Plus, Tesla CEO Elon Musk briefly becomes the world's first-half-trillionaire as the stock lifts his net worth to a new milestone
Giuliano Berti/Bloomberg via Getty Images
Tesla $TSLA is never just one story. This week alone, Elon Musk’s EV company reported deliveries of almost half-a-million cars, faced a wrongful-death lawsuit over a fiery Cybertruck crash, watched investors revolt against his trillion-dollar pay plan, and briefly sent Musk’s personal fortune into the half-trillion stratosphere.
Taken together, they sketch a company that can’t separate its triumphs from its troubles, where blowout deliveries share space with boardroom drama and safety probes. Tesla remains both the industry’s growth engine and its lightning rod, a business whose every success seems to summon new scrutiny. And for investors, customers, and regulators, the Tesla show is equal parts thrill ride and high-wire act.
Here’s how the week’s acts unfolded — from sales highs to courtroom lows.
Tesla’s third quarter was a comeback quarter: 497,099 vehicles delivered, up about 7% year-over-year and comfortably ahead of Wall Street forecasts. The company also notched a record in energy storage, deploying 12.5 GWh. That kind of scale is what investors have been waiting for after months of choppy performance and demand concerns.
But context, as usual, matters. Much of the surge was tied to a last-minute consumer rush before the Sept. 30 expiration of the $7,500 federal EV tax credit. Tesla leaned hard into the deadline, urging buyers to “act now” before incentives vanished. That boost means the fourth quarter could look leaner — and analysts warn Tesla’s growth engine is running against heavy competition from Chinese EV makers and subsidy cliffs at home.
Tesla is also staring down fresh legal scrutiny. The family of 19-year-old Krysta Tsukahara has filed a wrongful death suit, claiming she was trapped inside a Cybertruck after a November 2024 crash in Piedmont, Calif. According to the complaint, electronic door handles failed after impact, preventing passengers from escaping a fire. Tesla, along with the driver’s estate, is named in the suit.
This case lands at a particularly sensitive moment for Tesla’s safety optics. The Cybertruck has already been plagued by recalls and questions about its build quality. Now the case adds a harrowing safety narrative just as Tesla is trying to normalize the vehicle as a mass-market product.
If the court sides with the plaintiffs, it could expose Tesla not only to damages but to broader questions about its design philosophy and risk management. And Tesla could face wider legal fallout and reputational damage — just as it’s leaning into its autonomous arc.
In the boardroom, Tesla faces a different kind of test. A coalition of state treasurers, unions, and institutional investors is urging shareholders to reject Musk’s proposed $1 trillion pay package and vote against key board members in November. Their argument is simple: Tesla’s performance targets are vague, its oversight is too thin, and the board is too closely tied to Musk’s interests. The group also opposes reelecting key board members.
Tesla says the pay plan is merit-based — Musk only gets paid if Tesla clears ambitious milestones. But the pushback signals an inflection point. For years, Tesla investors were willing to give Musk near-total leeway in exchange for growth. Now, with governance concerns mounting, they’re starting to demand accountability alongside performance.
And then there’s Musk himself. For a brief stretch this week, he became the world’s first half-trillionaire, as Tesla’s stock surge pushed his net worth north of $500 billion. That milestone underscored just how closely Musk’s personal wealth is tethered to Tesla’s valuation.
But the moment didn’t last. As shares wobbled, his fortune slipped back below the threshold. The spectacle was fleeting, but it captured the volatility at Tesla’s core: Every triumph in the market is shadowed by risk, every gain vulnerable to a turn in sentiment.
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