Good morning. If it looks as if extra CEOs are asking for—and getting—so-called “moonshot” pay packages, nicely, they’re, as I reported in a recent feature for Fortune. A moonshot ties CEO compensation nearly completely to aggressive, seemingly unimaginable targets over 5 to 10 years. The upshot is commonly billions in compensation and slices of firm possession. However within the meantime, the CEO will get nearly nothing.
Tesla CEO Elon Musk has hit two moonshots, however the second award, as soon as valued at $56 billion, was twice rescinded after a authorized problem. Taser stun gun and physique digital camera firm Axon Enterprise awarded its CEO Rick Smith a carbon copy of Musk’s deal in 2018 at a smaller magnitude. Smith blew the lights out and final 12 months earned compensation valued at $165 billion after rising the corporate’s market cap from $2.5 billion to $13.5 billion. Smith even introduced his whole workforce together with him by sharing a few of his pay with workers, negotiating a deal the place $88 million in inventory went to the lowest-paid staff at Axon. His moonshot can be open to Axon staff, permitting them to place a few of their pay in danger in a manner much like Smith’s comp. He’s now on a second seven-year moonshot plan, however even Smith’s spouse was in opposition to the notion at first, as a result of she thought it was simply too dangerous.
Now, the pattern is poised to unfold past founder-CEOs like Smith to what Todd Sirras of government compensation consulting agency Semler Brossy calls “founder-anointed successors.” As an example, Opendoor Technologies CEO Kaz Nejatian bought a possible $2.8 billion moonshot and a slice of the corporate after he was employed final month. However Sirras’ concern is that massive bets on a single CEO pose main dangers to shareholders. Human beings are emotional and so they get distracted simply desirous about what they will purchase with all this inventory, he mentioned, like a brand new non-public jet.
He in contrast the potential rise of moonshot pay offers to the Jurassic Park movie collection. “Hazard will increase exponentially the nearer these awards get to the overall government inhabitants,” Sirras mentioned. Whereas moonshots for founder-annointed successors and non-successors with a significant capital funding he deems “contained in the T-Rex fence”—“awards in non-founder corporations means the dinosaurs have escaped and are heading to the mainland.” Learn the complete article here.—Amanda Gerut
Contact CEO Each day through Diane Brady at diane.brady@fortune.com
High information
AI bull run is just too slender, Morgan Stanley exec says
Morgan Stanley Wealth Administration’s chief funding officer, Lisa Shalett warned that the U.S. equity market’s remarkable run is constructed on a precariously slender basis: a surge in spending on, and optimistic assumptions about, infrastructure for synthetic intelligence. This spending has fueled a increase within the shares of many of the so-called Magnificent 7 and some dozen associated companies, which have now come to account for roughly 75% of the S&P 500’s returns because the rally started.
AI corporations could also be underinsured, legally
OpenAI and Anthropic is probably not carrying sufficient insurance coverage to pay all of the authorized claims in opposition to them from publishers whose work they’ve used to coach their AI fashions, the FT reports. The businesses could also be required to make use of investor funds to repay lawsuits. Kevin Kalinich, head of cyber danger at Aon, mentioned “we don’t but have sufficient capability for [AI] suppliers”.
SoftBank will purchase ABB robotics for $5.4 billion
“SoftBank’s subsequent frontier is Bodily AI. Along with ABB Robotics, we are going to unite world-class expertise and expertise below our shared imaginative and prescient to fuse Synthetic Tremendous Intelligence and robotics — driving a groundbreaking evolution that can propel humanity ahead,” Masayoshi Son, founder of SoftBank, said.
Soybean farm disaster may have $24 billion bailout
China, in response to President Trump’s commerce conflict, has refused to purchase U.S. soybeans this 12 months, and it’s driving American farms into bankruptcy. Bailout packages for soy farms might price taxpayers $24 billion, the WSJ experiences, as the marketplace for animal feed evaporates.
Trump says federal staff might not get shutdown again pay
“I’d say it relies on who we’re speaking about,” the president said yesterday, arguing that some staff “actually don’t need to be taken care of, and we’ll maintain them differently.”
Crimson Lobster CEO’s recipe for a comeback
36-year-old Crimson Lobster CEO Damola Adamolekun is tasked with bringing the quick informal chain again to success following a tumultuous chapter. He sees seafood boils and his personal non-public fairness savvy as methods forward.
Wall Avenue economist’s tariff predictions
Wall Avenue economist Nathan Sheets told Fortune that the Trump Administration’s tariffs are not like any we’ve seen “for a lot of a long time,” and will play out in two alternative ways. Retailers might subtly cross them off by elevating costs throughout phases like the vacation season, although tariffs may additionally make some manufacturing unprofitable and produce about automation faster.
Elsewhere: Legal professional Basic Pam Bondi refused to answer questions about her therapy of information held by the Justice Division that relate to President Trump and Jeffrey Epstein … The E.U. is considering new tariffs on metal imports by reducing the quota of metal that may be imported tariff-free and elevating tariffs on the remainder to 50% … Elon Musk’s Tesla launched two new, cheaper autos, priced at $40,000 for the Mannequin Y and $37,000 for the Mannequin 3.
The markets
S&P 500 futures had been up 0.18% this morning. The index closed down 0.38% in its final session. STOXX Europe 600 was up 0.42% in early buying and selling. The U.Ok.’s FTSE 100 was up 0.38% in early buying and selling. Japan’s Nikkei 225 was down 0.45%. China’s CSI 300 was up 0.45%. The South Korea KOSPI was up 2.7%. India’s Nifty 50 was down 0.13% earlier than the tip of the session. Bitcoin fell to $122.6K.
Across the watercooler
Dizzying deal delirium: How the AI bubble bursts by Jeffrey Sonnenfeld and Stephen Henriques
Without data centers, GDP growth was 0.1% in the first half of 2025, Harvard economist says by Nick Lichtenberg
Legendary Apple designer Jony Ive wants to fix our relationships with the phones he helped created—and has up to 20 different OpenAI gadgets to do so by Marco Quiroz-Gutierrez
350 hiring managers gave their honest thoughts about Gen Z—and only 8% believe they’re ready for the workforce by Emma Burleigh
CEO Each day is compiled and edited by Joey Abrams and Jim Edwards.
