A major Tesla investor has sold its entire stake after CEO Elon Musk attempted to wangle himself a record-breaking pay package.

Entrepreneur Musk is the world’s richest man, with a net worth of more than $400 billion, as per Forbes.

But in 2018, Tesla shareholders initially voted to approve a record-breaking $56 billion pay package for him.

The deal would’ve allowed Musk to buy a maximum of 304 shares for $23.34, on the condition that he met certain performance goals.

For context, Tesla now shares trade at a rate of $403 each.

Elon Musk in 2000 (Pauline Lubens/MediaNews Group/The Mercury News via Getty Images)

Despite the majority of shareholders approving the pay deal, one investor filed a suit which claimed that the board had been misleading and that the pay package was unfair.

And the Supreme Court has since twice rejected Musk’s appeals, as Delaware Chancellor Kathaleen McCormick stated that Tesla’s ‘unprecedented theories go against multiple strains of settled law’.

The proposed pay package angered investors, so much so that one Dutch company got rid of all $585 million worth of its shares in the electric vehicle company.

Stichting Pensioenfonds ABP – one of Europe’s largest pension funds – sold its entire 2.8 million shares in September, valued at the time at $585 million, according to Bloomberg.

In a statement to the NL Times, an ABP spokesperson said ‘we cannot and do not need to invest in everything,’ adding that Musk’s pay deal was ‘by no means the only reason’ for the divestment.

The Tesla CEO ruffled feathers with his $56 million pay package proposal (Christian Marquardt – Pool/Getty Images)

ABP’s Tesla investment was only worth around a tenth of its other US company holdings, Fortune reported.

The publication claims ABP ‘owned €5.6 billion’ in technology company Nvidia at the end of September.

Meanwhile, its investments in Microsoft and Apple were even larger at €6.0 billion and €6.3 billion respectively.

Months after ABP sold its shares, Tesla stock skyrocketed to a record high of $479.86 in mid-December, following Donald Trump’s election in early November.

ABP told press that the move was not ‘politically motivated.’

Musk has been a prominent supporter of President-elect Trump, and has since been confirmed as the head of the new Department of Government Efficiency (DOGE).

Musk is an outspoken supporter of President-elect Donald Trump (Brandon Bell/Getty Images)

While it isn’t technically a government department, it’s reported that DOGE will act as an outside advisor to Trump’s administration.

Under the new role, Musk has already promised to slash the federal budget by trillions.

Speaking about the appointment, Trump said DOGE will help his team to ‘dismantle government bureaucracy, slash excess regulations, cut wasteful expenditures and restructure federal agencies’.

Musk has also attempting to influence politics across the pond in the UK, calling on King Charles to dissolve parliament and reportedly suggesting he’d donate $100 million to far-right, anti-immigration party Reform.

UNILAD has contacted ABP and Tesla for comment.

Elon Musk’s dad has seemingly confirmed that his billionaire son is interested in buying out one of Britain’s most popular soccer clubs, valued at $5,370,000.

The richest man in the world is already the CEO of business ventures including SpaceX, Tesla as well as owning social media site Twitter.

And now Elon Musk is apparently looking to add Liverpool Football Club to his portfolio.

It follows a sensational report from the Weekend Sport published on Saturday which claimed Musk was potentially interested in submitting a takeover bid for the Premier League giants.

The South African-born entrepreneur actually has strong links to the northern English city – as his father Errol Musk explained.

Elon Musk has reportedly expressed interest in buying Liverpool Football Club (The Met Museum/Vogue)

Errol joined UK journalist Kait Borsay on Times Radio on Tuesday afternoon (January 7), initially to discuss Musk’s relationship with extreme right-wing politician Nigel Farage.

Just weeks ago, technology magnate Musk supposedly pledged to donate $100,000,000 to Reform UK after meeting up with its leader Farage at Trump’s Mar-a-Lago residence in Florida.

Yet, a dispute over prominent far-right activist Tommy Robinson has since led Musk to call for Farage to be replaced as party leader.

But Borsay eventually addressed the soccer rumors, asking Errol: “Does your son want to buy Liverpool Football Club?”

The 79-year-old initially refused to answer, laughing as he responded: “I can’t comment on that, they’ll raise the price.”

But, pressed further by Borsay, Errol admitted: “Oh yes, [he has expressed a desire], but that doesn’t mean he’s buying it.”

When quizzed further if buying the club was ‘in his son’s sights’, Errol added: “He would like to yes, obviously. Anybody would want to – so would I.”

He went on to explain the special connection his family has to the city, as Errol said: “His grandmother was born in Liverpool, and we have relatives in Liverpool, and we were fortunate to know quite a few of the Beatles because they grew up with some of my family.

“So, we are attached to Liverpool you know.”

So, could Musk actually buy Liverpool Football Club?

Well, the team was valued at $5.37 billion as of May 2024, according to Forbes.

Liverpool Football Club are currently at the top of the Premier League (MI News/NurPhoto via Getty Images)

This works out as just 1.26 percent of Musks’ $424.9 billion net worth – so it’s entirely feasible for Musk.

However, Liverpool owners Fenway Sports Group (FSG) have given no indication of putting the Premier League team on the market.

And if they did, they could ask for a much larger sum of money for the team – who are currently at the top of the league.

Principal owner John W. Henry last year played down the likelihood of FSG selling the club in the near future.

After rumours emerged of a possible takeover attempt in 2023, Henry told the Boston Sports Journal: “Will we be in England forever? No. Are we selling LFC? No.

“Are [we] talking with investors about LFC? Yes. Will something happen there? I believe so, but it won’t be a sale. Have we sold anything in the past 20 plus years?”

FSG later agreed to sell a minority stake in the club worth between £82m ($102m) and £164m ($205m) to global sports investment firm Dynasty Equity.

UNILAD has reached out to Elon Musk, Liverpool Football Club and Fenway Sports Group for comment.

Elon Musk took a major risk when he had ‘no money’ which led him to become a millionaire at just 27 years old.

Musk, now 53, is currently the richest man in the world, with a net worth of more than $428 billion, as per Forbes.

The Tesla CEO took a punt on the internet back in the mid-90s and, boy, did it pay off.

But the tech billionaire was headed on a slightly different life path before becoming mega rich.

The South African-born entrepreneur grew up in Pretoria before moving to Canada for college.

Elon Musk is the world’s richest person (Allison Robbert-Pool/Getty Images)

He then relocated to California to attend the prestigious Stanford University after gaining a spot on their materials sciences PhD program.

But he reportedly dropped out after just two days, instead, starting up a revolutionary company with his brother, Kimbal, in 1995.

That business – called Zip2 – would change the course of their lives forever.

What was Zip2?

Zip2 was essentially a cross between the Yellow Pages and Google Maps.

It served as a searchable business directory, at a time when, well, people didn’t really believe in the internet…

In fact, Musk, his brother and their business partner Greg Kouri were forced to live in their office to cut down on costs.

A fresh-faced Musk talks more about this during a CBS Sunday Morning interview, which you can watch below:

Anyway, Musk managed to convince electronic map company Navteq to give him free mapping software.

Taking a business listing database, Musk then wrote the necessary code to combine that and the map, creating Zip2.

Musk said that ‘everyone ought to be able to find the closest pizza parlour and to be able to figure out how to get there’.

While Zip2 initially provided local businesses with an internet presence, it later went on to help newspapers design online city guides.

In 1999, IT company Compaq bought it out for $307 million. Musk, who was 27, kept $22 million of that.

Musk went on to co-found the company that became PayPal after selling Zip2 (Justin Sullivan/Getty Images)

That same year, he went on to co-found direct bank X.com, which merged with Confinity to form PayPal in 2000.

In 2002, Musk acquired United States citizenship, and that October eBay acquired PayPal for $1.5 billion.

He then used $100 million of the money he made from the sale of PayPal to found astronautics company SpaceX – which will help NASA to destroy the International Space Station.

Fast forward to the present day, and Musk is about to begin his role as an adviser to President-elect Donald Trump as part of the newly created Department of Government Efficiency (DOGE), which has been tasked with trimming the US federal budget.

The new department will sit outside government but will offer guidance to the Trump White House, with Musk leading it alongside former Republican presidential candidate Vivek Ramaswamy.

That’s quite the chain of events, and I’m sure Musk would agree…

Tesla owners are being warned to check their vehicles if they own one of these five models which were recalled in 2024.

More than 5 million vehicles were recalled by the Elon Musk-owned automotive company last year – more than any other car manufacturer, although Kia has also made headlines recently, for recalling nearly 23,000 cars after discovering one single worker may have forgotten to bolt down a particular model’s seats.

Throughout the course of the year, though, Tesla’s polarizing Cybertruck was recalled a total of seven times.

In November, for example, 2,400 trucks built with metal-oxide-semiconductor field-effect transistors (MOSFETs) were called back due to an accelerator pedal fault.

Other issues included a delay in the rearview camera image, malfunctioning engines, and potential axle failures.

Elon Musk, the world’s richest man, founded Tesla in 2003 (Christian Marquardt – Pool/Getty Images)

The first of the recalls began in February 2024, with 2.2 million electric cars affected.

Model Ss, Model Xs, Model 3s, Model Ys, and Cybertrucks manufactured between 2012 to 2024 were called back because the font size of some warning lights on the instrument panel was too small – by far the most minor reason for recall this year.

Then, in May, some 125,000 Model S and Model Xs made between 2021 and 2023 were recalled to ‘inspect and ensure both first-row seat belts are properly connected to their respective pretensioner anchors’.

In July, some 1.8 million vehicles were recalled because of a bonnet issue which saw its software fail to detect an unlatched hood.

This impacted Model 3s, Model Ss, Model Xs, and Model Ys made between 2021 and 2024.

Tesla Model Ss were among the models recalled in 2024 (Mark Von Holden/WireImage)

And almost 700,000 vehicles were recalled in December due to a system fault which could ‘increase the risk of crashing’.

The Model 3, Model Y, and Cybertruck were all affected by the issue, which is with the warning light on the tire pressure monitoring system.

A National Highway Traffic Safety Administration letter explained: “The tire pressure monitoring system (TPMS) warning light may not remain illuminated between drive cycles, failing to warn the driver of low tire pressure.

“Driving with improperly inflated tires increases the risk of a crash.”

Cybertrucks were recalled seven times last year (Justin Sullivan/Getty Images)

Tesla recalled 694,304 of its models in response, although the issue can be fixed with a free software update.

According to Barron’s, Tesla had more recalls than its rivals last year, but the majority were fixed with ‘over-the-air’ software updates.

For example, Ford recalled around 4.4 million cars in 2024, but less than a third involved software-related fixes, meaning most still required a visit to the car dealership to resolve.

Meanwhile, some 39,000 Tesla vehicles were called up to correct hardware- related issues, whereas for Ford, that figure was around 3 million.