Business
Elon Musk’s $1tn pay deal approved by Tesla shareholders
Tesla shareholders have approved a record-breaking pay package for boss Elon Musk that could be worth nearly $1tn (£760bn).
The unprecedented deal was approved by 75% of Tesla shareholders who cast votes at the firm’s annual general meeting on Thursday.
The deal requires Musk, who is already the world’s richest man, to drastically raise the electric car firm’s market value over a period of years. If he meets various targets, he will be rewarded with hundreds of millions of new shares.
The scale of the deal is controversial, but the Tesla board argued that Musk might leave the company if it was not approved – and that it could not afford to lose him.
The announcement drew loud applause from the audience at the meeting in Austin, Texas. Musk took to the stage and danced to chants of his name.
“What we’re about to embark upon is not merely a new chapter of the future of Tesla, but a whole new book,” he said.
“Other shareholder meetings are snoozefests but ours are bangers. Look at this. This is sick,” Musk said.
The milestones Musk achieve include raising Tesla’s market value to $8.5tn from $1.4tn at time of writing.
He would also need to get a million self-driving “Robotaxi” vehicles into commercial operation.
But his early remarks on Thursday placed the spotlight on the Optimus robot, dashing the hopes of some long-time analysts and Tesla watchers who want Musk to focus on reviving the company’s electric vehicle business.
“Let it sink in where Musk’s head is at,” wrote analyst Gene Munster, the managing partner at Deepwater Asset Management, on X.
“His vision of the ‘new book’ starts with Optimus. No mention of cars, FDS and robotaxi yet.”
Later in his remarks, Musk did refer to FSD, shorthand for full-self driving, saying the company was “almost comfortable” allowing drivers to “text and drive essentially.”
He also likened dealing with regulators to being in a Franz Kafka novel.
US regulators are investigating Tesla’s self-driving feature after multiple incidents in which the cars drove through red lights or on the wrong side of the road.
Some of these incidents have resulted in crashes that have caused injuries.
Tesla shares were slightly higher in after hours trading but have risen more than 62% over the last six months.
Wedbush Securities’ Dan Ives, a tech analyst whose been a long time advocate of Musk’s leadership of Tesla, called Musk “Tesla’s biggest asset” in a note published after the vote.
“We continue to believe that the AI valuation is getting unlocked, and we believe the march to an AI driven valuation for TSLA over the next 6-9 months has now begun,” Mr Ives added.
Business
Nike shares fall 9% on weak outlook, expected 20% sales decline in China
A Nike logo is displayed at a Nike store in Austin, Texas, Feb. 5, 2026.
Brandon Bell | Getty Images
Shares of Nike fell in extended trading Tuesday after the retailer warned sales will fall for the rest of the calendar year, led by an expected 20% decline in its key China market during the current quarter.
Chief Financial Officer Matt Friend said during the company’s earnings call that Nike expects sales for its current fiscal fourth quarter to drop between 2% and 4%, compared with Wall Street estimates of a 1.9% increase, according to LSEG.
For the duration of the calendar year, Friend said, the company expects sales to fall by a low single-digit percentage, led by growth in North America and offset by declines in China. That outlook wasn’t comparable to estimates.
Nike beat expectations across the business on both the top and bottom lines for its fiscal third quarter, but its guidance left investors with more questions about how long its turnaround will take. Friend also cautioned that Nike’s guidance was based off of where the global economic picture stands today — and it could change given recent geopolitical volatility.
“We also recognize that the environment around us has become increasingly dynamic, and we could experience unplanned volatility due to the disruption in the Middle East, rising oil prices and other factors that could impact either input costs or consumer behavior,” said Friend. “We are focused on what we can control.”
Shares fell more than 8% in extended trading.
Here’s how the world’s largest sneaker company did for its fiscal third quarter, compared with estimates from analysts polled by LSEG:
- Earnings per share: 35 cents vs. 28 cents expected
- Revenue: $11.28 billion vs. $11.24 billion expected
The company’s reported net income for the three-month period that ended Feb. 28 was $520 million, or 35 cents per share. That’s a 35% decline from $794 million, or 54 cents per share, a year earlier. That plunge came as Nike’s gross profit margin slid 1.3 percentage points to 40.2%, “primarily due to higher tariffs in North America,” the company said.
Sales were flat at $11.28 billion, compared to $11.27 billion last year.
While Nike beat expectations on the top and bottom lines, it posted a mixed picture regionally. Nike’s largest market of North America continued to show steady growth, as revenue climbed 3% to $5.03 billion, but that was just shy of Wall Street’s expectations of $5.04 billion, according to StreetAccount.
Meanwhile, Nike’s Greater China market continued to shrink, with revenue down 7% to $1.62 billion during the quarter. Still, that total beat analyst estimates of $1.50 billion, according to StreetAccount.
Nike is continuing to work through a colossal turnaround under CEO Elliott Hill. About a year and a half into his tenure, Hill has made strides in repairing parts of the business, but has been clear that it’ll take time for the entire company to improve given the retailer’s scale and complexity.
He reiterated that expectation on Tuesday, saying in a news release that “the pace of progress is different across the portfolio.”
“The areas we prioritized first continue to drive momentum,” Hill said. “The work is not finished, but the direction is clear, our teams are moving with focus and urgency, and our foundation is getting even stronger to build the future of NIKE.”
Friend said Nike’s turnaround efforts “will continue to impact results over the balance of the calendar year.”
Nike’s recovery was already coming at a tough time as a global trade war dented its efforts to improve profitability and drive sales from inflation-weary shoppers. But now the athletic company will have to contend with a new war in the Middle East that’s already led to rising gas prices and is expected to send consumer prices even higher, which could push shoppers to cut back on nice-to-haves like new clothes and shoes to save money elsewhere.
“We continue to be encouraged by the momentum in North America. We’ve got a strong order book for summer,” Friend said. “We’re seeing positive signs and sell through. We’re not seeing a consumer reaction to what’s going on in the Middle East at this point in time, in North America.”
Hill has focused in part on revitalizing Nike’s business with wholesale partners as opposed to direct sales on its website and in stores. Wholesale revenue climbed 5% to $6.5 billion.
Meanwhile, direct sales slid 4% to $4.5 billion.
Business
Tech giant Oracle makes ‘significant’ job cuts
It is thought that thousands of people may have lost their jobs at Oracle, one of the world’s largest tech companies.
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Business
Oil nears highest price since start of Iran war
The US-Israel Iran war has halted almost all traffic in a key waterway and the price Brent crude has surged.
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