Forbes Senior Editor Alan Ohnsman joins Forbes Talks to dissect the monumental approval of Elon Musk’s trillion-dollar pay package. He explores how Tesla’s board and shareholders doubled down on Musk’s “magical thinking”, pivoting the company’s focus from its lucrative core EV and battery businesses to highly speculative ventures like humanoid robots and AI.

Read the full story on Forbes: https://www.forbes.com/sites/alanohnsman/2025/11/05/elon-musks-1-trillion-pay-plan-the-case-for-magical-thinking/

00:00: Introduction
00:44: Introduction to the Tesla Pay Package Vote
03:13: Elon Musk’s Greatest Talent: Selling the Future of Robotics
07:49: Lack of Guardrails on Musk’s Behavior
13:36: Tesla’s Core Business Versus the Science Fiction Vision
18:44: The Focus on Non-Money Making Future Products
22:49: Collapsing Sales and the Decline of Tesla’s Competitiveness
26:18: Setting a Precedent for Extreme CEO Compensation

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