In a historic move at Tesla's recent annual shareholders meeting in Austin, Texas, the company’s investors overwhelmingly approved an unprecedented pay deal for CEO Elon Musk, potentially worth close to $1 trillion over the next decade. Garnering support from about 75% of the voting shares, this compensation plan is the largest ever awarded to a corporate executive and aims to keep Musk motivated to drastically increase Tesla's market value and innovation capacity. The enthusiastic approval reflects strong investor confidence in Musk’s leadership despite some initial reservations voiced by proxy advisory firms.​

The compensation structure is centered entirely on performance-based stock options segmented into 12 tranches, each vesting upon Tesla hitting progressively ambitious market valuation milestones. To unlock the first tranche, Tesla must reach a $2 trillion market cap, with subsequent tranches requiring increments of $500 billion, and the final stages demanding market caps as high as $8.5 trillion—far above Tesla’s current valuation of about $1.54 trillion. Additionally, operational goals such as mass deployment of self-driving Robotaxi vehicles factor into the payout. If Musk meets all targets, he could acquire over 423 million Tesla shares, significantly increasing his ownership stake and voting power from approximately 13% to 25%.