Copyright The Boston Globe
WEALTH The world’s richest man was just handed a chance to become history’s first trillionaire. Elon Musk won a shareholder vote on Thursday that would give the Tesla CEO stock worth $1 trillion if he hits certain performance targets over the next decade. The vote followed weeks of debate over his management record at the electric car maker and whether anyone deserved such unprecedented pay, drawing heated commentary from small investors to giant pension funds and even the pope. In the end, more than 75 percent of voting shareholders gathered at the company’s Austin, Texas, headquarters approved the plan. “Fantastic group of shareholders,” Musk said after the final vote was tallied, adding “Hang on to your Tesla stock.” The vote is a resounding victory for Musk showing investors still have faith in him as Tesla struggles with plunging sales, market share, and profits in no small part due to Musk himself. Car buyers fled the company this year as he has ventured into politics both in the United States and Europe, and trafficked in conspiracy theories. The vote clears a path for Musk to become a trillionaire by granting him new shares, but it won’t be easy. The board of directors that designed the pay package require him to hit several ambitious financial and operational targets, including increasing the value of the company on the stock market nearly six times its current level. Musk also has to deliver 20 million Tesla electric vehicles to the market over 10 years amid new, stiff competition, more than double the number since the founding of the company. He also has to deploy more than 1 million of his human-like robots that he has promised will transform work and home — he calls it a “robot army” — from zero today. — ASSOCIATED PRESS STATE GOVERNMENT The Healey administration is honoring the late Greg Bialecki’s legacy in public service by launching an award in his honor. Bialecki, a developer with Boston-based Redgate and former state economic development secretary in Deval Patrick’s administration, died suddenly at age 64 a year ago in his Newton home. On Thursday, as part of a celebration of the state’s Community One Stop for Growth grant programs, Lieutenant Governor Kim Driscoll and Eric Paley, Healey’s economic development secretary, announced the state’s first “Gregory P. Bialecki Award” to a “project sponsor” that embodies Bialecki’s spirit “of uplifting our community through community investment.” The inaugural award went to Lawrence CommunityWorks and The Community Builders for a mixed-use development at 610 Broadway St. in Lawrence known as Marriner Mill, which will feature 148 affordable units and 50,000 square feet of commercial space. That project was awarded $3 million in state funds that will go toward infrastructure work, such as parking, stormwater drainage, and a bus shelter. “Greg Bialecki was a visionary leader whose commitment to community, collaboration, and smart, inclusive growth helped shape the Massachusetts we know today,” Governor Maura Healey said in a prepared statement. “The Marriner Mill development in Lawrence exemplifies Greg’s belief that good economic development is about people, and about creating places where families, businesses and communities can grow and succeed.” — JON CHESTO LEGAL Boeing will not face a criminal conspiracy charge over two 737 Max jetliner crashes that killed 346 people, after a federal judge in Texas on Thursday granted the government’s request to dismiss the case. As part of a deal to drop the charge, the American aerospace company has agreed to pay or invest an additional $1.1 billion in fines, compensation for the crash victims’ families, and internal safety and quality measures. The agreement also lets Boeing choose its own compliance consultant rather than appointing an independent monitor. Prosecutors alleged Boeing deceived government regulators about a flight-control system that was later implicated in the fatal flights. The ruling comes after an emotional hearing in September in Fort Worth where relatives of some of the victims urged US District Judge Reed O’Connor to reject the deal and instead appoint a special prosecutor to take over the case. O’Connor wrote Thursday that the deal “fails to secure the necessary accountability to ensure the safety of the flying public.” Still, he said, the court can’t block the dismissal simply because it disagrees with the government’s view that the deal serves the public interest. The Justice Department has said a trial risks a jury verdict that spares Boeing from further punishment. The judge also said the government hadn’t acted in bad faith, had provided reasons for the dismissal, and had met their obligations under the Crime Victims’ Rights Act. — ASSOCIATED PRESS CONSUMER SAFETY Peloton is recalling nearly 878,000 of its exercise bikes across the United States and Canada because the products’ seat posts can break during use, posing fall hazards. According to notices published by the US Consumer Product Safety Commission and Health Canada on Thursday, the recall covers certain “Peloton Original Series Bike+” units carrying model number PL02. Peloton has received three reports of seat posts breaking on these bikes in the United States, two of which resulted in fall injuries. There’s been no additional incidents in Canada to date. Both consumer safety watchdogs and Peloton urge owners of these bikes to stop using them and contact the New York-based exercise company for a free seat post replacement. “The integrity of our products and our Members’ well-being are our top priorities,” a Peloton spokesperson said in an emailed statement — adding that the company would make its redesigned seat post replacements “available to all affected Bike+ users.” Peloton’s website has information to help determine if your bike is part of the recall and instructions on how to install this new seat post if needed. The now-recalled bikes were sold at Peloton and Dick’s Sporting Goods stores, as well as websites like Amazon and eBay, from 2020 through April 2025 for about $2,495. The impacted Bike+ units have serial numbers beginning with the letter “T.” About 833,000 units were sold in the United States and another 44,800 in Canada. — ASSOCIATED PRESS CYBERSECURITY The Congressional Budget Office on Thursday confirmed it had been hacked, potentially disclosing important government data to malicious actors. The small government office, with some 275 employees, provides objective, impartial analysis to support lawmakers during the budget process. It is required to produce a cost estimate for nearly every bill approved by a House or Senate committee and will weigh in earlier when asked to do so by lawmakers. Caitlin Emma, a spokeswoman for the CBO said in a written statement that the agency “has identified the security incident, has taken immediate action to contain it, and has implemented additional monitoring and new security controls to further protect the agency’s systems going forward.” — ASSOCIATED PRESS
