Elon, Inc.
Elon Gets $30 Billion to Stick Around, Boring is Largely Stuck
· Summarized
Key takeaways
- Tesla was found liable for a crash involving its auto-pilot feature and ordered to pay a significant sum in damages.
- Elon Musk is receiving a massive $30 billion stock payout from Tesla to ensure his continued involvement amid the company's challenges.
- The Boring Company is experiencing setbacks, with only a limited amount of operational tunnel projects despite ambitious promises, leading to a steep decline in its valuation.
Summary
Tesla's Legal Struggles and Massive Payout to Elon Musk
The episode discusses a Miami jury's recent decision that found Tesla 33% liable in a fatal crash involving the vehicle’s auto-pilot feature. This ruling resulted in Tesla being ordered to pay $243 million in damages. Following this legal setback, Tesla's board approved a staggering $30 billion stock award to Elon Musk as an incentive to keep him focused amidst the bouncing crises within the company. The discussion features insights from experts, including Professor Missy Cummings, who was called as an expert witness in the trial.
The Boring Company's Struggles and Declining Valuation
The podcast explores the challenges facing The Boring Company, Elon Musk’s venture into tunnel construction aimed at revolutionizing public transport. Notably, the company has not seen much progress, with reported operational miles being far fewer than initially promised. Recent discussions of a Nashville airport connection highlight ongoing ambitions, yet the overall sentiment reflects a struggling company with a valuation dropping from $8.6 billion to around $6.4 billion. This section includes a deep dive into the projects that are either failing or remaining stagnant, along with expert analyses on why the public and investors are losing faith.
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Show notes
It was an expensive week for Tesla. On Friday, a jury in Miami found the electric car company 33% to blame for a deadly 2019 crash involving its full self-driving feature, ordering it to pay a total of $242.5 million in damages. A few days later, the company’s board said it would dole out a $30 billion stock payoff to co-founder Elon Musk in order to keep him focused on the company, which has been bouncing from crisis to crisis.
In this episode of Elon, Inc., host David Papadopoulos is joined by Bloomberg Elon Musk reporter Dana Hull, Bloomberg Businessweek’s Max Chafkin as well as Missy Cummings, an academic and former senior adviser for safety at the US National Highway Traffic Safety Administration who was called as an expert witness during the trial. Together, they discuss the possible consequences for the company flowing from the verdict, with Cummings warning it’s yet another roadblock for fully self-driving cars. Papadopoulos, Hull and Chafkin also discuss that monster payout to Musk.
Later, Papadopoulos, Chafkin and Bloomberg News reporter Kiel Porter discuss Porter’s latest story on The Boring Company, Musk’s largely stalled endeavor to build underground “hyperloops.” Although the tunnel-digging venture recently scored a contract to build a loop connecting Nashville’s airport with its downtown, Porter’s paints a picture of a struggling company that—in true Muskian fashion—promises more than it can deliver.
And the challenges are mounting. All the company has to show for its labors is a small loop that takes people to and from the Las Vegas Convention Center. When asked by Papadopoulos about the company’s falling valuation—now hovering at around $6.4 billion, down from a high of $8.6 billion in July 2023—Porter is direct.
“They were supposed to have 68 miles dug in Vegas. It was supposed to be this huge interconnected lattice, and instead you got less than four operational miles,” he says. “It doesn’t take a genius to look at that and go, ‘why am I investing in this?’”
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