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The man’s name is Elon Musk
Tesla shareholders gave a resounding thumbs-up on Thursday to a compensation plan that could crown CEO Elon Musk—already the planet’s wealthiest individual—the first trillionaire in history. Tesla revealed that over 75% of voted shares backed the package at the annual shareholder gathering.
The tally excluded the 15% stake Musk personally holds. The room erupted in cheers and chants as the outcome flashed on screen. Musk quickly thanked shareholders and the board. “I super appreciate it,” he declared. Musk draws no traditional salary, but the ratified deal awards him up to 423.7 million extra Tesla shares across the coming decade.
Those shares could total roughly $1 trillion if the company hits an $8.5 trillion market cap to unlock the maximum payout. Tesla must also clear a dozen operational or financial milestones, releasing the shares in 12 equal tranches. Securing every share under this structure would equate to pocketing $275 million daily—eclipsing every known executive compensation record.
Ambitious benchmarks for stock surge To reach the required $8.5 trillion valuation, shares must climb 466% from current levels. That’s also about 70% above Nvidia’s recent $5 trillion peak, the highest market cap on record. Musk’s net worth already stands at an estimated $473 billion per Bloomberg’s billionaire index, largely from Tesla plus his grip on SpaceX and xAI. A “no” vote Thursday might have prompted Musk to walk from the CEO role.
Board filings noted he had floated departing without the voting control this package secures. The company has weathered a turbulent year, however. Sales and earnings tanked in the first half, and Tesla braces for billions in potential lost revenue as U.S. EV subsidies wane.
Eyes on robots and AI ahead Musk and Tesla brass brush off the setbacks, insisting the firm is pivoting from pure EV sales to autonomous vehicles—including robotaxi fleets—and humanoid robots. I
n his shareholder address, Musk dwelled more on robots (still presale) than on cars. Car mentions mostly circled the “full self-driving” (FSD) suite, which still demands attentive human oversight.
Yet Musk forecast robots eclipsing the auto division—or any industry. “I think it’s going to be the biggest product of all time by far,” he said. “Bigger than cell phones, bigger than anything. Think of it as every human wanting their own personal R2D2 or C3PO.”
He even envisioned the bots supplanting surgeons, erasing global poverty, and upending world economics. Priced at $20,000 to produce, they could retail near car levels, he claimed. Still, those visions remain in R&D with no launch date. Even with the package approved, Musk may never claim the full share windfall. He’ll need to steady the ship now and deliver on tomorrow’s bold pledges.
Musk maintains the extra shares are about influence, not fortune. “It’s not like I’m going to go spend the money,” he told investors last month. “There needs to be enough voting control to give (me) a strong influence—but not so much that I can’t be fired if I go insane.”
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