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More CEOs demand ‘moonshot’ pay—billions in compensation for aggressive, seemingly impossible targets

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Good morning. If it seems like more CEOs are asking for—and getting—so-called “moonshot” pay packages, well, they are, as I reported in a recent feature for Fortune. A moonshot ties CEO compensation almost entirely to aggressive, seemingly impossible targets over five to 10 years. The upshot is often billions in compensation and slices of company ownership. But in the meantime, the CEO gets almost nothing.

Tesla CEO Elon Musk has hit two moonshots, but the second award, once valued at $56 billion, was twice rescinded after a legal challenge. Taser stun gun and body camera company 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 last year earned compensation valued at $165 million after growing the company’s market cap from $2.5 billion to $13.5 billion. Smith even brought his entire workforce along with him by sharing some of his pay with employees, negotiating a deal where $88 million in stock went to the lowest-paid workers at Axon. His moonshot is also open to Axon workers, allowing them to put some of their pay at risk in a way similar to Smith’s comp. He’s now on a second seven-year moonshot plan, but even Smith’s wife was against the notion at first, because she thought it was just too risky.

Now, the trend is poised to spread beyond founder-CEOs like Smith to what Todd Sirras of executive compensation consulting firm Semler Brossy calls “founder-anointed successors.” For instance, Opendoor Technologies CEO Kaz Nejatian got a potential $2.8 billion moonshot and a slice of the company after he was hired last month. But Sirras’ concern is that big bets on a single CEO pose major risks to shareholders. Human beings are emotional and they get distracted easily thinking about what they can buy with all this stock, he said, like a new private jet. 

He compared the potential rise of moonshot pay deals to the Jurassic Park film series. “Danger increases exponentially the closer these awards get to the general executive population,” Sirras said. While moonshots for founder-annointed successors and non-successors with a major capital investment he deems “inside the T-Rex fence”—“awards in non-founder companies means the dinosaurs have escaped and are heading to the mainland.” Read the full article here.—Amanda Gerut

Contact CEO Daily via Diane Brady at diane.brady@fortune.com

Top news

AI bull run is too narrow, Morgan Stanley exec says

Morgan Stanley Wealth Management’s chief investment officer Lisa Shalett warned that the U.S. equity market’s remarkable run is built on a precariously narrow foundation: a surge in spending on, and optimistic assumptions about, infrastructure for artificial intelligence. This spending has fueled a boom in the shares of most of the so-called Magnificent 7 and a few dozen related businesses, which have now come to account for roughly 75% of the S&P 500’s returns since the rally began.

AI companies may be underinsured, legally

OpenAI and Anthropic may not be carrying enough insurance to pay all the legal claims against them from publishers whose work they have used to train their AI models, the FT reports. The companies may be required to use investor funds to pay off lawsuits. Kevin Kalinich, head of cyber risk at Aon, said “we don’t yet have enough capacity for [AI] providers”.

SoftBank will buy ABB robotics for $5.4 billion

“SoftBank’s next frontier is Physical AI. Together with ABB Robotics, we will unite world-class technology and talent under our shared vision to fuse Artificial Super Intelligence and robotics—driving a groundbreaking evolution that will propel humanity forward,” Masayoshi Son, founder of SoftBank, said.

Soybean farm crisis may need $24 billion bailout

China, in response to President Trump’s trade war, has refused to buy U.S. soybeans this year, and it’s driving American farms into bankruptcy. Bailout packages for soy farms may cost taxpayers $24 billion, the WSJ reports, as the market for animal feed evaporates.

Trump says federal workers may not get shutdown back pay

“I would say it depends on who we’re talking about,” the president said yesterday, arguing that some workers “really don’t deserve to be taken care of, and we’ll take care of them in a different way.”

Red Lobster CEO’s recipe for a comeback

36-year-old Red Lobster CEO Damola Adamolekun is tasked with bringing the fast casual chain back to success following a tumultuous bankruptcy. He sees seafood boils and his own private equity savvy as ways ahead.

Wall Street economist’s tariff predictions

Wall Street economist Nathan Sheets told Fortune that the Trump Administration’s tariffs are unlike any we’ve seen “for many decades,” and could play out in two different ways. Retailers may subtly pass them off by raising prices during phases like the holiday season, though tariffs could also make some manufacturing unprofitable and bring about automation quicker.

Elsewhere: Attorney General Pam Bondi refused to answer questions about her treatment of files held by the Justice Department that relate to President Trump and Jeffrey EpsteinThe E.U. is considering new tariffs on steel imports by cutting the quota of steel that can be imported tariff-free and raising tariffs on the rest to 50% … Elon Musk’s Tesla launched two new, cheaper vehicles, priced at $40,000 for the Model Y and $37,000 for the Model 3.

The markets

S&P 500 futures were up 0.18% this morning. The index closed down 0.38% in its last session. STOXX Europe 600 was up 0.42% in early trading. The U.K.’s FTSE 100 was up 0.38% in early trading. 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% before the end of the session. Bitcoin fell to $122.6K.

Around 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 Daily is compiled and edited by Joey Abrams and Jim Edwards.

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



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SpaceX to offer insider shares at record-setting $800 billion valuation

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SpaceX is preparing to sell insider shares in a transaction that would value Elon Musk’s rocket and satellite maker at as much as $800 billion, people familiar with the matter said, reclaiming the title of the world’s most valuable private company. 

The details, discussed by SpaceX’s board of directors on Thursday at its Starbase hub in Texas, could change based on interest from insider sellers and buyers or other factors, said some of the people, who asked not to be identified as the information isn’t public. SpaceX is also exploring a possible initial public offering as soon as late next year, one of the people said. 

Another person briefed on the matter said that the price under discussion for the sale of some employees and investors’ shares is higher than $400 apiece, which would value SpaceX at between $750 billion and $800 billion. The company wouldn’t raise any funds though this planned sale, though a successful offering at such levels would catapult it past the record of $500 billion valuation achieved by OpenAI in October.

Elon Musk on Saturday denied that SpaceX is raising money at a $800 billion valuation without addressing Bloomberg’s reporting on the planned offering of insiders’ shares. 

“SpaceX has been cash flow positive for many years and does periodic stock buybacks twice a year to provide liquidity for employees and investors,” Musk said in a post on his social media platform X. 

The share sale price under discussion would be a substantial increase from the $212 a share set in July, when the company raised money and sold shares at a valuation of $400 billion. The Wall Street Journal and Financial Times earlier reported the $800 billion valuation target.

News of SpaceX’s valuation sent shares of EchoStar Corp., a satellite TV and wireless company, up as much as 18%. Last month, EchoStar had agreed to sell spectrum licenses to SpaceX for $2.6 billion, adding to an earlier agreement to sell about $17 billion in wireless spectrum to Musk’s company.

Subscribe Now: The Business of Space newsletter covers NASA, key industry events and trends.

The world’s most prolific rocket launcher, SpaceX dominates the space industry with its Falcon 9 rocket that lifts satellites and people to orbit.

SpaceX is also the industry leader in providing internet services from low-Earth orbit through Starlink, a system of more than 9,000 satellites that is far ahead of competitors including Amazon.com Inc.’s Amazon Leo.

Elite Group

SpaceX is among an elite group of companies that have the ability to raise funds at $100 billion-plus valuations while delaying or denying they have any plan to go public. 

An IPO of the company at an $800 billion value would vault SpaceX into another rarefied group — the 20 largest public companies, a few notches below Musk’s Tesla Inc. 

If SpaceX sold 5% of the company at that valuation, it would have to sell $40 billion of stock — making it the biggest IPO of all time, well above Saudi Aramco’s $29 billion listing in 2019. The firm sold just 1.5% of the company in that offering, a much smaller slice than the majority of publicly traded firms make available.

A listing would also subject SpaceX to the volatility of being a public company, versus private firms whose valuations are closely guarded secrets. Space and defense company IPOs have had a mixed reception in 2025. Karman Holdings Inc.’s stock has nearly tripled since its debut, while Firefly Aerospace Inc. and Voyager Technologies Inc. have plunged by double-digit percentages since their debuts.

SpaceX executives have repeatedly floated the idea of spinning off SpaceX’s Starlink business into a separate, publicly traded company — a concept President Gwynne Shotwell first suggested in 2020. 

However, Musk cast doubt on the prospect publicly over the years and Chief Financial Officer Bret Johnsen said in 2024 that a Starlink IPO would be something that would take place more likely “in the years to come.”

The Information, citing people familiar with the discussions, separately reported on Friday that SpaceX has told investors and financial institution representatives that it’s aiming for an IPO of the entire company in the second half of next year.

Read More: How to Buy SpaceX: A Guide for the Eager, Pre-IPO

A so-called tender or secondary offering, through which employees and some early shareholders can sell shares, provides investors in closely held companies such as SpaceX a way to generate liquidity.

SpaceX is working to develop its new Starship vehicle, advertised as the most powerful rocket ever developed to loft huge numbers of Starlink satellites as well as carry cargo and people to moon and, eventually, Mars.



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National Park Service drops free admission on MLK Day and Juneteenth while adding Trump’s birthday

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The National Park Service will offer free admission to U.S. residents on President Donald Trump’s birthday next year — which also happens to be Flag Day — but is eliminating the benefit for Martin Luther King Jr. Day and Juneteenth.

The new list of free admission days for Americans is the latest example of the Trump administration downplaying America’s civil rights history while also promoting the president’s image, name and legacy.

Last year, the list of free days included Martin Luther King Jr Day and Juneteenth — which is June 19 — but not June 14, Trump’s birthday.

The new free-admission policy takes effect Jan. 1 and was one of several changes announced by the Park Service late last month, including higher admission fees for international visitors.

The other days of free park admission in 2026 are Presidents Day, Memorial Day, Independence Day, Constitution Day, Veterans Day, President Theodore Roosevelt’s birthday (Oct. 27) and the anniversary of the creation of the Park Service (Aug. 25).

Eliminating Martin Luther King Jr. Day and Juneteenth, which commemorates the day in 1865 when the last enslaved Americans were emancipated, removes two of the nation’s most prominent civil rights holidays.

Some civil rights leaders voiced opposition to the change after news about it began spreading over the weekend.

“The raw & rank racism here stinks to high heaven,” Harvard Kennedy School professor Cornell William Brooks, a former president of the NAACP, wrote on social media about the new policy.

Kristen Brengel, a spokesperson for the National Parks Conservation Association, said that while presidential administrations have tweaked the free days in the past, the elimination of Martin Luther King Jr. Day is particularly concerning. For one, the day has become a popular day of service for community groups that use the free day to perform volunteer projects at parks.

That will now be much more expensive, said Brengel, whose organization is a nonprofit that advocates for the park system.

“Not only does it recognize an American hero, it’s also a day when people go into parks to clean them up,” Brengel said. “Martin Luther King Jr. deserves a day of recognition … For some reason, Black history has repeatedly been targeted by this administration, and it shouldn’t be.”

Some Democratic lawmakers also weighed in to object to the new policy.

“The President didn’t just add his own birthday to the list, he removed both of these holidays that mark Black Americans’ struggle for civil rights and freedom,” said Democratic Sen. Catherine Cortez Masto of Nevada. “Our country deserves better.”

A spokesperson for the National Park Service did not immediately respond to questions on Saturday seeking information about the reasons behind the changes.

Since taking office, Trump has sought to eliminate programs seen as promoting diversity across the federal government, actions that have erased or downplayed America’s history of racism as well as the civil rights victories of Black Americans.

Self-promotion is an old habit of the president’s and one he has continued in his second term. He unsuccessfully put himself forwardfor the Nobel Peace Prize, renamed the U.S. Institute of Peace after himself, sought to put his name on the planned NFL stadium in the nation’s capital and had a new children’s savings program named after him.

Some Republican lawmakers have suggested putting his visage on Mount Rushmore and the $100 bill.



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JPMorgan CEO Jamie Dimon says Europe has a ‘real problem’

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JPMorgan Chase & Co. Chief Executive Officer Jamie Dimon called out slow bureaucracy in Europe in a warning that a “weak” continent poses a major economic risk to the US.

“Europe has a real problem,” Dimon said Saturday at the Reagan National Defense Forum. “They do some wonderful things on their safety nets. But they’ve driven business out, they’ve driven investment out, they’ve driven innovation out. It’s kind of coming back.”

While he praised some European leaders who he said were aware of the issues, he cautioned politics is “really hard.” 

Dimon, leader of the biggest US bank, has long said that the risk of a fragmented Europe is among the major challenges facing the world. In his letter to shareholders released earlier this year, he said that Europe has “some serious issues to fix.”

On Saturday, he praised the creation of the euro and Europe’s push for peace. But he warned that a reduction in military efforts and challenges trying to reach agreement within the European Union are threatening the continent.

“If they fragment, then you can say that America first will not be around anymore,” Dimon said. “It will hurt us more than anybody else because they are a major ally in every single way, including common values, which are really important.”

He said the US should help.

“We need a long-term strategy to help them become strong,” Dimon said. “A weak Europe is bad for us.”

The administration of President Donald Trump issued a new national security strategy that directed US interests toward the Western Hemisphere and protection of the homeland while dismissing Europe as a continent headed toward “civilizational erasure.”

Read More: Trump’s National Security Strategy Veers Inward in Telling Shift

JPMorgan has been ramping up its push to spur more investments in the national defense sector. In October, the bank announced that it would funnel $1.5 trillion into industries that bolster US economic security and resiliency over the next 10 years — as much as $500 billion more than what it would’ve provided anyway. 

Dimon said in the statement that it’s “painfully clear that the United States has allowed itself to become too reliant on unreliable sources of critical minerals, products and manufacturing.”

Investment banker Jay Horine oversees the effort, which Dimon called “100% commercial.” It will focus on four areas: supply chain and advanced manufacturing; defense and aerospace; energy independence and resilience; and frontier and strategic technologies. 

The bank will also invest as much as $10 billion of its own capital to help certain companies expand, innovate or accelerate strategic manufacturing.

Separately on Saturday, Dimon praised Trump for finding ways to roll back bureaucracy in the government.

“There is no question that this administration is trying to bring an axe to some of the bureaucracy that held back America,” Dimon said. “That is a good thing and we can do it and still keep the world safe, for safe food and safe banks and all the stuff like that.”



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