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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 USD55 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 USD 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that the Delaware legal system had overstepped its bounds in January 2024 when Chancellor Kathaleen St Jude McCormick rescinded the compensation in a case brought by a disgruntled Tesla shareholder.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 USD 44.9
Elon Musk turned off many potential buyers of his Tesla cars and sent sales plunging with his foray into politics. But the stock has soared anyway and now he wants the company to pay him more -- a lot more. Shareholders gathering on Thursday for Tesla's annual meeting in Austin, Texas, will decide in a proxy vote whether to grant Musk, the company's CEO and already the richest person in the world, enough stock to potentially make him history's first trillionaire. It's a vote that has sparked heated debate on both sides of the issue, even drawing the pope's comments on it as an example of income inequality. Several pension funds have come out against the package, arguing that the board of directors is too beholden to Musk, his behaviour too reckless lately and the riches offered too much. Supporters say Musk is a genius who is the only person capable of ushering in a Tesla-dominated future in which hundreds of thousands of self-driving Tesla cars -- many without steering wheels -- w