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Tesla shareholders assembled this Thursday to decide on a enormous remuneration plan for CEO Elon Musk worth approximately nearly $1 trillion. Should it pass, this plan would demonstrate shareholder trust that the billionaire can guide the car company into an era dominated by AI technology and automation. If rejected, Tesla could confront the loss of a visionary leader who once made the brand synonymous with electric vehicles.

Record-Breaking Milestones and Company Valuation

Upon reaching the lofty milestones specified in the compensation plan revealed at Tesla's corporate assembly, he could be crowned the world's first person with a trillion-dollar net worth. For this to happen, he must steer Tesla to a monumental $8.5 trillion in market value, which is eight times its current valuation. Moreover, he will be tasked to deploy countless self-driving cars and bipedal machines, while maintaining the company's bottom line in the hundreds of billions of dollars throughout the coming ten years.

Payment Breakdown

The key aims of the compensation plan, split into twelve stages, delineate a path for Tesla to achieve its enormous valuation. If successful, Musk would be eligible to cash in an additional 12% of the firm's equity. To be eligible, he must remain vested with the corporation for no less than 7.5 years. Furthermore, he is required to contribute to forming a corporate transition roadmap for the enterprise he has headed for over 20 years. The share grants provided by the latest pay package, alongside shares guaranteed in his previous compensation plan, would leave Musk with 25% ownership of Tesla's stock. By the start of November, Tesla shares were valued approaching its yearly maximum, at approximately $450 per stock.

Formidable Objectives

Throughout a ten years, Musk will be obligated to produce 20 million zero-emission cars to customers, distribute 10 million operational autonomous driving plans, produce and launch 1 million bipedal machines, and launch 1 million self-driving cabs in paid operations.

Musk will furthermore be tasked to increase the company to $400 billion in actual earnings for four straight quarters. Tesla's actual earnings for the Q3 2025 were $4.2 billion, a 9% decrease from the same period last year.

In November, Musk's fortune was valued at $460 billion, the highest in the globe, as reported by wealth indexes.

Reinstating a Revoked Plan

Shareholders are furthermore evaluating a plan that would reward Musk after his previous pay package was invalidated by a judicial body in Delaware. The remuneration deal, valued at around $56 billion, was contested by a single stockholder who succeeded legally. The Delaware court of chancery rejected Musk's pay package twice. Should investors pass the plan in the shareholder meeting, Musk is set to be awarded the massive amount regardless of if Tesla and Musk win an appeal of the case.

Following Musk's previous compensation plan was initially invalidated, he moved Tesla's corporate home out of Delaware and into Texas. He followed suit with his aerospace company and other companies' headquarters. In last year, under Texas law, shareholders once again approved the pay package.

But Delaware's known as "court of equity" again denied one of the most substantial CEO compensation packages in modern history. In the wake of that negative decision, Musk used online platforms to show frustration with the region and its "influential presiding justice", perhaps igniting a wave of business departures that Delaware lawmakers have sought to curb with legislation.

In reviewing whether Musk had improper sway in being awarded that earlier remuneration deal, a respected law professor remarked that the judge acknowledged that other "high-profile executives" like Meta's Mark Zuckerberg and the Amazon founder were not granted this sort of incentive-based contracts.