• Henrik Fisker's second automotive startup is on the brink of bankruptcy.
• It was pitched as a Tesla rival, but workers say mismanagement and cutting corners led to compounding problems.
• Business Insider spoke with 27 former and current Fisker staff that charted the startup's downfall.

Fisker's staff was in chaos as they prepared to deliver the company's first batch of electric cars to US customers.

It had been four years since famed automotive designer Henrik Fisker unveiled his Tesla rival, an SUV called the Ocean, and the vehicle still wasn't ready.

In the weeks leading up to the big June 2023 event, Fisker staff raced to fix faulty parts on at least four of the 22 EVs that were set to be delivered — even stripping parts off the CEO and CFO's personal cars to repair the vehicles, including door handles and seat sensors, according to 11 sources familiar with the incident.

Two days later, Fisker board member Wendy Gruel's Ocean SUV, one of the cars that had been delivered at the event, shut off on a public road while going full speed, five sources said. Later, the same thing happened to Geeta Gupta-Fisker, Henrik's wife and the company's CFO and COO, workers said.

A Fisker spokesperson denied that workers used parts from pre-production vehicles for customer cars and said Gruel's car didn't stop on a public road. The company said Gupta-Fisker's vehicle had malfunctioned, but the issue was resolved.

When TechCrunch previously reported the incident with Gruel's car, the publication said the company had confirmed the incident and said the issue was fixed.

The issue was unrelated to Fisker's part swapping, but one thing was clear: the electric cars had barely hit the road and already the problems were piling up.

Henrik Fisker's EV startup seemed to be an easy sell at first. The 60-year-old automotive veteran boasts a long history in the industry, known for being the designer behind the Aston Martin V8, the BMW Z8 roadster that famously appeared in a 1999 James Bond film, and helping design Tesla's Model S.

Even though it was Henrik's second automotive startup after his first company went out of business in 2013, some workers told Business Insider that it was easy to dismiss worries early on that his second company could meet the same fate.

For his part, Henrik said he planned to do things differently this time. He would follow Apple's model by outsourcing production through Magna International and he also aimed to target the middle of the market with a more affordable EV option that could compete with Tesla's best-selling Model Y. Fisker Inc emerged in 2016 and went public in 2020 via a SPAC backed by Apollo Global Management. At one point, the company's market value soared as high as $8 billion.

At the time, Fisker was one of several EV startups to burst onto the scene — Rivian, Lucid, and Lordstown all wanted the chance to compete with Tesla. Since then, production and market headwinds have pushed some EV startups to shutter and major players like Ford and GM to scale back their electric-vehicle operations. Even Tesla has struggled, seeing revenue decline and layoffs.

"I was hopeful at first," one former VP, who worked at both Fisker startups, said. "Initially, at least, it seemed like he'd learned from his mistakes. It became obvious later on that they hadn't."

A Fisker spokesperson said it would be "unfair" to compare the two companies.

Today, the company is fighting for its life, pulling out all the stops in an effort to avoid bankruptcy.

Business Insider spoke with over two dozen current and former Fisker employees who worked at the startup during various periods from its launch in 2016 to the present. The workers, whose identities are known to BI, requested anonymity as they were not authorized to comment on Fisker's behalf and feared professional reprisal.

A husband and wife duo who workers say mismanaged their way into a mess

Many of Fisker's woes can be traced back to the husband-wife duo that launched the brand, multiple former and current workers told BI.

They described a disorganized environment in which unqualified people were brought in to lead major programs and basic automotive standards were ignored.

While Henrik often served as a figurehead, Gupta-Fisker was heavily involved in everyday decisions, including on the engineering side, 11 workers said. Prior to taking on the role of CFO and COO at Fisker, Gupta-Fisker had served as an investment manager for the Fisker family office and as an advisor at a nonprofit. She had no prior experience in the automotive industry. But at Fisker, the workers said she managed deals with Magna and outside parts suppliers, frequently popped into engineering meetings, and weighed in on everything from parts purchases to software decisions.

A spokesperson for Magna declined to comment on Fisker. A Fisker spokesperson denied comments that Henrik took on a more passive role and said he was "deeply involved."

49-year-old Gupta-Fisker quickly became known in the company for her shrewd cost-cutting abilities. But, her strategy meant that at times Fisker ended up using components that didn't match the correct specifications for the Ocean, five former and current workers said. Gupta-Fisker made several decisions to use cheaper parts against Fisker executive and Magana executives' advice, two workers said. The mismatches led to issues with over-the-air updates, the five workers said.

The company said Magna oversaw the majority of parts sourcing and a "significant" amount of the parts came from Magna and its suppliers.

In conversations with BI, staff blamed many of the Ocean's faults on the cost-cutting efforts.

Several workers said that in the months leading up to the vehicle's launch, they filed internal reports recommending that the product undergo further testing and development before its release. They said they were told the company planned to proceed anyway.

"The focus was on getting the car to market as soon as possible," one former worker said. "The overarching belief was we could fix things with updates later on."

A Fisker spokesperson said Magna was responsible for testing and releasing the Ocean and it had been fully certified by regulators in the US and Europe. The company has been sending out over-the-air updates since 2023, the company said.

Ahead of the release, Fisker engineers were aware of multiple issues with the vehicle, according to five current and former workers, as well as internal documents viewed by Business Insider. Engineers had identified issues with the effectiveness of the car's door handles, key fobs, and seat sensors.

Over the past year, the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration (NHTSA) has launched four investigations into Fisker's SUV, including issues with inadvertent braking and flaws in the vehicle's door latch system. The company said it is cooperating with NHTSA.

Fisker has also faced dozens of lemon law lawsuits.

Cutting corners led to compounding issues

In its haste to bring the car to market, Fisker failed to set up an effective system for processing repair orders and warranty claims, seven current and former workers said. Technicians were tasked with filling out the work orders and many of them said they hadn't been trained on the process.

In lieu of a working warranty system, some workers began processing the repairs without the proper California Bureau of Automotive Repair codes and EPA license numbers, using "123456" as a placeholder on a number of repairs, according to an internal document viewed by BI. In March, a VP at Fisker warned the issue made the company non-compliant with NHTSA protocols and unable to properly track and report safety concerns.

A Fisker spokesperson said the issue was "an internal error with only draft work orders early in the service process that was immediately corrected."

Without a proper system to process warranties or repair orders, the majority of repairs went unaccounted for, seven current and former workers said. That meant there wasn't an adequate way for Fisker to keep track of which parts were being used for repairs for its own financial records. It also meant many customers did not get a record of their repairs, workers said.

Meanwhile, Fisker also struggled to find the necessary parts for all of the fixes. The company hadn't set up much inventory for aftersales parts, so some of the parts used for customer fixes either came directly off the factory line, meaning they were meant for production vehicles, or the parts were stripped off pre-production and production vehicles, 11 workers with knowledge of the issue said.

In one instance, Fisker stripped parts off an engineering test vehicle that had been shipped from Magna's facility in Graz, Austria under an import bond, according to three former workers and emails viewed by BI. The vehicle was supposed to be destroyed in its entirety shortly after it was delivered to comply with the terms of the import. The vehicle's parts were not intended to be used for customers' cars.

The company denied any test vehicles had been used for parts and said all vehicles that had been imported for testing were destroyed under NHTSA's supervision.

The spokesperson also denied that Fisker had a shortage of after-sales parts: "The Service department made its own forecast for parts, based on their sector knowledge. The Purchasing department supported those requests."

Fisker staff also looked for clever ways to address the parts shortage. In some instances, workers who visited Graz were told by managers to bring parts back in their suitcases to avoid paying import fees, seven workers said. One worker recalled having to leave personal belongings behind to fit air vents and key fobs into their luggage; another said they packed a larger bag to fit trim panels.

Fisker declined to comment on the claims.

A sales scramble amid negative reviews and vanishing demand

Fisker was initially successful in generating interest in the Ocean, with over 65,000 reservations initially placed.

But in the year since the Ocean's release, the company has delivered around 7,000 vehicles, a Fisker spokesperson said. Negative reviews — including YouTuber MKBHD calling it the "worst care I've ever reviewed" — took a toll on the brand, driving thousands of would-be customers to cancel their reservations.

In November, Fisker moved to bring in hiring recruiters to help sell the vehicle, as well as orchestrate the delivery of the car after the sale had been processed, six former workers said. In many cases, the recruiters, who had initially been brought onto the human resources team, had zero experience in automotive sales.

A Fisker spokesperson said that recruiting staff did join the sales efforts, though the company said they were asked to stay because they were successful in the new role.

Selling the car wasn't easy either. The recruiters found themselves directly competing with the company's established sales team and there weren't enough leads to go around. Four former workers said Fisker's reservation numbers included many duplicate names in its count and it was difficult to track which customers had connected with a sales worker. As a result, some people on the reservation list would find themselves getting multiple calls per day from different Fisker representatives.

At one point, sales workers were instructed to target customers who had canceled their orders and pepper them with calls in an attempt to get them to reverse their decision, three former workers said.

Fisker also began hosting pop-up events to boost sales, including events in partnership with fan blog Fiskerati, two former employees told BI. The events varied from meetups at Panera parking lots to larger-scale test drive events. In at least one instance, the event was shut down after Fisker failed to get permission from the owner of the location, the two sources said. Queues of Fisker owners that needed repairs also showed up at the events, three former workers said. Fisker told BI that the event hosted at Panera was not a company event.

"Sometimes it was hard to sell the cars when you'd take someone on a test drive and any number of error messages would pop up," one former worker from sales said. "As time went on and it became clear the writing was on the wall, we became even more honest with the customers on the risk," they added.

Fisker said it was aware of the ADAS issues but it was fixed with an update.

Meanwhile, some customers who'd canceled their orders and never paid for the car ended up mistakenly receiving delivery of the vehicle anyway, four former workers said. Former Fisker Ocean owner Kurt Mechling told BI he received delivery of the vehicle before he'd signed off on the order or had his payment successfully processed.

In March, TechCrunch reported that Fisker temporarily "lost track of millions of dollars in customer payments" for multiple months. Four workers with knowledge of the issue confirmed to BI the incident involving misplaced payments occurred.

When the carmaker conducted an internal audit in December over the issue, workers began scrambling to find the missing payments and bring some of the vehicles that had been mistakenly delivered back, the workers said. Some workers were encouraged by upper management to threaten the customers by saying they'd put them on a repossession list which could impact their credit score, the former workers said.

A Fisker spokesperson said the company had an "organized process" to address issues with vehicles that had not been paid for that was in line with industry standards.

Facing the threat of a repeat bankruptcy

Over the past year, Fisker has dropped prices by as much as $24,000 for some versions of the vehicle.

The company warned in March that it might go out of business within the year. The stock was delisted from the New York Stock Exchange in April after it fell to 9 cents per share. Fisker warned staff in an April filing that they will be laid off if the company can't find a buyer or additional investor. The company brought in a chief restructuring officer who was given "sole authority" over some financial matters, including a potential sale, as part of an agreement with one of its investors.

Layoffs have stripped the staff to the bone. Its workforce is now less than 100 people, according to two sources with knowledge of the issue. Many of the workers who remain are involved in last-ditch efforts to offload Fisker's remaining inventory, the people said.

The company said it does not have less than 100 workers left and continues to sell vehicles in the US and in Europe. It declined to specify how many workers remained.

Meanwhile, workers have been dissatisfied with what they view as Henrik and Gupta-Fisker's inability to take accountability for their actions. A Fisker spokesperson pushed back on the comments questioning Henrik's business prowess.

"I think it's a story of ego. He wanted to make a car and stamp his name on it. Henrik is a great designer, but he doesn't have the business acumen beyond that," an individual who worked with Henrik at several companies, including his first automotive startup. "The lessons he should have learned from the first startup were never implemented and he rushed a car to market once again."

For Henrik, finding a buyer or cash infusion could partially salvage a reputation that has taken a hit over the past six months. Without a rescue, the automotive veteran faces the prospect of a nightmare scenario: back-to-back bankruptcies.

Do you work for an EV company like Fisker or Tesla? Reach out to the reporter from a non-work email and device at gkay@businessinsider.com or 248-894-6012.

• Linda Carrier ran her first marathon in her 30s, and continues to run long distances in her 60s.
• She shared her tips on how to stay fit throughout life.
• These include finding an activity you enjoy and making it into a habit.

The second time that Linda Carrier ran a marathon, it was to make sure the first one wasn't a fluke. 81 marathons and 55 half-marathons later, it's pretty clear that it wasn't.

Carrier began running as a child, when her mom would send her out to do laps around the block to tire her out, she told Business Insider. And getting diagnosed with type 1 diabetes at 14 didn't slow her down.

But she didn't start running competitively until she was in her 30s. When she did her first marathon, Carrier thought she would be "one-and-done," but it was fun and she liked how it made her feel calm and focused, so she started to do one or two a year.

After a while, she started taking on bigger running challenges. She ran a 50-mile ultramarathon on her 50th birthday and completed the World Marathon Challenge — where she ran a marathon on each of the seven continents in seven days — three times, in 2019, 2020, and 2023.

Now 61, Carrier, who is based in North Carolina, is trying to run a marathon in all 50 states and has only eight left to go.

In a regular week, Carrier runs 40 to 50 miles, rising to 125 miles a week when she's training for a specific race.

Carrier's journey with running, where she started to excel in her 30s and has reaped the benefits into her 60s, may be motivating for those inspired by current trends to take up the sport. Some 95% of races put on by New York Road Runners, a nonprofit that organizes the New York Marathon, sold out in 2023, compared with 89% in 2019, according to data provided by NYRR to Hell Gate.

One big motivator is how great running is for our health. One 2019 review of studies found that any amount of running, even less than 50 minutes a week, appeared to reduce the risk of dying from cardiovascular disease and cancer.

Carrier shared her tips for people who want to be fit throughout life like her.

Stay active

Carrier said that doing "anything that just keeps you active and out of a rocking chair" is helpful for staying fit into older age — even if that's just taking the stairs instead of the elevator.

"It's about mindset. Just because you're 60 or 70 doesn't mean you should be in a walker. Just stay active and I think you'll live a long, healthy life," she said.

Research supports this idea: a 2022 study found people who did the minimum recommended levels of physical activity — 75 minutes of vigorous activity or 150 minutes of moderate activity each week — were 31% less likely to die from cardiovascular disease. Plus, a 2023 study suggested that participants who did about four minutes of vigorous activity in their daily activities reduced their cancer risk by 18%.

Find a sport you love

Over the course of her life, Carrier tried many different sports, from roller skating and bowling to baseball, but she always went back to running.

Finding a type of exercise you enjoy will make it easier to keep it up in the long term, she said.

The National Institute on Aging recommends that people do all four types of exercise for their health — endurance, strength, balance, and flexibility — so consider finding one that you enjoy and incorporates these factors.

Make being active a habit

"You have to make a habit of the important things in your life — eating, sleeping, being active," Carrier said. She recommended doing the physical activity of your choice regularly for three months to make it a habit.

BI previously reported on how to gamify habits to keep them up.

Have a long-term goal

"Figure out where you want to be in the long term, and make plans to go towards that," Carrier said. "Everyone needs a north star. I hate to think that at 70 you could have the regret of not doing something when you could have done it when you were 30."

BI previously reported how what are known as extrinsic goals, such as improving health and developing skills, are better motivators long-term than intrinsic factors, such as losing weight.

• Ikaria, Greece, is a Blue Zone where people often remain healthy well into their 90s. 
• Diane Kochilas is a chef who lives on the island and teaches people how to cook the Ikarian way.
• She shared three plant-based recipes from hew new cookbook.

Diane Kochilas, a chef and cooking teacher, lives between Greece and the US, but Ikaria is her spiritual home.

Ikaria is a Blue Zone, where one in three residents make it to their 90s, and rates of dementia and some other chronic diseases are very low, according to the Blue Zones website. In recent years there has been growing interest in how islanders live from those looking to boost their own longevity.

Kochilas grew up in New York to Ikarian parents but now spends most of her time teaching cooking in Ikaria and other parts of Greece. "I grew up with really good food in the house," Kochilas told Business Insider.

She follows the Mediterranean diet, an eating plan made up of mostly fruits and vegetables, whole grains, legumes, herbs, spices, nuts, and seeds. It has been ranked the healthiest way to eat for seven years running by US News & World Report.

Her new cookbook, "The Ikaria Way," aims to popularize the principles behind cooking in Ikaria. "It's easy to eat this way no matter where you are, and you can eat seasonally depending on what's growing in your part of the world. It doesn't have to be a Mediterranean palette of ingredients," Kochilas said.

Ikarians eat mainly plant-based, she said, but would never call themselves vegan. Many grow their own food at home, forage around the island, and care for goats or pigs.

Her goal with the book was to give solutions to two widespread problems in our relationship with food: "How to be good to your body without being mean to your mind, and how to cook in the spirit of a relaxed, healing kind of island where the tempo of life is slow and easy, and where people connect through food around a table," she wrote.

Kochilas shared three plant-based recipes with Business Insider. All are reproduced with permission from "The Ikaria Way," which was published in March 2024.

Longevity Greens Rice

This rice dish was inspired by the flavors of a Greek pie called pitarakia.

It's packed with nutrients from greens, fiber from rice, and contains some protein if you pair it with Greek yogurt.

Ingredients:

• 1 pound Swiss or rainbow chard
• 1⁄2 pound spinach, trimmed
• 2⁄3 cup extra-virgin olive oil
• 1 large leek, trimmed, washed, and finely chopped
• 1 large red onion, finely chopped
• 1 medium fennel bulb, trimmed and finely chopped
• 2 carrots, peeled and chopped
• 3 garlic cloves, finely chopped
• 1 cup long- or medium-grain rice or parboiled brown rice
• Salt and freshly ground black pepper to taste
• 2 cups vegetable stock, or more as needed
• 1⁄2 cup chopped fresh dill
• 1⁄2 cup chopped fresh mint
• 1⁄2 cup chopped fresh chervil (optional)
• 1⁄2 cup chopped fresh flat-leaf parsley
• 3 tablespoons chopped fresh oregano
• Juice of 1 lemon
• Feta cheese or plain Greek yogurt for serving (optional)

Method:

1. Trim the chard and spinach, separating the stems from the leaves. Trim away any rough or tough part of the stems, usually on the bottom, then finely chop the stems and set aside. Chop the leaves, then swish them around in a basin or bowl and either spin dry in a salad spinner or let them drain very well in a colander.

2. Heat 1⁄2 cup of the olive oil in a wide pot over medium heat. Sauté the leek, onion, fennel, carrot, and greens stems until soft, about 10 minutes.

3. Stir in the garlic. Add the rice and stir to coat with the olive oil. Add greens in batches and stir to cook down until all of the chard and spinach have been added. Season with salt and pepper.

4. Add the vegetable stock. Cook over low heat, covered, until rice is very tender, about 45 minutes. Add more stock, if necessary, to keep the mixture moist and retain enough liquid for the rice to cook. The greens will let out their own liquid, too, so you have to use your judgment.

5. About 5 minutes before removing from heat, stir in all the fresh herbs and half the lemon juice. Stir in the remaining olive oil and adjust the seasoning with additional lemon juice, salt, and pepper to taste. Serve, if desired, with some feta or a few spoonfuls of plain Greek yogurt on top.

Ferry-boat spaghetti

The dish is a vegan version of a classic Greek pasta dish called Vaporisia Makaronia, or ferry-boat spaghetti in English. "It makes for a hearty, warming pasta dish that's easy, healthy, and inexpensive to prepare," Kochilas writes.

The lentils are a great source of plant-based protein, and the whole-wheat spaghetti boosts the fiber content.

Ingredients:

• 1⁄2 cup extra-virgin olive oil
• 1 large yellow or red onion, finely chopped
• 1 large carrot, peeled and finely chopped
• 2 celery stalks, finely chopped
• 1 small fennel bulb, finely chopped
• 4 garlic cloves, minced
• 1 and 1⁄2 cups small brown lentils, rinsed and drained
• 1 heaping tablespoon tomato paste
• 3 cups crushed canned tomatoes and their juices
• 1⁄2 cup dry red wine
• 2 cups water
• 2 large fresh or dried bay leaves
• 6 fresh or dried thyme sprigs
• 4 fresh or dried oregano sprigs
• 1 cinnamon stick
• 6 allspice berries
• 1 generous pinch of freshly grated nutmeg
• 1 pinch cayenne
• Sea salt to taste
• Freshly ground black pepper
• 1 tablespoon balsamic vinegar
• 1 pound whole wheat spaghetti
• 1⁄2 cup chopped fresh parsley

Method:

1. Heat the olive oil in a large pot over low-to-medium heat and add all the chopped vegetables. Toss to coat in the olive oil. Stir in the garlic. Add the lentils and stir. Add the tomato paste and mix it in to distribute evenly. Cover the pot, reduce the heat to low, and let everything cook together for 5 minutes.

2. Add crushed tomatoes to the pot. Raise the heat to medium and bring the lentils to a simmer, then add the wine. Bring that to a simmer and cook for 5 minutes to boil off the alcohol. Add enough water to come about 1⁄2 an inch above the lentils. Add the bay leaves, thyme and oregano sprigs, cinnamon, allspice berries, nutmeg, cayenne, salt, and pepper.

3. Bring to a boil, then reduce heat to low and simmer, covered, until lentils are tender, about 1 hour. Add more water as necessary. Stir in the balsamic vinegar for about 10 minutes before removing from heat.

4. While the lentils are simmering, prepare the spaghetti according to package directions, and time it so that the spaghetti is hot and ready when the sauce is cooked. Serve the lentil sauce over the spaghetti and sprinkle with chopped parsley.

Warm lentils with parsley and crumbled nuts

Kochilas compared this warm lentil dish, which can be served hot or cold, to tabbouleh, a herby Middle Eastern salad, because of the abundance of parsley.

Lentils, beans, and chickpeas are all staples in the diets of Blue Zones. They are excellent sources of plant-based protein and fiber.

Ingredients:

• 1⁄2 pound small green or brown lentils
• 1 and 1⁄2 cups finely chopped fresh flat-leaf parsley
• 1 medium ripe tomato, seeds removed and diced
• 1 medium green bell pepper, seeds removed and coarsely chopped
• 1 large red or yellow onion, coarsely chopped (about 1 cup)
• 2 scallions, trimmed and washed, cut into thin rounds
• 1 large garlic clove, peeled and minced
• 1⁄4 cup extra-virgin olive oil
• 2 to 4 tablespoons red wine vinegar
• Sea salt to taste
• 1⁄3 cup coarsely ground hazelnuts, cashews, or walnuts

Method:

1. Rinse and drain the lentils. Place them in a large pot covered with about 2 inches of water and bring to a boil. Season with salt.

2. Simmer over gentle heat, uncovered, for 20 to 25 minutes, until the lentils are tender but al dente. As they simmer, skim the foam from the surface. Drain.

3. In a large serving bowl, combine the lentils with the chopped parsley, diced tomato, pepper, onion, scallions, and garlic.

4. In a separate small bowl, whisk together the olive oil, vinegar, and a pinch of sea salt. Pour the dressing over the lentils, toss everything together gently, top with the ground nuts, and serve.

• Tesla is set to announce the results of a vote on Elon Musk's pay plan at its annual meeting Thursday.
• A Delaware judge voided the package in January and Tesla is seeking to get it reinstated.
• Tesla has campaigned heavily for the plan over the past month.

Tesla kicks off its annual shareholder meeting tomorrow — and Elon Musk's $55 billion pay package is hanging in the balance.

Shareholders have been voting over the past few weeks on whether Tesla should reinstate Musk's compensation plan, which was valued at $55 billion when it was struck down by a Delaware judge earlier this year.

Now, it's almost time to see where the votes have fallen.

On Thursday, the electric carmaker will announce the results of the vote, which could have major ramifications for Tesla's stock price and the future of the company.

Earlier in June, Tesla board chair Robyn Denholm warned that the company might lose Musk's attention and fail to motivate the CEO if Tesla was unable to reinstate the pay package. Similarly, Musk has threatened to take his work with AI outside of Tesla if he is unable to secure additional voting shares.

The pay plan was first approved by shareholders in 2018. Musk's compensation is determined by Tesla's ability to hit a series of financial goalposts under his leadership and it involves a 10-year grant of 12 tranches of stock options that are vested when Tesla hits specific targets. When the company passes each milestone, Musk receives stock equal to 1% of outstanding shares at the time of the grant. Tesla said it hit all of the 12 targets as of 2023.

In January, a Delaware judge voided the pay package, arguing that Musk had undue influence over the creation and approval of the package and the carmaker failed to properly disclose Musk's influence to shareholders.

How it could play out

If the majority of shareholder votes cast favor Musk's pay package, the company may be able to eventually reinstate the plan, though it likely won't go into affect immediately.

The company said in a filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission that it will seek to reverse the ruling and will use an affirmative vote to argue against the judge's decision.

However, if the majority of Tesla shareholders vote against the proposal it's less clear what next steps the company — or Musk — will take.

The company could still attempt to appeal the judge's ruling, Anat Alon-Beck, a corporate law expert out of Case Western Reserve University, previously told Business Insider. Tesla also indicated in a regulatory filing that they were considering putting forth an alternate pay plan if the proposal fails to go through. Tesla said the new plan "would need to be of a similar magnitude to the 2018 plan."

A spokesperson for Tesla did not respond to a request for comment.

Over the past few months, Tesla has gone all out in its efforts to promote Musk's pay package and encourage investors to vote. The company bought up ads and issued a series of letters to shareholders.

The initiative has pitted institutional investors, many of whom have already come out against the proposal, against Tesla's army of retail investors. Meanwhile, Tesla fans and Tesla employees have taken to social media over the past month to promote the proposal.

On Saturday, Musk said on X that 90% of the retail investors who had voted thus far had voted in favor of the pay plan. Tesla's retail investors hold a notable level of power at the company. Individual investors hold a large portion of Tesla stock, accounting for about 44% of Tesla shares, per S&P Global Market Intelligence data quoted by Reuters in May.

Musk's compensation is not the only issue that Tesla investors have been weighing. The company is also asking investors to vote on whether to move Tesla's state of incorporation from Delaware to Texas and a separate proposal to reelect Tesla board members Kimbal Musk, who is the Tesla CEO's brother, and James Murdoch.

Do you work for Tesla or have a tip? Reach out to the reporter via a non-work email and device at gkay@businessinsider.com or 248-894-6012.

• A kite surfer stranded on a remote beach in California found a novel way to call for aid.
• The man used rocks to spell out the word "HELP" on the sand. 
• It caught the eye of a private helicopter operator, who then called 911.  

A kite surfer stranded on a narrow beach in California found a novel way to call for aid.

Surrounded by tall cliffs and a rising tide on the beach south of Davenport Landing, he laid out rocks on the sand to spell out a large "HELP," per an X post by the Santa Cruz unit of the California Department of Forestry and Fire Protection on Sunday.

A private helicopter spotted the sign and alerted the authorities.

A rescue helicopter was later dispatched to the location and airlifted the kite surfer out, according to the video posted by the department.

The kite surfer started from Davenport Landing Beach but was swept down the coastline, where he was stranded, NBC Bay Area reported.

"It is an extremely beautiful place to work and live," Cal Fire Capt. Skylar Merritt told NBC Bay Area. "That being said, it can lull people into a false sense of security around those cliffs. Those beaches are notorious for strong winds, rip tides, and cold water."

A similar rescue operation happened in April when the US military rescued three mariners stranded on a Pacific island for more than a week.

They used palm leaves to write "HELP" on the beach in Pikelot Atoll, a small island part of the Federated States of Micronesia.

They were spotted by a US reconnaissance aircraft and rescued on April 9.

Cal Fire did not immediately respond to a request for comment from Business Insider sent outside regular working hours.

• iPod inventor Tony Fadell thinks Apple is on the right track when it comes to AI.
• Fadell said Apple's latest AI offerings are a "solid first effort" that focuses on users.
• The former Apple executive said there was too much hype surrounding what AI could do.

Apple may seem to be trailing flashy AI firms like OpenAI, but iPod inventor Tony Fadell thinks the company's slow but steady approach to the technology is the right one.

"Apple is taking baby steps because right now that is all we can count on to deliver successfully," Fadell wrote on X on Tuesday. "This is a solid first effort by Apple focusing on real benefits to users (ex. Siri)."

Fadell was responding to an article by TechCrunch that praised Apple's "boring and practical" approach toward AI. The iPhone maker unveiled its new AI offerings on Monday during a keynote presentation at its annual Worldwide Developers Conference.

Fadell left Apple back in 2010 but weighed in with his assessment of the AI industry, which he said was being overtaken by investor hype and frenzy.

"Today's AI LLMs are mostly glorified demos for the really interesting applications. They are turning into a commodity because they're overfunded by FOMO-driven VCs who don't truly understand the technology limitations that drive real application requirements," he said.

In fact, Fadell says the AI craze is highly reminiscent of the rush to fund companies working on self-driving cars over a decade ago.

"It was the NEXT big thing. What do we have 10-12 years later? Think about how many years have past for those efforts to be perfected (and they still aren't yet). We haven't even seen a self-driving car business work yet either," he said.

"How many billions were spent on that next big thing before reality set in?! AI is VERY similar," he continued.

Markets were initially skeptical of Apple's AI work, with the company's shares falling by 2% on Monday after the event. But a positive reception from Wall Street analysts sent the stock soaring 7% on Tuesday.

Representatives for Apple didn't immediately respond to a request for comment from BI sent outside regular business hours.

• My father gave me my mother's engagement ring at her funeral.
• I wanted to throw it into her grave. My brother stopped me.
• I still don't like wearing jewelry, but I'm glad I kept this heirloom.

My mother adored jewelry and never understood why I, her only daughter, refused to wear any. I wouldn't get my ears pierced and preferred my wrists, neck, and fingers bare.

We did, however, share an interest in fashion. So, I made it a point to find the perfect black dress, hat, and heels to wear to her funeral. Crying in the June heat, my mascara mixing with tears, I watched mourners shoveling dirt into the grave. Suddenly, my father was by my side, taking my hand like when I was little.

He pressed something into my palm and folded my fingers around it, saying, "You should have this."

My dad wanted me to have my mother's ring

When he let go, I glanced down. I immediately recognized my mother's engagement ring. Lying on its side, the platinum band with its pointy diamond seemed lost. Mom was always proud of it and loved getting compliments. Her wedding band had been stolen years prior in a home burglary.

"Sometimes my fingers swell," she explained. "I'll always regret taking it off."

I stared into the crystal-clear gemstone as if a flower was blooming inside. I was mesmerized.

There was a lull in the shoveling, and it got quiet. I walked to the edge of the open graveside and whispered, "I love you Mom," one last time. As if on cue, I caught the sun's rays dancing off the angular surfaces of the sparkling gem.

I really wanted to throw it into her grave

I stood there just long enough to attract my brother's attention. "Are you alright?" he asked. "Do you want to shovel some soil?"

The urge to throw the ring into my mother's grave grew stronger. It felt like it was burning a hole in my palm — like it wanted to be with her.

"Look what Dad gave me," I showed him. "But it really belongs with Mom."

As my arm pulled back, my brother took hold of my elbow. "You don't want to do that."

"Watch me," I thought as I yanked away. Then I paused and took a deep breath. I didn't want to cause a scene or upset anyone. My arm relaxed as I shook off my childish defiance.

The ring came home with me.

I kept it but wasn't sure what to do with it

Aside from my aversion to wearing jewelry, the ring scared me. The diamond stood out, and it looked valuable, so I put it in a safe deposit box.

Locking up the ring always felt wrong. But there it sat, alone where no one could see it, for years.

One day, during a visit with my father, he mentioned their engagement. His memory was slipping, and Dad forgot I had the ring. He thought it had been stolen, too. "All I have left is this," he said, handing me the original receipt from 1953.

I had never thought about his feelings. He'd picked that ring out, slid it onto my mother's finger, and proposed. Dad was 30. His career in aerospace just starting. Mom was 22. They met in New York and moved to Los Angeles, where she died of ovarian cancer at 64 — far too young.

Today it sits on my ring finger — sometimes left, sometimes right. I also wear a ruby and diamond gold band. It's another piece of jewelry I never wanted, but my husband gave it to me while we were dating, and it became my wedding ring when we tied the knot.

While I still don't like how they feel on my skin, I love what these jewels symbolize in my life. And I'm certain my mother would be pleased to see me wearing bling that belonged to her finally.

• Elon Musk withdrew his lawsuit against OpenAI and its CEO, Sam Altman, on Tuesday. 
• Musk accused OpenAI of violating its nonprofit mission when he filed the lawsuit in February. 
• But dropping the case doesn't mean that Musk is burying the hatchet with Altman just yet.

Elon Musk might have withdrawn his lawsuit against OpenAI and its cofounders on Tuesday, but he certainly isn't giving up on winning the AI race just yet.

The mercurial billionaire filed a lawsuit against the ChatGPT maker in February, accusing OpenAI of violating its nonprofit mission by partnering with Microsoft. Musk cofounded OpenAI with its current CEO, Sam Altman, but left its board in 2018.

"More on this later," Musk said of the lawsuit's withdrawal early on Wednesday morning.

But the decision to withdraw the case, just a day before a judge was set to consider OpenAI's request to dismiss it, probably isn't a sign of Musk burying the hatchet with Altman.

For one, Musk seemed furious when Apple unveiled its widely anticipated partnership with OpenAI on Monday. Shortly after the announcement, Musk threatened to prohibit Apple devices at his companies.

"If Apple integrates OpenAI at the OS level, then Apple devices will be banned at my companies," Musk wrote in an X post. "That is an unacceptable security violation."

This is despite Apple's assurances that "privacy protections are built in for users who access ChatGPT." The iPhone maker said in a press release on Tuesday that OpenAI wouldn't be able to track their users' IP addresses or store their requests.

Representatives for Musk and OpenAI did not immediately respond to requests for comment from BI sent outside regular business hours.

Musk doesn't need the lawsuit to tangle with OpenAI

Stepping back from all the drama, Musk's goal with the OpenAI lawsuit might have had less to do with winning the case and far more to do with publicly dragging Altman and OpenAI.

"These types of lawsuits can air a lot of dirty laundry, and it can be a major distraction that could impact their day-to-day operations," David Hoffman, a contract law expert from the University of Pennsylvania, told BI's Grace Kay in March.

And for what it's worth, Musk seems to have spent the interim period repositioning his companies for the AI age.

Musk has spent the past few months pitching investors on his vision for EV giant Tesla as an "AI or robotics company."

Besides teasing a new robotaxi concept, Musk has also hyped the company's Optimus robots as being "more valuable than everything else combined."

"If you value Tesla as just like an auto company, fundamentally, it's just the wrong framework, and if you ask the wrong question, then the right answer is impossible," Musk said in an earnings call in April.

Then, in late May, Musk revealed that his AI startup xAI raised $6 billion for its Series B funding round, giving it a total valuation of $24 billion. This makes Musk's xAI the second-most valuable AI company behind OpenAI, which is valued at around $80 billion.

With his chess pieces in place, Musk seems ready to take on OpenAI.

Now the ball's in Altman's court. Your move, Sam.