Elon Musk is officially on track to become a trillionaire as Tesla shareholders approve an unprecedented $1 trillion pay package

Tesla Shareholders approved a new executive pay package Thursday afternoon that would give Musk nearly $1 trillion in stock over the next decade, a record infusion for the world’s richest man.

The total reward depends on Musk being able to meet ambitious performance targets struggling electric car companyincluding pushing Tesla’s market cap to $8.5 trillion — more than a 500% increase from today’s valuation. The goals also include delivering 20 million Tesla vehicles and 1 million bots, in addition to the 1 million robot taxis in commercial use.

« While we believe Elon is the only person capable of leading Tesla at this critical juncture, changing the world is neither an overnight process nor the work of one person, » Tesla’s board wrote. letter to shareholders in August. « So we also want your help in securing a team and a strategy to achieve goals that others think are impossible but that we know are possible for Tesla. »

Musk’s net worth is evaluated about $473 billion.

Reining Musk back in

If all goes according to plan, Musk’s stake in Tesla will rise from about 13 percent to nearly 29 percent — the level of control he has long sought.

Having voting power in his « mid-20s » would help secure « strong influence » but give shareholders enough control to fire him if he goes « crazy, » Musk said at Tesla’s time. results call last month.

« It’s called compensation, but that doesn’t mean I’m going to spend the money, » Musk added. « It’s just, if we build this robot army, do I at least have a strong influence on that robot army, not the current control, but a strong influence? That’s what it comes down to in a nutshell. I don’t feel comfortable using that robot army if I don’t have at least a strong influence. »

Tesla’s stock fell as much as 43% between January and March as Musk spent much of his time running the Department of Government Efficiency (DOGE). Since the pullback, shares are up 16%.

Many shareholders hope the new incentives will keep Musk focused on Tesla.

Ron Baron, founder and CEO of Baron Capital, which owns a 0.39 percent stake in Tesla, said post X that he supported the plan because without Musk, Tesla would not exist.

« Elon is the ultimate ‘key man’ of key man risk, » Baron wrote. « Without his relentless drive and uncompromising standards, there would be no Tesla. »

Musk’s pay package had haters from Pope Leo to the Norwegian Treasury.

Not all Tesla investors were on board with the lavish deal.

Glass Lewis and ISS, two proxy advisory services, urged Tesla shareholders to vote against the proposal, with the latter group citing « pure concerns » about its scope and design. Musk then fired back during Tesla’s October earnings call, calling them « corporate terrorists. »

Meanwhile, Norges Bank Investment Management, the group behind Norway’s $2 trillion sovereign wealth fund, which owns a 1.14 percent stake in Tesla, said it would vote against the pay package.

« While we appreciate the significant value created by Mr. Musk’s visionary role, we are concerned about the total amount of the award, the dilution and the lack of mitigation of key personnel risk — which is consistent with our view of executive compensation, » the group said in a statement this week.

Pope Leo XIVwhile not a Tesla investor, also recently expressed concern about the message Musk is sending about becoming a trillionaire — and the growing gap between rich and poor.

« CEOs who 60 years ago could earn four to six times more than workers, the latest figure I saw is 600 times more than average workers, » the Pope told a Catholic news site. Nuclear in an interview published in September.

« Yesterday’s news that Elon Musk will become the world’s first trillionaire: What does it mean and what is it about? If that’s the only thing that has value left, we’re in big trouble. »

Recent report on Oxfam found that the 10 richest Americans, which include Musk Oracle founder Larry Ellison, Amazon founder Jeff Bezos and Meta CEO Mark Zuckerberg received $69.8 billion in the past year. That’s 833,631 times more than the typical American household takes home.

Although Musk is still tracking down John D. Rockefeller $630 billion in inflation-adjusted assetsAchieving new performance goals could make him the richest person in modern history.