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Investors in the electric car maker gathered on Thursday to decide on a enormous pay deal for CEO Elon Musk valued at around $1 trillion. If approved, this plan would demonstrate shareholder trust that the billionaire can guide the car company into an age defined by artificial intelligence and robotics. If rejected, Tesla could risk the exit of a pioneering CEO who previously established the company name synonymous with electric vehicles.

Record-Breaking Targets and Market Capitalization

Should Musk achieve the ambitious objectives detailed in the remuneration deal revealed at Tesla's shareholder gathering, he could be crowned the world's first trillionaire. For this to happen, he must steer Tesla to a astronomical $8.5 trillion in market value, which is 800% of its current valuation. Additionally, he will be required to roll out countless autonomous vehicles and advanced androids, while maintaining the financial performance in the hundreds of billions of dollars over the next decade.

Compensation Structure

The main goals of the compensation plan, split into a dozen phases, outline a trajectory for Tesla to reach its massive market capitalization. If successful, Musk would be eligible to realize gains on an extra 12% of the company's stock. For this to occur, he must maintain involvement with the corporation for at least 7.5 years. Furthermore, he is required to contribute to forming a future leadership strategy for the business he has led for more than 20 years. The share grants offered by the latest pay package, alongside shares promised in his previous compensation plan, would result in Musk with a quarter stake of Tesla's equity. By the start of November, Tesla equity was priced near its yearly maximum, at roughly $450 per share.

Lofty Goals

During a ten years, Musk will be required to manufacture 20 million electric vehicles to consumers, distribute 10 million operational autonomous driving plans, create and distribute 1 million advanced androids, and launch 1 million autonomous taxis in commercial service.

Musk will additionally be required to increase the company to $400 billion in real profits for four consecutive quarters. Tesla's tangible revenue for the third quarter of 2025 were $4.2 billion, 9 percent lower from the year before.

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

Reinstating a Invalidated Deal

Investors are furthermore evaluating a arrangement that would remunerate Musk after his 2018 compensation plan was invalidated by a judicial body in Delaware. The pay plan, estimated to be $56 billion, was disputed by a single stockholder who won his case. The state court denied Musk's compensation plan on multiple instances. Upon stockholder approval the arrangement in the Thursday ballot, Musk is expected to be paid the huge sum whether or not Tesla and Musk succeed in appealing of the case.

Subsequent to Musk's earlier remuneration deal was first rescinded, he moved Tesla's corporate home from Delaware to Texas. He followed suit with SpaceX and additional corporate bases. In 2024, under Texas law, shareholders once again approved the pay package.

But Delaware's known as "court of equity" again denied one of the largest CEO compensation packages in contemporary business. After that adverse judgment, Musk took to social media to show frustration with the state and its "prominent judicial figure", possibly fueling a series of corporate exits that Delaware legislators have sought to curb with regulatory measures.

In reviewing whether Musk had undue influence in being granted that 2018 pay package, a prominent academic expert observed that the judge recognized that other "superstar CEOs" like Meta's Mark Zuckerberg and Amazon's Jeff Bezos were not given this sort of performance-linked deals.