Elon Musk's Trillion-Dollar Pay Package

Extracted Attributes

• Value

  $1 trillion

• Nature

  Performance-linked compensation

• Duration

  10 years

• Recipient

  Elon Musk

• Supporter

  Cathie Wood, CEO of Ark Invest

• Controversy

  Criticized for bad corporate governance and concentrating too much power

• Proposing Company

  Tesla

• Operational Targets (FSD)

  10 million paid Full Self-Driving subscriptions

• Operational Targets (Vehicles)

  20 million vehicle deliveries

• Primary Condition (Market Cap)

  Tesla's market cap to $8.5 trillion by 2035

• Operational Targets (Robotaxis)

  1 million robotaxis

• Historical Context (Previous Package)

  $56 billion in stock, approved in 2018

• Operational Targets (Humanoid Robots)

  1 million humanoid robots

Timeline

• Tesla shareholders approved a compensation package for Elon Musk worth around $56 billion in stock, contingent on increasing Tesla's market cap from $50 billion to $650 billion. (Source: web_search_results)

  2018

• Tesla launched its robotaxi business in Austin, Texas, which is one of the operational targets for the new pay package. (Source: web_search_results)

  2025-06

• Tesla unveiled a proposed $1 trillion pay package for CEO Elon Musk. (Source: web_search_results)

  2025-09-06

• The battle over Elon Musk's $1 trillion pay package intensified as pension funds began to oppose it. (Source: web_search_results)

  2025-10-09

• A shareholder vote on the proposed $1 trillion pay package is scheduled. (Source: web_search_results)

  2025-11-06

• Elon Musk must meet specific operational targets and Tesla's market cap must reach $8.5 trillion to unlock the full $1 trillion pay package. (Source: web_search_results)

  2035

Elon Musk

Elon Reeve Musk ( EE-lon; born June 28, 1971) is a businessman and entrepreneur known for his leadership of Tesla, SpaceX, Twitter, and xAI. Musk has been the wealthiest person in the world since 2021; as of October 2025, Forbes estimates his net worth to be US$500 billion. Born into a wealthy family in Pretoria, South Africa, Musk emigrated in 1989 to Canada; he had obtained Canadian citizenship at birth through his Canadian-born mother. He received bachelor's degrees in 1997 from the University of Pennsylvania in Philadelphia, United States, before moving to California to pursue business ventures. In 1995, Musk co-founded the software company Zip2. Following its sale in 1999, he co-founded X.com, an online payment company that later merged to form PayPal, which was acquired by eBay in 2002. That year, Musk also became an American citizen. In 2002, Musk founded the space technology company SpaceX, becoming its CEO and chief engineer; the company has since led innovations in reusable rockets and commercial spaceflight. Musk joined the automaker Tesla as an early investor in 2004 and became its CEO and product architect in 2008; it has since become a leader in electric vehicles. In 2015, he co-founded OpenAI to advance artificial intelligence (AI) research, but later left; growing discontent with the organization's direction and their leadership in the AI boom in the 2020s led him to establish xAI. In 2022, he acquired the social network Twitter, implementing significant changes, and rebranding it as X in 2023. His other businesses include the neurotechnology company Neuralink, which he co-founded in 2016, and the tunneling company the Boring Company, which he founded in 2017. Musk was the largest donor in the 2024 U.S. presidential election, and is a supporter of global far-right figures, causes, and political parties. In early 2025, he served as senior advisor to United States president Donald Trump and as the de facto head of DOGE. After a public feud with Trump, Musk left the Trump administration and returned to his technology companies. Musk's political activities, views, and statements have made him a polarizing figure, especially following the COVID-19 pandemic. He has been criticized for making unscientific and misleading statements, including COVID-19 misinformation and promoting conspiracy theories, and affirming antisemitic, racist, and transphobic comments. His acquisition of Twitter was controversial due to a subsequent increase in hate speech and the spread of misinformation on the service. His role in the second Trump administration attracted public backlash, particularly in response to DOGE.

Web Search Results

• Tesla Proposes $1 Trillion Pay Package for CEO Elon Musk - YouTube

  Tesla has proposed a $1 trillion pay package for CEO Elon Musk, the largest in corporate history. The deal could make him the world's first trillionaire, but only if Tesla's value rises from its current level of just over $1 trillion to $8.5 trillion by 2035. Musk must also meet operational targets, including 20 million vehicle deliveries, 10 million paid Full Self-Driving subscriptions, 1 million robotaxis, and 1 million humanoid robots. The package requires him to stay in an executive role [...] If you're having Monday blues, let's make it worse for you. Imagine a number with 12 zeros. One with 12 zeros is 1 trillion. It's a pretty big sum by any standards. Can you imagine it on your paycheck? Apparently Elon Musk can and he has. That's the pay package he wants, $1 trillion. And Tesla's board seems eager to comply. They've unveiled the largest pay package in corporate history, one that could make Elon Musk the world's first trillionaire. But it's performance linked. For Musk to earn a [...] ties his wealth to performance, while critics warn it concentrates too much power in one man's hands. Still, the board insists Musk is the only person capable of transforming Tesla. The new plan will go to a shareholder vote on November 6th. If approved, it would cement Musk's leadership for the next decade. But the question remains, is this trillion dollar package a bold bet to secure Tesla's future or the costliest risk any company has ever taken on one man? Oh man, it didn't go through.

• Why Tesla gave Elon Musk a $1 trillion pay package - YouTube

  ### Description 3934 views Posted: 6 Sep 2025 Tesla (TSLA) CEO Elon Musk is getting an offer of a lifetime from the EV developer's board: a $1 trillion pay package if he can drive the market cap to $8.5 trillion over the next decade and meet other operational goals. The EV developer launched its robotaxi business in Austin, Texas, in June 2025. [...] Elon Musk, the trillion dollar man. Tesla unveiling an IPOP and pay package for its CEO with a series of ambitious benchmarks the company must meet to unlock the compensation and an increased stake in the EV giant. Join me now got Steven Jenaro Stifl nextgen transport analyst and go to Makunda Yale School of Management lecturer and author of picking presidents. Stephen, I'm going to start with you as a financial analyst on this panel. You of course Stephen you know this company backwards and [...] for him to stay ultra engaged uh in the company. You know, Stephen, I I take your point. I mean, you know, these uh the targets are they're wild. Although, you know, you think back, Stephen, to the 2018 pay package, and you remember how there was a lot of hot talk back then, too, and forget it. It's pie in the sky. It can't be done. But he did hit those targets, right? Yeah, he did. And and it's funny. I was just kind of taking a quick look. I mean, you hear this number, $400 billion dollars uh

• Battle over Elon Musk's trillionaire pay package builds as pension ...

  Tesla CEO Elon Musk is courting investor support for a $1 trillion pay package. Kevin Dietsch—Getty Images Tesla is weeks away from a monumental shareholder vote on CEO Elon Musk’s potential $1 trillion pay package at its annual investor meeting, and the EV maker is pulling out all the stops topush the measure through.

• Elon Musk's Trillion-Dollar Pay Package Is Just Bad ... - Yale Insights

  After threatening to walk away from Tesla earlier this year, Musk received a $30 billion pay package after a federal judge denied him a $50 billion package. It is shameful for Musk to now be holding shareholders hostage to suit his need for power. Renowned founders such as Bernie Marcus of Home Depot, Bill Gates of Microsoft, Michael Dell of Dell Technologies, Steve Schwarzman of Blackstone, Sam Walton of Walmart, and Larry Fink of BlackRock never fabricated shakedown strategies like this to [...] Elon Musk has once again captured media attention. This time, however, it isn’t a rogue X rant or embittered comments about President Trump’s abuse of executive authority. Instead, a proposed $1 trillion pay package crafted by Tesla’s board and Musk has grabbed headlines. The proposed scheme is ludicrous not only in terms of the highly aspirational 12 milestones that would unlock the benefits, but also in terms of good governance practice. ### Greed may be good but when is enough? [...] Skip to main content Faculty Viewpoints # Elon Musk’s Trillion-Dollar Pay Package Is Just Bad Corporate Governance Yale SOM leadership expert Jeffrey Sonnenfeld and co-author Stephen Henriques write that the gargantuan package proposed by Tesla—based on a series of implausible performance targets—suggests a board in thrall to its charismatic, erratic CEO. Jeffrey A. Sonnenfeld

• Musk's Trillion-Dollar Pay Case Rewrites Corporate Board Rules

  Tesla shareholders will vote in November on what would be the largest pay package in corporate history: A 10-year, $1 trillion compensation plan for CEO Elon Musk. The deal has reignited a corporate governance debate on shareholder democracy and executive pay. While various states have different standards for corporations, there is no doubt that Tesla’s corporate governance conduct has already influenced precedent, not only in case law but also as a matter of policy. [...] The shareholder vote on Musk’s executive compensation follows a series of ongoing legal battles stemming from the previous pay package. In 2018, 73% of Tesla shareholders approved a compensation package for Musk worth around $56 billion in stock. This deal was contingent on Musk increasing Tesla’s market cap from $50 billion to $650 billion over the span of 12 tranches.