As I understand it, the $1B purchase agreement clause isn't a "breakup fee" per se - it's not something he could just choose to pay to be able to walk away from

As I understand it, the $1B purchase agreement clause isn't a "breakup fee" per se - it's not something he could just choose to pay to be able to walk away from the deal. It pertains to some legalese "specific performance" conditions under which the deal wouldn't be able to go thru. Note that Musk's immediate loss, if the deal goes thru at $44B, is going to be way over $1B (more like $10B perhaps) compared to what the market had been valuing the company at, so I'm pretty sure he'd have jumped at the chance to back out for "only" $1B if that was an option!