This Week in Tesla: Elon Musk's Financial Windfall, EV Sales Fall and More - Tesla (NASDAQ:TSLA)

Tesla and CEO Elon Musk had a packed week driven by pay chatter, EV demand updates, and new speculation. A report said Musk’s 2025 compensation package was valued at $158 billion—far exceeding the combined pay of all other S&P 500 CEOs—and that it amounts to 2.5 million times more than a “median” Tesla worker in 2025. Separately, managing partner Gary Black of The Future Fund LLC argued Tesla needs more long-term marketing and branding as it pushes beyond EVs, despite a market cap of $1.3T. Black also suggested investors are losing faith in Tesla’s autonomy scaling, citing what he calls a vision-only approach. On the demand side, North American EV sales fell 27% in July to 140,000 units, while the first seven months totaled 900,000 units, down 18% year-over-year. The roundup also mentioned a possible $824 billion Musk payday if Tesla were to merge with SpaceX (conditions tied to milestones), plus Musk’s flying-car promises and commentary that Grok could become an AI leader by January.