the leader of DOGE — President Donald Trump’s new Department of Government Efficiency — billionaire Elon Musk has been looking for ways to cut as much spending on the federal level as possible.

Following a government shutdown looming, new sources have revealed this is exactly what Musk wants, in order to make the slashing of government jobs far easier, and has even been supporting it behind the scenes.

According to Wired, multiple sources say Musk sees a shutdown as a way to cut down the federal workforce permanently — essentially stopping many furloughed employees from ever coming back.

One Republican insider said: “A shutdown has been his preference,” one Republican insider told the outlet, claiming Musk’s stance has him “boxed in there” by President Trump.

Another source went further, saying:

“You know none of this is about saving money, right? It’s all about destroying a liberal power base.”

The report also highlights how Musk’s so-called Department of Government Efficiency (DOGE) has already been working to trim down federal jobs, supposedly eliminating tens of thousands of positions. A shutdown could accelerate those efforts.

Elon Musk at Donald Trump’s inauguration (Getty Images)

If the US government does shut down, thousands of federal employees would be temporarily out of work. Essential services, such as law enforcement and Social Security payments, would continue, but many agencies would be forced to pause operations.

Historically, government shutdowns have been temporary disruptions, with furloughed workers returning once a budget deal is reached. But Wired’s report suggests Musk and some conservatives may see this as a chance to make the cuts permanent.

There’s already concern among federal employees about how a shutdown could impact them long-term. One anonymous State Department worker told Wired:

“There are concerns anyone deemed nonessential will be DOGE’d.”

In other words, some fear that if they’re furloughed now, they may never get their jobs back.

Musk’s past comments suggest he has little sympathy for government jobs that he sees as unnecessary. According to The New Yorker earlier this month, Musk told reporters in February:

“If the job is not essential, or they are not doing it well, they obviously shouldn’t be on the public payroll.”

While some may argue he’s simply questioning inefficiencies like he has with his own companies, Musk’s attitude will likely only fuel concerns that he’s trying to reshape the federal government to fit his own vision.