Elon Musk’s $1 trillion Tesla pay approved by stakeholders, but there’s a catch

Tesla shareholders have reportedly cleared a massive new compensation plan for CEO Elon Musk one that analysts say could make him the first trillionaire in history.

As per reports, at Tesla’s annual shareholder meeting, over three-fourths of the votes cast supported the new long-term incentive proposal, which is linked to a series of extreme performance benchmarks across the next 10 years. The package is said to be the largest corporate payout ever approved.

However, the deal reportedly breaks Musk’s compensation into 12 separate stock-based milestones. The first tranche will only unlock if Tesla hits a $2 trillion valuation and reaches annual production of 20 million vehicles. 

Further stages demand even more aggressive targets including a $3 trillion market cap and commercial deployment of one million Optimus humanoid robots. Should Musk achieve all the targets, his Tesla holdings alone could potentially be valued at approximately $2.4 trillion.

This package comes months after a Delaware court cancelled an earlier $56 billion compensation plan, calling it unreasonable and conflicted.

In response, Tesla’s board constructed a new structure that ties Musk’s future compensation entirely to hard performance goals. Addressing investors, Musk said the new plan reflects a reset: “This isn’t just the next chapter this is a whole new volume for Tesla.”