Elon Musk set to become the world's first trillionaire under huge pay package
Tesla shareholders have approved Elon Musk's massive pay package worth USD$1 trillion in a bid to retain the CEO at the company.
The approval of the pay package was announced during Tesla's 2025 Annual Shareholder Meeting on Thursday.
"Finally, on the 2025 CEO performance award to our founder and CEO, Elon Musk, with over 75% voting in favour. Approved," said Brandon Ehrhart, general counsel and corporate secretary at Tesla, during the meeting.
Musk, who appeared at the meeting, expressed gratitude to the shareholders' votes.
"I'd like to just give a heartfelt thanks to everyone who supported the shareholder votes. I super appreciate it," he said.
The newly approved pay package could make Musk the world's first trillionaire. The package, structured as a stock grant, would award Musk a significant number of additional Tesla shares if he meets a series of ambitious financial and operational targets over the next decade.
Musk's massive pay package
A special committee of the Tesla board introduced the massive pay package in September, saying it challenges Musk to meet a series of goals that he has to meet before he can receive the award.
"In 2018, Elon had to grow Tesla by billions; in 2025, he has to grow Tesla by trillions — to be exact, he must create nearly USD$7.5 trillion in value for shareholders for him to receive the full award," the committee said in an SEC filing in September.
According to the committee, the 2025 CEO Performance Award was designed with the primary objective of incentivising and retaining Musk to lead Tesla.
"The Special Committee believes that retaining and incentivising Mr Musk as chief executive officer at this pivotal moment is essential to Tesla's successful transition from its role as a leader in the EV and renewable energy industries to growing into a leader in AI, robotics and related services," it said in the filing.
Tesla's board has been taking numerous steps to retain Musk over the past years, after the CEO previously stated that he felt "uncomfortable growing Tesla to be a leader in AI and robotics without having ~25% voting control."
In August, Tesla offered Musk an interim USD$29 billion "good faith" payment to keep him on board following the legal dispute over his 2018 compensation package.
