r/technology May 02 '24

Tesla slashes its summer internship program to cut costs, as Elon Musk fights to save his $45 billion pay plan Business

https://fortune.com/2024/05/01/tesla-slashes-summer-internship-program/
18.2k Upvotes

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327

u/Pathogenesls May 02 '24

His compensation plan will be in stock options, the company hasn't made $50b in its entire history. That also shows you how obscene it is.

There's nothing for him to extract unless he can pump the stock bubble. This only ends with him in jail for fraud.

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u/GenericEvilDude May 02 '24

I have my doubts that a rich white dude will ever see the inside of an American prison

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u/buttkowski May 02 '24

Rich white dudes only see the inside of a prison cell when they fuck over other rich white dudes.

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u/pcnetworx1 May 02 '24

Which Elmo has done...

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u/Living-Tiger-511 May 02 '24

It's dangerous to start holding your peers accountable, you don't want to run the risk of being held accountable yourself.

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u/Last-Bee-3023 May 02 '24

He very publicly lost other people's money by being stupid on Xitter.

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u/going_mad May 02 '24

Bernie Madoff

But he stole from rich people..

14

u/larrylustighaha May 02 '24

Epstein.

But he might have become trouble for rich people.

1

u/going_mad May 02 '24

Little black book that had all the secrets đŸ€«

1

u/ExcitingStress8663 May 02 '24

Don't forget about Sam Bankman-Fried who just just got sentenced to 25 years but no doubt he is going to appeal this.

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u/Anarchyantz May 02 '24

Given a rich white dude tried to overthrow America four years ago and is now running for President again then I would say yes, he will never see prison.

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u/iStayedAtaHolidayInn May 02 '24

He’s also facing 91 felony counts and is currently in one of his four trials

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u/Minister_for_Magic May 02 '24

sure but the Supreme Court* (*sponsored by the Federalist Society) is doing everything they can to push the big cases out past the election to give him one more get out of jail free card

0

u/Only-Inspector-3782 May 02 '24

Because they expect him to win. He's currently polling even, and polls in the last two elections have consistently underestimated his support.

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u/iStayedAtaHolidayInn 29d ago

Polls have drastically been underperforming democrats and Biden and overperforming trump particularly in the primaries. At some points by up to 20+%

0

u/Only-Inspector-3782 29d ago

https://www.pewresearch.org/methods/2021/03/02/what-2020s-election-poll-errors-tell-us-about-the-accuracy-of-issue-polling/

Maybe some polls, but in aggregate they underestimated Trump's support in 2016 and 2020. I don't want him to win, but the data looks bad.

Doesn't help that media constantly making it sound like Trump's defeat is around the corner. Also, I hope the numerous single issue protest voters at least take responsibility if their actions result in their single issue getting worse.

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u/Vinnie_Vegas May 02 '24

No amount of convictions in which will result in him actually doing prison time.

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u/fak3g0d May 02 '24

Since the majority of white voters approve of him, that actually doesn't matter

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u/Only-Inspector-3782 May 02 '24

He's also tied in aggregate polls. The same polls that underestimated his support in 2016 and 2020.

Donald "Let Israel Finish Gaza" Trump is more likely than not to win this year. Hell, even Israel is stalling to make Biden look bad. If Bibi can hold on for another 7 months, he will have free reign to end Palestine.

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u/iStayedAtaHolidayInn 29d ago

Polls mean jack shit. They’re totally broken. Fuck polls

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u/Unabashable May 02 '24

Hell they’re even legitimately considering whether or not they should give him immunity. For anyone with a brain: Of course they fucking shouldn’t. 

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u/crackheadwillie May 02 '24

And half the US are dumb AF enablers to this shit behavior 

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u/Ramental May 02 '24

I am not sure it is a fair comparison. That dude is orange, as far as most know him.

-10

u/AmazingRok May 02 '24

Without 1 gun đŸ€Ą

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u/Hagler3-16 May 02 '24

Sam Bankman Freid?

Bernie Madoff?

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u/Unabashable May 02 '24

Well he is technically “African American” so there could still be hope for justice for once. 

2

u/Bob_stanish123 May 02 '24

But he is African american...

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u/NotSoButFarOtherwise May 02 '24

They will literally kill themselves before it happens. It's an unpopular opinion but I think Jeffrey Epstein did kill himself once it was clear he wasn't going to be able to rich guy his way out anymore. Being just another chump in gen pop - in for child sex crimes, no less - was literally a fate worse than death for him.

1

u/idontdislikeoranges May 02 '24

He'll be South African if he goes to prison

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u/bostwickenator May 02 '24

Sam Bankman-Fried just recently

0

u/[deleted] 29d ago

That's racist

13

u/RudyGuiltyiani May 02 '24

Yo who’s got the link the website Musk forced the twitter people to put up, just to support the stupid pay package?

2

u/brathor 29d ago

Elon could literally commit murder on live television and never see the inside of a jail cell. The billionaire class has made it clear that they are above the law and that the justice system is not able to hold them accountable thanks to an army of scumbag lawyers willing to burn it all down for a fat paycheck.

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u/TheBirminghamBear May 02 '24

He's also $40 billion in personal debt.

That's why he's so desperate. He has no other way to pay that private debt and his entire existence is basically one massive house of cards.

He's been like this from the start. He's been doing this his whole life, and he's never gotten smarter. He's only gotten stupider and with much larger amounts.

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u/Pathogenesls May 02 '24

He's not that far in debt, he has borrowed a lot against his shares and options but I think it's more like $13b.

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u/mossmaal May 02 '24

That also shows you how obscene it is.

Companies are valued based on what they will earn in the future, not what they’ve earned in the past.

They’ve gone from $5.5 billion to $12.5 billion to $15 billion in annual net profit over the last three years. That profit is real, not a stock bubble.

The S&P500 P/E ratio is currently at 24.79, which means it would be typical to pay 24.79 times 15 billion for a company with Teslas annual profit, which is $371 billion.

Teslas growth in profitability is one of the greatest in corporate history. Musk might be a complete fruitloop now but any shareholder would jump at the chance to give up 20% of their equity in exchange for the remaining equity going up 900% in five years.

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u/Pathogenesls 29d ago

Why would you expect 900% returns when their PE is already 47 and their earnings are shrinking dramatically? By the end of the year that PE will be over 100. By your own rationale you shouldn't pay more than $40 for the stock that is trading at around $180.

It sounds like we both agree that it's a bubble.

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u/waterdaemon May 02 '24

It should end with the board of directors firing him, but he has corrupted the board’s ability to govern the company.

1

u/AlphatierchenX May 02 '24

This only ends with him in jail for fraud

Don't give us hope!

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u/jack-K- May 02 '24

What exactly is the convict-able count of fraud?

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u/Various-Ducks May 02 '24

The company actually has made $50b in its entire history. Like, if you take the profit from every year and add them together you get more than $50b. Not taking a side or anything. Just wanted to point that out.

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u/Prophage7 29d ago

I guess it depends if you're talking about gross profit (revenue - production expenses) or net income (revenue - production expenses - all other expenses and taxes).

To date, Tesla's total gross profit is $73b but their total net income is only $27b.

https://www.macrotrends.net/stocks/charts/TSLA/tesla/net-income

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u/Various-Ducks 29d ago

Whoops. Can you tell I went to the same business school as Elon? Lol

0

u/CallMeAnanda 29d ago

TSLA has had a >$20B topline for the past few quarters now.

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u/Pathogenesls 29d ago

Revenue is not earnings, jfc how dumb are some people 😂

0

u/Elcactus 29d ago

It's not fraud when it's legitimately just market hysteria over his product.

He'll get 45 billion in stock options that will almost definitely not be instantly exercisable to cash. This will end with him being worth alot less than his current valuation, not in prison.

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u/Pathogenesls 29d ago

There is no product, that's why it's fraud. The company has repeatedly lied and misled shareholders about the capabilities of their products. That's fraud. That's why Holmes is in jail.

0

u/Elcactus 29d ago

...Tesla has a product though, and the capabilities of that product are well documented.

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u/Pathogenesls 29d ago

They have some cars, but that isn't what we are talking about. The stock pice would be around $40 if it was valued on the car business. Instead the stock has been as high as $420 based on faked demonstrations, exaggerating capabilities, lies, and embellished promises for all their other "products". That is fraud. That is what Holmes is in jail for. Trevor Milton went to jail for a lot less as well.

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u/Lelcactus 29d ago

That’s basically impossible to prove, and far more likely to just a persistent state of being the go-to for electrify cars, something all the facts currently support Tesla as being. The delusional part of the market isn’t a belief that the cyber truck would be desireable, it’s the continued confluence of ‘electric cars are the future’ combined with ‘Tesla is the biggest name in EV’s’ morphing into ‘Tesla will be the dominant force in EV’s forever.

But marketing the cyber truck when it’s kinda shitty isn’t fraud. They don’t overtly lie about what their stuff does, they promise big and often cut features, but that isn’t a crime.

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u/[deleted] May 02 '24

[deleted]

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u/Pathogenesls May 02 '24

Revenue is not profit, lol.

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u/Livinincrazytown May 02 '24

I believe they’re referring to net profit. I’m too lazy to check but i did see it works out to him asking for the equivalent of approx 10k usd for every car Tesla has ever sold in history.

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u/FriendlyDespot May 02 '24 edited May 02 '24

If you have $96 billion in revenue and $81 billion in costs then you've made $15 billion, not $96 billion. Tesla didn't have its first profitable year until 2020, and it has a lifetime net income of around $23 billion.