Tesla's Elon Musk Exercises Hundreds of Millions in Stock Options, Restructures Holdings Without Cash Sales

According to a Tesla, Inc. (NASDAQ: TSLA) regulatory filing, on June 16, 2026 CEO Elon Musk exercised approximately 300 million non-qualified stock options at an exercise price of $23.34 per share and was granted an identical number of restricted common shares. Those shares will vest subject to service requirements through January 19, 2028. To satisfy the exercise payment, the company net-settled roughly 17.5 million shares—equivalent to about $7 billion (approximately ₩10 trillion)—via withholding, and Musk did not sell any shares in the open market.

Earlier, on June 5, Chief Financial Officer Vaibhav Taneja saw a portion of his restricted stock units convert to common shares under the standard quarterly vesting schedule. Then on June 8 he sold about 2,600 shares at roughly $402 each to cover taxes and secure liquidity, generating around $1 million (about ₩1.5 billion) in cash, the filing states.

In recent weeks, global investment banks have raised Tesla’s Q2 2026 vehicle-delivery forecasts—citing strong European sales—and the stock has been trading near the $400 level on hopes for autonomous-driving and robotaxi growth. Tesla has also won approval to deploy its Full Self-Driving (FSD) supervisory-assist software in Belgium and Denmark, furthering its expansion of software-based revenue models in Europe.

Listed on Nasdaq, Tesla manufactures electric vehicles and energy-storage solutions. Musk has long identified robotaxis, autonomous-driving software, energy and robotics as the company’s key long-term growth pillars. This latest option exercise implements the performance-based CEO compensation package for 2025, marking the real-world rollout of a large-scale equity-award structure tied to future performance and continued service.