Elon Musk adds to his $679 billion fortune after Delaware court reverses its earlier decision and awards him a $55 billion Tesla pay package

Elon Musk, already the world’s richest man, scored another huge windfall Friday when the Delaware Supreme Court reversed a decision that deprived him of a $55 billion pay package that Tesla doled out in 2018 as an incentive for its CEO to steer the automaker to new heights.

Besides padding Musk’s current fortune of $679 billion, the restoration of the 2018 pay package vindicates his long-held belief that the Delaware legal system had overstepped its bounds in January 2024 when Chancellor Kathaleen St. Jude McCormick rescinded the compensation in a case brought by a disgruntled Tesla shareholder.

Tesla didn’t immediately respond to a request for comment late Friday.

McCormick’s ruling so incensed Musk that it spurred him to spurn Delaware and reincorporate Tesla in Texas. That decision also caused Tesla’s board to scramble for ways to keep its CEO happy, including a successful effort to persuade the company’s shareholders to reaffirm the pay package, which was valued at $44.9 billion at the time of the second vote 18 months ago.

With Musk still signaling discontent, Tesla upped the ante again this year by crafting another pay package th...