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Investors in the electric car maker assembled this Thursday to vote on a substantial pay deal for the company's leader worth approximately close to $1 trillion. If approved, this plan would signal market faith that the billionaire can steer the car company into an era shaped by artificial intelligence and robotics. If denied, Tesla could confront the exit of a visionary leader who once made the corporation interchangeable with zero-emission cars.

Record-Breaking Targets and Company Valuation

If the CEO meets the ambitious milestones detailed in the compensation plan introduced at Tesla's annual meeting, he could be crowned the world's first person with a trillion-dollar net worth. To accomplish this, he must guide Tesla to a astronomical $8.5 trillion in market capitalization, which is an eightfold increase its present worth. Additionally, he will be required to launch numerous self-driving cars and advanced androids, while upholding the financial performance in the hundreds of billions in the upcoming decade.

Compensation Structure

The key aims of the compensation plan, split into 12 tranches, delineate a trajectory for Tesla to achieve its colossal market capitalization. Upon achievement, Musk would be in a position to cash in an further 12% of the firm's equity. For this to occur, he must remain vested with the corporation for a minimum of 7.5 years. Furthermore, he is required to contribute to forming a corporate transition roadmap for the enterprise he has headed for more than 20 years. The stock options provided by the latest pay package, alongside shares promised in his previous compensation plan, would result in Musk with 25% ownership of Tesla's stock. By the start of November, Tesla shares were valued approaching its annual peak, at around $450 per stock.

Ambitious Targets

Over the course of a decade, Musk will be tasked to deliver 20 million electric vehicles to consumers, distribute 10 million live FSD memberships, create and distribute 1 million humanoid robots, and introduce 1 million robotaxis in commercial service.

Musk will furthermore be tasked to bring the company to $400 billion in real profits for a full year. Tesla's real profits for the third quarter of 2025 were $4.2 billion, a 9% decrease from the previous year.

As of November, Musk's fortune was valued at $460 billion, the top in the world, based on financial data.

Reviving a Revoked Plan

Investors are furthermore evaluating a plan that would reward Musk after his 2018 compensation plan was overturned by a judicial body in Delaware. The pay plan, valued at around $56 billion, was challenged by a individual investor who won his case. The state court rejected Musk's compensation plan on multiple instances. If shareholders approve the arrangement in the shareholder meeting, Musk is set to be paid the substantial payout whether or not Tesla and Musk win an appeal of the case.

After Musk's 2018 pay package was originally overturned, he transferred Tesla's business registration out of Delaware and into Texas. He repeated the action with SpaceX and other business entities. In last year, per Texas statutes, shareholders once again voted to approve the remuneration deal.

But Delaware's often referred to as "judicial body" for a second time rejected one of the largest CEO payouts in recent times. Following that negative decision, Musk took to social media to show frustration with the jurisdiction and its "prominent judicial figure", perhaps igniting a wave of business departures that Delaware legislators have tried to stop with regulatory measures.

In evaluating whether Musk had excessive control in being awarded that earlier remuneration deal, a respected legal scholar remarked that the court noted that other "celebrity leaders" like Meta's Mark Zuckerberg and the Amazon founder were not granted this sort of goal-oriented agreements.