Tesla Shareholders Approve $1 Trillion Pay Package For Elon Musk

Tesla shareholders have handed Elon Musk another landmark victory, approving a $1 trillion pay package so massive it could make him the world’s first trillionaire. The decision came during the company’s annual shareholder meeting on Thursday, where more than 75 percent of votes cast supported the plan. The count excluded the roughly 15 percent of Tesla stock that Musk already owns. As the results were announced, the room erupted in applause and chants of Musk’s name. The billionaire CEO, visibly moved, thanked both the board and shareholders. “I super appreciate it,” he said, smiling.

Unlike most chief executives, Musk doesn’t take a salary. Instead, his new compensation plan comes entirely in the form of stock options that could eventually grant him up to 423.7 million additional Tesla shares over the next decade. Those shares could be worth as much as $1 trillion if Tesla achieves an unprecedented $8.5 trillion market capitalization. The stock awards are tied to twelve performance milestones—each triggered by a combination of financial and operational targets. Only if Tesla meets all of these ambitious benchmarks would Musk receive the full package, which analysts say would amount to earnings of roughly $275 million per day—by far the largest executive compensation deal in corporate history.

The targets set for Tesla’s growth are nothing short of astronomical. To reach an $8.5 trillion valuation, the company’s stock would need to soar about 466 percent from its current price. That would make Tesla worth nearly 70 percent more than Nvidia, which recently became the world’s most valuable company at $5 trillion. Musk’s current net worth already exceeds $470 billion, according to Bloomberg’s billionaire index, thanks largely to his holdings in Tesla, SpaceX, and his new artificial intelligence venture, xAI.

The vote in favor of the pay plan also helped settle growing uncertainty about Musk’s future at Tesla. Before the meeting, the company’s board had warned that rejecting the proposal might prompt Musk to step down as CEO. In regulatory filings, Tesla acknowledged that Musk had floated the possibility of leaving if shareholders did not reaffirm his control through the new stock package. For now, the resounding approval appears to have solidified his position at the top of the company he has led for over a decade.

Tesla faces falling sales

Still, Tesla faces a challenging year. Sales and profits have fallen sharply in the first half of 2025, weighed down by increased competition in the electric vehicle (EV) market and the loss of U.S. government subsidies for EV purchases. Analysts warn that these headwinds could cost the company billions in lost revenue. Yet Musk remains characteristically defiant, arguing that Tesla’s future lies not in car sales but in artificial intelligence, robotics, and self-driving technologies.

During his address to shareholders, Musk spent more time discussing Tesla’s next frontier—robots—than the company’s core car business. He outlined plans for “robotaxis,” fully autonomous vehicles that could transform transportation, and humanoid robots designed to perform complex human tasks. Musk claimed these innovations would eclipse Tesla’s EV segment, describing them as world-changing technologies. “I think it’s going to be the biggest product of all time by far,” he told the cheering audience. “Bigger than cell phones, bigger than anything. Every human on Earth will want their own personal R2D2 or C3PO.”

He went even further, predicting that Tesla’s robots could one day replace surgeons, end global poverty, and reshape the entire global economy. According to Musk, the robots could be manufactured for around $20,000 each and sold at about the price of a car, making them accessible to millions of consumers worldwide.

Tesla Robotic Project

For now, however, Tesla’s robotic dreams remain largely conceptual. None of these products have yet reached the market, and the company continues to face scrutiny over the performance of its “Full Self-Driving” (FSD) software, which still requires human supervision despite its name. Musk’s ambitious targets may therefore take years—or even decades—to materialize. Even with the newly approved pay plan, there is no guarantee that he will ever receive the full number of shares promised.

Musk has repeatedly insisted that his pursuit of additional Tesla shares is about control, not wealth. On a recent investor call, he addressed criticism of his compensation, saying, “It’s not like I’m going to go spend the money. There needs to be enough voting control to give me strong influence—but not so much that I can’t be fired if I go insane.”

Whether Tesla’s sky-high goals are achievable remains to be seen. But for now, Elon Musk has secured not only another decade of leadership at Tesla but also the possibility of achieving something no one in history has done before: becoming the world’s first trillionaire—if his vision of a robotic, self-driving future truly takes off.