Elon Musk: X employees can get their shares – if they prove they deserve it

Elon Musk sent an email to X employees overnight about the highly anticipated stock allocations – but there is a catch.

In an email to employees of The edgethe company plans to award stock options based on employees’ expected future performance. This means that employees must provide management with a one-page summary of their contribution to the company.

These anticipated stock grants add to tensions between X leadership and employees after the promotion process was recently postponed without explanation, as we previously reported. With the company formerly known as Twitter continuing to struggle under Elon Musk’s ownership, employees are bracing for more layoffs.

In addition, a source at X The edge that the company still owes its employees the annual stock boost that was supposed to be paid out in April. According to two employees, Musk had previously assured employees that they would be able to cash in stocks on a regular basis, similar to SpaceX employees. However, he has so far failed to keep that promise.

The last stock refresh for X employees occurred in October 2023 and valued the company at $19 billion—significantly less than the $44 billion Musk paid for it. During that refresh, employees received RSUs at a stock price of $45, as I previously reported.