One of the worst weeks in Tesla’s 15-year-history has sapped Elon Musk’s net worth and made the moonshot goals underlying his US$2.6bn award seem all the more audacious.
The electric car maker’s stock has tumbled about 20% since Musk’s record grant of stock options was approved by investors on 21 March. The decline has been fuelled by a fatal crash of a Model X car, a recall of about 123 000 Model S vehicles and a credit-rating downgrade.
That’s dimmed the outlook for the CEO to collect any of the options, which will vest in 12 increments if goals tied to market value and either revenue or earnings excluding certain items are met. The market-value hurdles start at $100bn and increase in $50bn increments.
Tesla’s market capitalisation fell to $42.6bn on Monday as shares continued to slide, cutting roughly $400m off Musk’s net worth at 11am in New York. He’s lost about $1.9bn this year.
However, neither Tesla nor Musk are bankrupt yet. The CEO remains one of the world’s richest individuals with his $18.1bn fortune, and has a full decade to achieve the goals that would trigger vesting of his options. —Reported by Anders Melin, with assistance from Tom Metcalf, (c) 2018 Bloomberg LP