Unprecedented Pay: Elon Musk Wins $1 Trillion Tesla Package
The Live Info Media
Shareholders Approve Historic Payout
In a landmark decision, Tesla shareholders voted to approve an unprecedented compensation plan for CEO Elon Musk that could be worth a staggering $1 trillion over the next decade. The approval came at the company’s annual meeting in Austin, Texas, where more than 75 per cent of voters backed the proposal. This show of faith by investors comes despite the electric vehicle (EV) maker dealing with plunging sales and profits, signaling that they still believe Musk is essential to Tesla’s future.
Musk’s Path to Becoming the First Trillionaire
This massive potential payout is not a simple salary; it is an equity-based package delivered as stock that Musk will only receive if he achieves extremely ambitious performance targets. The goals are spread across 12 tranches of stock options and require Tesla to hit massive operational and financial milestones. This includes increasing the company’s market valuation from its current level to a dizzying high of up to $8.5 trillion over the next ten years.
The Scale of the Compensation
The sheer size of this new compensation package dwarfs nearly every other executive payout in history. At a potential value of $1 trillion, the package is roughly 18 times larger than Musk’s previously contested 2018 package, which was valued at $56 billion. To put this into perspective, his potential net worth with this payout could soon exceed the gross domestic product (GDP) of all but the seven largest countries in the world.
How Musk’s Pay Compares to Other Tech Titans
Elon Musk’s potential compensation is in an entirely different league compared to the annual pay of other top CEOs in the technology industry. According to recent reports, the highest-paid executives earn tens of millions of dollars, mainly through stock awards:
- Microsoft CEO Satya Nadella received just over $79 million in 2024.
- Apple CEO Tim Cook took home about $75 million in 2024.
- Nvidia CEO Jensen Huang received nearly $50 million that same year.
While these figures are substantial, they are awarded annually and are less than 0.01% of the potential value of Musk’s decade-long deal.
A Performance-Contingent Structure
The compensation is structured as a powerful incentive to keep Musk at the helm and focused on transforming Tesla into more than just a car company. Besides the market valuation targets, Musk must also achieve operational goals, such as delivering 20 million Tesla vehicles and deploying 1 million humanoid robots—a significant push into AI and robotics that he believes will make Tesla “the most valuable company in the world.”
Debate and Controversy Surrounding the Deal
The proposal generated heated debate and criticism from major institutional investors and corporate watchdogs, including Norway’s sovereign wealth fund, who argued that the package was excessively large and could dilute shareholder value. Critics also questioned whether anyone, regardless of their management record, deserved such unprecedented pay. Ultimately, the strong backing from retail investors and the belief that “Musk is Tesla and Tesla is Musk” carried the vote.
