Elon Musk has bought around $1 billion worth of Tesla stock, his first such purchase in more than five years, as the company’s board promoted a new compensation plan that could grant him nearly $1 trillion if he meets certain performance targets.
The acquisition, made through a revocable trust Friday, was disclosed in regulatory filling Monday. Musk purchased about 2.57 million shares Friday, ranging from around $372 to $397 a share.
The filing comes just days after the company’s board chair, Robyn Denholm, defended the proposed pay plan. She told The New York Times on Friday that Musk could achieve world-changing technology if motivated by seemingly impossible goals.
The purchase appeared to please investors. Tesla’s stock rose more than 6%, to around $422, on Monday morning. Musk said on X on Monday morning that the increase in Tesla’s stock over the last several years was “foretold in the prophecy.”
Tesla, which makes electric vehicles and battery storage systems, has struggled in recent quarters. Sales of its cars have been falling around the world and will likely take another dive in the last three months of the year after a tax credit for EV purchases in the United States expires at the end of September.
Musk sold more than $20 billion of the company’s stock in 2022 when he acquired Twitter, now known as X.
Despite those challenges, Denholm maintains that Musk’s performance-based compensation is justified. To unlock the full payout, Musk must drive up Tesla’s valuation to $8.5 trillion, from about $1 trillion today; deploy 1 million autonomous taxis and 1 million robots; and increase its profits more than 24-fold from last year.
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