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Investors in the electric car maker assembled on Thursday to determine on a substantial pay deal for CEO Elon Musk estimated at nearly $1 trillion. Upon approval, this deal would signal shareholder trust that the tech magnate can steer the car company into an age dominated by artificial intelligence and automation. Should it fail, Tesla could confront the exit of a pioneering CEO who previously established the company name interchangeable with electric vehicles.

Historic Goals and Company Valuation

If the CEO meets the lofty objectives specified in the remuneration deal revealed at Tesla's annual meeting, he could become the pioneering trillionaire. To accomplish this, he must lead Tesla to a staggering $8.5 trillion in market value, which is eight times its present worth. Furthermore, he will be tasked to roll out countless self-driving cars and advanced androids, while maintaining the company's bottom line in the hundreds of billions in the upcoming decade.

Payment Breakdown

The key aims of the compensation plan, organized into a dozen phases, outline a path for Tesla to attain its massive market capitalization. Upon achievement, Musk would be in a position to benefit from an further 12% of the firm's equity. To qualify, he must stay committed with the corporation for at least 7.5 years. He will also help develop a corporate transition roadmap for the enterprise he has led for more than 20 years. The stock options awarded by the updated remuneration deal, alongside shares guaranteed in his earlier deal, would leave Musk with 25% ownership of Tesla's shares. By the start of November, Tesla stock was trading approaching its 52-week high, at around $450 each share.

Formidable Objectives

During a ten years, Musk will be required to manufacture 20 million electric vehicles to customers, market 10 million live FSD memberships, develop and sell 1 million humanoid robots, and launch 1 million self-driving cabs in revenue-generating use.

Musk will also be tasked to increase the corporation to $400 billion in tangible revenue for a full year. Tesla's tangible revenue for the Q3 2025 were $4.2 billion, down 9% from the same period last year.

By November, Musk's fortune was valued at $460 billion, the highest in the globe, based on market tracking.

Restoring a Rescinded Package

Investors are furthermore evaluating a plan that would remunerate Musk after his 2018 compensation plan was invalidated by a judicial body in Delaware. The compensation package, valued at around $56 billion, was challenged by a sole shareholder who prevailed in court. The Delaware judicial system rejected Musk's pay package twice. Should investors pass the plan in the Thursday ballot, Musk is set to be paid the substantial payout irrespective of whether Tesla and Musk win an appeal of the case.

After Musk's earlier remuneration deal was initially invalidated, he moved Tesla's business registration to Texas from Delaware. He did the same with the rocket firm and other business entities. In 2024, per Texas statutes, shareholders again approved the remuneration deal.

But Delaware's known as "judicial body" again denied one of the biggest CEO payouts in modern history. Following that unfavorable ruling, Musk took to social media to express dissatisfaction with the state and its "prominent judicial figure", perhaps igniting a wave of business departures that Delaware lawmakers have attempted to staunch with legislation.

In reviewing whether Musk had improper sway in being granted that 2018 pay package, a respected legal scholar commented that the judge acknowledged that other "celebrity leaders" like Meta's Mark Zuckerberg and the e-commerce pioneer were not given this sort of performance-linked deals.