Tesla shareholders approved a pay package on Thursday that could make CEO Elon Musk, already the world's richest person, the world's first trillionaire.
Tesla announced that more than 75% of shares voted in favor of the pay package during the company's annual shareholder meeting. The vote didn't include the 15% of the company that Musk already owns.
Tesla shareholders approved a pay package on Thursday that could make CEO Elon Musk, already the world's richest person, the world's first trillionaire.
Tesla announced that more than 75% of shares voted in favor of the pay package during the company's annual shareholder meeting. The vote didn't include the 15% of the company that Musk already owns.
The crowd at the meeting broke into cheers and chants when the results were announced. Musk thanked the shareholders and the Tesla board soon after. "I super appreciate it," he said.
Musk doesn't take any salary, but the approved pay package comes in the form of a stock grant that would give him as much as 423.7 million additional Tesla shares over the next 10 years.
Those shares could be worth about $1 trillion, assuming the company reaches the $8.5 trillion market cap needed to have Musk qualify for the full potential payout. In addition, Tesla needs to achieve a series of either operational or financial targets for him to get the full number of shares, which would be distributed in 12 equal blocks.
Getting all the shares available under this package over the next 10 years would be the equivalent of earning $275 million a day, dwarfing any other executive pay package in history.
For Tesla to reach the $8.5 trillion in market value needed, shares need to jump 466% from today's stock price. That's also about 70% higher than the world's most valuable company, Nvidia, which hit a record $5 trillion market cap last week.
Musk is already worth an estimated $473 billion according to Bloomberg's billionaire tracker, most due to his holdings in Tesla, as well as the other companies he controls, including SpaceX and xAI.
A vote to reject the pay package Thursday could have meant his exit from Tesla's CEO office. Tesla's board said in a filing that Musk had raised the possibility of leaving the company if he didn't get the assurances of control that the pay package could grant him.
However, the company has had a rocky year. Sales and profits plunged in the first half and Tesla faces potential billions in lost revenue due to reduced US government support for electric vehicles.
Tesla announced that more than 75% of shares voted in favor of the pay package during the company's annual shareholder meeting. The vote didn't include the 15% of the company that Musk already owns.
The crowd at the meeting broke into cheers and chants when the results were announced. Musk thanked the shareholders and the Tesla board soon after. "I super appreciate it," he said.
Musk doesn't take any salary, but the approved pay package comes in the form of a stock grant that would give him as much as 423.7 million additional Tesla shares over the next 10 years.
Those shares could be worth about $1 trillion, assuming the company reaches the $8.5 trillion market cap needed to have Musk qualify for the full potential payout. In addition, Tesla needs to achieve a series of either operational or financial targets for him to get the full number of shares, which would be distributed in 12 equal blocks.
Getting all the shares available under this package over the next 10 years would be the equivalent of earning $275 million a day, dwarfing any other executive pay package in history.
Lofty targets for stock growth
For Tesla to reach the $8.5 trillion in market value needed, shares need to jump 466% from today's stock price. That's also about 70% higher than the world's most valuable company, Nvidia, which hit a record $5 trillion market cap last week.
Musk is already worth an estimated $473 billion according to Bloomberg's billionaire tracker, most due to his holdings in Tesla, as well as the other companies he controls, including SpaceX and xAI.
A vote to reject the pay package Thursday could have meant his exit from Tesla's CEO office. Tesla's board said in a filing that Musk had raised the possibility of leaving the company if he didn't get the assurances of control that the pay package could grant him.
However, the company has had a rocky year. Sales and profits plunged in the first half and Tesla faces potential billions in lost revenue due to reduced US government support for electric vehicles.
