Fez — Tesla is asking shareholders to approve a new compensation plan for CEO Elon Musk that could be worth up to $1 trillion over a decade.
The package is entirely performance-based: Musk would receive about 423 million Tesla shares only if the company hits demanding financial and operational targets.
At today’s prices, those shares are worth roughly $143 billion, but the board says the real value depends on whether Tesla achieves its goals.
Big targets, big risks
The proposed award is tied to both how Tesla runs its business and how much the company is worth. For Musk to earn the full amount, Tesla’s market value would need to rise to about $8.5 trillion within ten years—around eight times its current value.
The plan also links payouts to milestones such as very high vehicle deliveries and major progress in robotaxis, full-self-driving software, and the company’s Optimus humanoid robots. Reports say the plan is split into 12 steps that vest only if matching valuation and operating targets are reached and then held for a period of time.
Tesla’s board argues that the company lacks a long-term CEO award today and needs a new plan to keep Musk focused on Tesla through what it calls a pivotal shift toward autonomy and robotics.
The plan also aims to address concerns that Musk could spend more time on his other ventures if not strongly tied to Tesla’s long-term success. Shareholders are expected to vote on the proposal at a meeting scheduled for November 6, 2025.
This push comes after years of debate over Musk’s pay. In 2018, Tesla granted him a package that became one of the biggest in corporate history, but a Delaware court later ruled against it on governance grounds.
More recently, on August 3 this year, Tesla approved an interim award of 96 million restricted shares—valued by news outlets at about $29 billion—that vests in two years if Musk stays in a top executive role.
Company filings say that the grant is not a replacement for the 2018 package and comes with specific conditions on service and timing.
The stakes are high for investors. Tesla’s car sales slipped 1% in 2024, the first annual decline in 12 years, and the stock has been volatile in 2025.
