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Investors in the electric car maker gathered on Thursday to determine on a substantial compensation package for CEO Elon Musk valued at around $1 trillion. Upon approval, this deal would showcase market faith that the tech magnate can steer the car company into an age shaped by artificial intelligence and automation. If rejected, Tesla could confront the loss of a key figure who previously established the corporation synonymous with EVs.

Record-Breaking Goals and Company Valuation

If the CEO meets the lofty targets outlined in the pay package presented at Tesla's shareholder gathering, he could emerge as the first-ever trillionaire. To accomplish this, he must guide Tesla to a monumental $8.5 trillion in market value, which is eight times its existing market cap. Furthermore, he will be obligated to launch millions self-driving cars and bipedal machines, while upholding the company's bottom line in the massive revenue figures throughout the coming ten years.

Compensation Structure

The key aims of the compensation plan, organized into a dozen phases, outline a roadmap for Tesla to reach its enormous worth. Should targets be met, Musk would be eligible to realize gains on an additional 12% of the firm's equity. To be eligible, he must maintain involvement with the firm for a minimum of 7.5 years. He will also contribute to forming a future leadership strategy for the enterprise he has led for over 20 years. The share grants awarded by the new compensation plan, combined with shares assured in his 2018 package, would grant Musk with 25% ownership of Tesla's shares. By the start of November, Tesla shares were valued near its 52-week high, at approximately $450 each share.

Formidable Objectives

Over the course of a ten years, Musk will be tasked to manufacture 20 million EVs to customers, market 10 million active full self-driving subscriptions, develop and sell 1 million bipedal machines, and launch 1 million robotaxis in revenue-generating use.

Musk will additionally be required to bring the company to $400 billion in real profits for four consecutive quarters. Tesla's actual earnings for the third quarter of 2025 were $4.2 billion, down 9% from the same period last year.

In November, Musk's net worth was estimated at $460 billion, the top in the planet, based on wealth indexes.

Reinstating a Revoked Deal

Stockholders are also evaluating a arrangement that would compensate Musk after his previous pay package was overturned by a legal authority in Delaware. The pay plan, worth an estimated $56 billion, was contested by a individual investor who prevailed in court. The state court dismissed Musk's remuneration deal twice. Upon stockholder approval the proposal in Thursday's vote, Musk is set to be awarded the huge sum whether or not Tesla and Musk overturn the ruling of the lawsuit.

Subsequent to Musk's 2018 pay package was initially invalidated, he transferred Tesla's legal headquarters from Delaware to Texas. He did the same with his aerospace company and other companies' headquarters. In 2024, per Texas statutes, shareholders again voted to approve the compensation plan.

But Delaware's often referred to as "judicial body" again ruled against one of the most substantial CEO compensation packages in contemporary business. In the wake of that unfavorable ruling, Musk posted on his accounts to express dissatisfaction with the jurisdiction and its "activist chief judge", perhaps igniting a wave of business departures that Delaware legislators have sought to curb with new laws.

In reviewing whether Musk had improper sway in being awarded that earlier remuneration deal, a prominent legal scholar observed that the judicial authority noted that other "superstar CEOs" like the Meta chief and Amazon's Jeff Bezos were not awarded this type of performance-linked deals.