Elon Musk Offered Jaw-Dropping $1 Trillion Deal To Keep Him At Tesla For 10 Years

Good morning! It's Friday, September 5, 2025, and this is The Morning Shift, your daily roundup of the top automotive headlines from around the world, in one place. This is where you'll find the most important stories that are shaping the way Americans drive and get around.

In this morning's edition, Tesla CEO Elon Musk is offered an unprecedented pay package, President Trump signs an order to lower tariffs on Japanese-made vehicles, GM plans to shift shutdowns at some EV plants, and Rivian is laying off a few hundred workers.

I know what you're thinking, Elon Musk — a man who is currently worth $430.9 billion — despite tanking his reputation and the reputation of his many companies, needs more money. Well, I've got good news, because the board of Tesla agrees with you. The automaker has proposed a new compensation agreement that could potentially be worth about $1 trillion. Yes... trillion with a "t."

The proposal, which is designed to keep Musk at the helm of Tesla for another 10 years, sets a series of cartoonishly ambitious benchmarks he and the company must reach to meet the full payout, including the expansion of its robotaxi business and growing its market value to at least $8.5 trillion. Today, it sits at about $1 trillion. 

The additional shares Musk could receive would push his stake in the Austin, Texas-based automaker to at least 25%. He's stated in the past that he'd like a stake that size. From Bloomberg:

The plan dangles a financial windfall and expanded control of the company to Musk, already the world's richest person, after his 2018 package valued in excess of $50 billion was struck down by a Delaware court. While Tesla appeals that decision, the board is seeking other ways to compensate its CEO, including with an interim stock award in early August valued at about $30 billion.

The incentives in the new plan aim to keep Musk's focus on Tesla while it pursues growth in newer markets including robotics and artificial intelligence. Friday's filing also included a non-binding shareholder proposal for Tesla to take a stake in Musk's xAI startup, an idea Musk has previously discussed.

The new agreement underscores Musk's iron grip on the automaker, despite the myriad demands on his time. Musk, who has served as Tesla's top executive since 2008, oversees four other companies: SpaceX, xAI, Neuralink and the Boring Co. He told Bloomberg in an interview in May that he's committed to still being at the helm of Tesla in five years.

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A market capitalization of $8.5 trillion would be more than double that of Nvidia Corp., currently the world's most valuable company. Tesla's value peaked in late 2024 at about $1.5 trillion.

The value of the latest CEO award, at $87.8 billion in the filing, would swell to about $1 trillion if Musk hits all the performance targets and gets to collect all the restricted shares. The proxy also outlines that Musk must participate in the board's development of a framework for long-term CEO succession in order to earn either of the last two tranches of the performance award.

Previously, Musk has sort of held the board hostage, saying that if they didn't arrange a new compensation program for him and get him a 25% voting control, he would pursue AI and robotics products elsewhere.

Of course, all of this is happening as Tesla struggles more than it has in years. The company reported two of its worst quarters in a long while and suffered a 13% decline in worldwide vehicle deliveries. You can thank Musk's alignment with far-right worldwide political figures like President Donald Trump and the German AfD party for that. This is the exact type of guy you want to give a trillion bucks to, isn't it?

It's just nice to see the guy land on his feet after flaming out so badly from the White House.

President Trump has signed an order that implements lower tariffs on Japan-made vehicles and other products imported to the U.S. Tariffs now drop from the current 27.5% to 15% — not great, but certainly better. The plan was first announced back in July, but it took some time for the rather dysfunctional Trump Administration to iron out the details, I guess. 

The deal also brings with it an agreement for $550 billion in Japanese investments in U.S. projects. From Reuters:

The executive order also ensured that the 15% levy on Japanese imports agreed in July would not be stacked on top of those already subject to higher tariffs such as beef, while items previously subject to tariffs below 15% would be adjusted to 15%. This relief is retroactive to August 7.

In addition, it promised no tariffs on commercial airplanes and parts.

"Finally," Ryosei Akazawa, Japan's top trade negotiator, posted to X, in a nod to the months-long trade talks that had frustrated lawmakers in Tokyo. Thursday marked his 10th trip to the U.S. for the negotiations.

Speaking to reporters in Washington, Akazawa said Japan welcomed the executive order as "a steady implementation of the agreement reached on July 22."

Rival exporter South Korea is still waiting on an executive order covering a similar trade agreement with America — including a 15% tariff on U.S. imports from automaking giant Hyundai Motor Group — down from 25%.

It'll be interesting to see who eats that 15% tariff. I've got a sneaking suspicion it's not going to be the automakers, though.

General Motors is killing the game when it comes to electric vehicles right now. Few automakers are putting out a better selection of EVs across their lineup, but that doesn't mean it's immune to the fact that Americans seem to be losing interest in EVs. 

Because of that, GM's Spring Hill Assembly plant in Tennessee — where it builds the Cadillac Lyriq and Vistiq — is planning several weeks of downtime in the coming months. We can also expect its Fairfax Assembly plant in Kansas City — which is currently closed as it prepares to produce the upcoming Chevy Bolt — and its CAMI Assembly Plant in Canada — which produces the BrightDrop delivery van — to undergo some changes. From the Detroit Free Press:

"General Motors is making strategic production adjustments in alignment with expected slower EV industry growth and customer demand by leveraging our flexible ICE and EV manufacturing footprint," GM spokesman Kevin Kelly said in a statement."GM's U.S. manufacturing footprint remains our strength, and we are in the process of investing nearly $5 billion over the next two years to further increase domestic vehicle production, enabling the ability to assemble more than 2 million vehicles per year in the U.S."

Spring Hill will close the week of Oct. 6 and the week of Thanksgiving, as well as the full month of December, according to the memo sent to employees Sept. 3. The change will impact vehicle assembly as well as the teams that assemble battery packs for EV batteries, GM confirmed. Ultium Cell employees will not be affected.

Separately, Fairfax Assembly, which ended production earlier this year of the Cadillac XT4 and the Chevrolet Malibu, is no longer planning to add a second shift once construction ramps up on the Bolt. GM said this summer it plans to begin assembly of the gas-powered Chevrolet Equinox in Fairfax by mid-2027.

Plans were to start with one shift in November, according to the company website, but now GM says it will wait on market conditions before making the decision to expand to a second shift.

GM's flagship Factory Zero is also altering its plans. Last week, The General told employees that the plant would partially shut down some first- and second-shift production after Labor Day, but it would resume on October 6. At the same time, the temporary layoff in place for second-shift production that GM announced in April was extended until October 6. The move impacts the production of the Hummer Ev and Escalade IQ as well as 360 workers.

It's not just General Motors feeling the heat, either. Rivian is also struggling in this EV-apathetic world. The upstart automaker is cutting about 200 jobs as it retools its Normal, Illinois factory in preparation for the smaller R2 electric crossover next year. It is expecting lower EV sales in the fourth quarter once the federal tax credit is taken away on September 30. From Automotive News:

"We have made some recent changes to the commercial team as part of an ongoing effort to improve operational efficiency for R2," a Rivian spokesperson said Sept. 4.

The sales and service layoffs represent less than 1.5 percent of Rivian's workforce, which totaled 14,861 people, according to its second-quarter earnings report.

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"We have made some recent changes to the commercial team as part of an ongoing effort to improve operational efficiency for R2," a Rivian spokesperson said Sept. 4.

The EV maker plans to shut down the plant for about three weeks in September as part of the retooling, the company said on an Aug. 5 earnings call.

Rivian is anticipating that the third quarter will be its peak delivery time for the year for both its consumer vehicles and commercial vans. 

In the second quarter, it reported a net loss of $1.1 billion, but it kept its 2025 delivery guidance of 40,000 to 46,000 vehicles, down from 51,579 vehicles in 2025. It's hoping the lower-pricing R2 can help right the ship.

History.com

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This Brett sounds like a real bastard. Have a good weekend, everybody.