Anish Vij
Elon Musk has a reported $1 trillion pay package on the table if he gets his way.
The Tesla boss, 54, joined the business a year after it was founded in 2003 by engineers Martin Eberhard and Marc Tarpenning.
He led the car company's first investment round and quickly became a chairman of the board.
In 2009, however, a legal settlement granted Musk and two others as having official co-founder status.
Advert
At the time of writing, the public limited company is worth approximately $1.09 trillion.
Despite his political views and controversial moments, Musk's influence on Tesla is clearly valued by the fellow shareholders.
The former DOGE boss had a $56 billion compensation package approved in 2018, only for a Delaware court to deny it in 2024 on grounds that the Tesla board’s approval process lacked independence and failed to fully inform shareholders.
Tesla are set to appeal the decision to the Delaware Supreme Court, and perhaps to retain Musk, they unveiled a staggering new pay package, as reported by Bloomberg News.
Advert
The SpaceX boss, already one of the richest men in the world, could receive $1 trillion if he clears various targets, including managing to sell 20 million vehicles, put out one million robotaxis, delivering one million humanoid robots and boosting adjusted EBITDA to $400 billion, reports the New York Post.
This means that the projected market cap of the car company would rise to at least $8.5 trillion.
If he hits each mark, his stake in Tesla would reportedly rise to at least 25 percent, which gives him roughly 29 percent voting control.
“Simply put, retaining and incentivising Elon is fundamental to Tesla achieving these goals and becoming the most valuable company in history,” board chair Robyn Denholm and director Kathleen Wilson-Thompson wrote in a letter to shareholders.
Advert
It's said that Musk pushed the board for a new deal, threatening to prioritise AI and robotics ventures outside Tesla.
It comes after he set up artificial intelligence startup xAI, which has found its way onto X.
“It shows that the life blood of Tesla solely relies on one man, and the company knows that,” David Wagner, head of equity and portfolio manager at Aptus Capital Advisors, added.
“They want to make sure that he stays around for quite some time.”
Gene Munster, managing partner of Deepwater Asset Management, said: “Tesla’s board recognises that there’s a huge opportunity over the next decade, and they want to start lining things up to get them in a place for a potentially huge outcome.”
Advert
LADbible Group has contacted Elon Musk and Tesla for comment.