More executives are asking for “moonshot” pay—filling aggressive, seemingly impossible goals

Tesla CEO Elon Musk hit two shots, but the second prize, worth $56 billion, was twice revoked after a legal challenge. Taser Stun Gun and Body Camera Company Axon Enterprise CEO Rick Smith granted Musk a carbon copy of Musk’s 2018 deal on a smaller scale. Smith blew the spotlight, last year receiving $165 billion in compensation after increasing the company’s market value from $2.5 billion to $13.5 billion. Smith even brought his entire workforce with him by sharing some of his salaries with employees, negotiating a deal where $88 million in stock went to Exxon’s lowest-paid workers. His moon is also open to Axon workers, allowing them to put some of their pay at risk in a manner similar to Smith’s companies. It’s now in the seven-year moon plan, but even Smith’s wife was against the idea at first, because she thought it was too risky.

Now, the trend is poised to spread beyond the founder like Smith as what Todd Seras of executive compensation consulting firm Semler Brossy calls “founder-created successors.” For example, Opentoor Technologies CEO Kaz Naghatyan received $2.8 billion from the moon and a slice of the company after his appointment last month. But Seras’ concern is that big bets on a single CEO pose significant risks to shareholders. He said humans are emotional and easily get carried away thinking about what they could buy with all that equity, like a new private jet.

Compare potential deals for Moonshot Pay with Jurassic Park Movie series. “The risk increases dramatically the closer these awards are to the general executive population,” Serras said. While moonshots of successors to founders and unsuccessful ones with a significant equity investment were considered “inside the T-Rex fence” – “trophies in unestablished companies mean the dinosaurs have escaped and are heading to the mainland.” Read the full article here.Amanda Gerot

Contact CEO Daily via Diane Brady at [email protected]

Best news

says Morgan Stanley Exec

Chief Investment Officer at Morgan Stanley Management, Lisa Shalit Beware of a great run for the US stock market Built on a precariously narrow foundation: overspending on assumptions and optimism about artificial intelligence and optimism. This spending has fueled a boom in shares of most of the so-called Magnificent 7 and dozens of related companies, which now account for nearly 75% of the S&P 500’s returns since the rally began.

AI companies may be insured, legally

Openai and Anthropic may not carry enough insurance to pay all legal claims against them from publishers who used their work to train their AI models, FT reports. Companies may be required to use investor funds to pay off lawsuits. Kevin Kalinich, head of cyber risk at AON, said: “We do not yet have sufficient capacity for AI providers.

SoftBank will buy ABB Robotics for $5.4 billion

“The next frontier for SoftBank is physical AI. With ABB Robotics, we will unite world-class technology and talent under our shared vision of disrupting superintelligence and artificial robotics—leading to groundbreaking development that moves humanity forward,” said son Masayoshi, founder of SoftBank.

Soybean Farm Crisis May Need $24 Billion Bailout

China, in response to Trump’s trade war, has refused to buy soybeans for us this year, and is… Drive American farms into bankruptcy. Bailout packages for soybean farms could cost taxpayers $24 billion, WSJ reports, as the animal feed market evaporates.

Trump says federal workers may not get pay

“I would say it depends on who we’re talking about,” The president said yesterdayarguing that some workers “don’t really deserve to be cared for, and we would treat them differently.”

Red Lobster CEO’s recipe for a comeback

CEO of Red Lobster for 36 years cost Bringing the fast casual chain back to success after a tumultuous bankruptcy. He sees seafood boils and his stock savvy as front-end methods.

Wall Street Economic Tariff Forecasts

Wall Street economist Nathan Chait He said luck That the Trump administration’s tariffs are unlike anything we’ve seen “for several decades,” could play out in two different ways. Retailers may subtly pass them on by raising prices during phases such as the holiday season, although tariffs could make some manufacturing unprofitable and achieve automation faster.

elsewhere: Attorney General Pam Bondi Refuse to answer questions About its treatment of files held by the Ministry of Justice that relate to… President Trump and Jeffrey Epstein … European Union He is Consider new definitions on Steel imports By cutting the share of steel that can be imported tariff-free and raising tariffs on the rest to 50%… Tesla Elon Musk Fired Two new cars are cheaper, at $40,000 for the Model Y and $37,000 for the Model 3.

Markets

S&P 500 futures It rose 0.18% this morning. The index closed 0.38% in its last session. Stoxx Europe 600 It rose 0.42% in early trading. FTSE 100 in the United Kingdom It rose 0.38% in early trading. Japan Nikkei 225 The decline was 0.45%. China CSI 300 It was up 0.45%. South Korea Kobe It was up 2.7%. India chic 50’s It fell 0.13% before the end of the session. Bitcoin It decreased to $122.6 thousand.

About Armed Water

Dechying Deal Delirium: How to Burst the AI ​​Bubble Written by Jeffrey Sonnenfeld and Steven Henriques

Without data centers, GDP growth would have been 0.1% in first half of 2025, Harvard economist says Written by Nick Lichtenberg

Legendary Apple designer Jony Ive wants to repair our relationships with the phones he helped create — and he has up to 20 different Openai tools to do it Written by Marco Quiroz-Gutierrez

350 hiring managers gave their honest thoughts about Gen Z — and only 8% think they’re prepared for the workforce By Emma Burley

The Executive Daily is compiled and edited by Joey Abrams and Jim Edwards.

This is the web version of CEO Daily, a must-read global insights newsletter from CEOs and industry leaders. subscription Get it delivered free to your inbox.