Tesla’s fortunes flickered brighter on Monday after a surprise revelation that Elon Musk had snapped up fresh stock worth Sh146.5 billion.
The billionaire’s purchase, covering roughly 2.5 million shares, was completed on Friday and marked his first open-market buy since 2020.
The disclosure lifted investor sentiment instantly.
Within hours of the filing, Tesla shares surged more than 6 per cent in early Wall Street trading, a welcome bounce for a stock that has been sluggish throughout 2025.
Although already holding about 13 per cent of Tesla, Musk has been pressing for a firmer grip.
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His ambitions for the company remain rooted in turning Tesla into a powerhouse of artificial intelligence, automation and robotaxis, and he has repeatedly pushed for greater influence over its direction.
Those demands are entangled with an eye-watering rewards scheme now on the table.
Tesla’s board has floated a compensation structure estimated at around Sh129.2 trillion, one of the largest in corporate history, which could hand Musk up to 12 per cent of the company if performance targets are met.
Last month, in a separate move, directors also signed off on an “interim” award worth Sh4.23 trillion, following the collapse of a 2018 court deal.
Behind closed doors, discussions have been fractious.
Musk has demanded as much as a 25 per cent stake and, according to those familiar with the talks, has hinted he could abandon Tesla altogether if his wishes are ignored.
Market watchers view his latest purchase as a carefully timed signal.
Head of financial analysis at AJ Bell Danni Hewson explained that “markets like it” when senior executives buy into their own companies, interpreting it as a show of faith in future performance.
She also offered a more tongue-in-cheek theory, remarking, “An inventive and ungenerous interpretation of Musk’s actions is he saw the news about Larry Ellison becoming the world’s richest man and decided to juice Tesla stock a bit to regain the title. Stranger things have happened.”
For its part, Tesla’s board has said the generous pay proposals are meant, at least in part, to ensure Musk’s political activity “would wind down in a timely manner.”
Yet with his personal stake now swelling once again, it appears his grip on Tesla is only tightening.
