Musk Cements Control Over Tesla With 19.9% Stake as Cybertruck Arrives and Argentina Energy Deal Beckons

Elon Musk has tightened his stranglehold on the electric-vehicle maker, converting options from a 2018 compensation package into roughly 286 million net shares. The move lifts his total holdings to nearly 728 million shares and gives him voting power of 19.9%. Under the terms of the grant, Musk cannot sell the new stock until 2028, locking in his influence for years to come.

The share conversion arrives just as Tesla begins mass deliveries of the Cybertruck. The base model starts at around $61,000, while the higher-performance variant costs approximately $100,000. Musk has acknowledged that the pickup program will take more than a year to reach profitability. Still, the angular vehicle has already secured a key safety endorsement — a top award from the Insurance Institute for Highway Safety, outperforming traditional Detroit rivals such as GM, Ford and Stellantis on rear-seat protection criteria.

On the same day the Cybertruck rollout began, Tesla’s stock slipped 1.5% to €339 in European trading. That left the shares hovering just below their medium-term moving averages. The equity has fallen roughly 9% since the start of the year, and the recent price of €344 — also cited in market commentary — sat exactly on its 50- and 100-day moving averages. With the relative strength index reading 46, the stock is in neutral territory, waiting for a catalyst.

Should investors sell immediately? Or is it worth buying Tesla?

One potential catalyst emerged from an unexpected corner: Argentina. Tesla and the state-owned energy giant YPF signed a memorandum of understanding to explore joint energy projects. No concrete initiatives or investment figures have been disclosed, but the deal signals Tesla’s ambition to expand its footprint in South America. Speculation centers on possible collaboration in battery storage or charging infrastructure, though the market has so far shrugged off the news.

Behind the scenes, Tesla is betting heavily on autonomy. The company recently applied for regulatory approval of its supervised Full Self-Driving system in Taiwan, where first-quarter sales surged 141% year-on-year. New software updates also allow the neural net to learn a driver’s preferred parking spots at home or the office, reducing manual input. Camera self-cleaning is now activated automatically in the latest version.

These initiatives come at a cost. Tesla has earmarked $20 billion in capital spending for 2026, doubling down on robotaxis and the Optimus humanoid robot program. To fund that shift, production of the Model S and Model X sedans has been halted. The market remains cautious about the radical restructuring: the stock is trading about 19% below its December high of €424, and if support at €339 fails to hold, the next floor lies at €251.