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Investors in the electric car maker gathered on Thursday to decide on a enormous compensation package for the company's leader worth approximately nearly $1 trillion. Upon approval, this package would showcase shareholder trust that the tech magnate can steer the vehicle manufacturer into an age dominated by machine learning and automation. Should it fail, Tesla could confront the loss of a key figure who once made the company name synonymous with zero-emission cars.

Record-Breaking Goals and Company Valuation

If the CEO meets the formidable targets specified in the remuneration deal introduced at Tesla's corporate assembly, he could become the first-ever trillionaire. To reach this goal, he must steer Tesla to a astronomical $8.5 trillion in market value, which is eight times its existing market cap. Additionally, he will be obligated to deploy millions self-driving cars and bipedal machines, while upholding the corporate profits in the hundreds of billions of dollars over the next decade.

Compensation Structure

The main goals of the compensation plan, organized into twelve stages, delineate a roadmap for Tesla to attain its massive market capitalization. Should targets be met, Musk would be able to cash in an extra 12% of the company's stock. To be eligible, he must stay committed with the corporation for a minimum of 7.5 years. He will also contribute to forming a future leadership strategy for the business he has led for over 20 years. The stock options provided by the updated remuneration deal, in addition to shares promised in his earlier deal, would grant Musk with a quarter stake of Tesla's shares. By the start of November, Tesla stock was trading near its 52-week high, at approximately $450 each share.

Lofty Goals

Throughout a ten years, Musk will be obligated to produce 20 million electric vehicles to customers, sell 10 million active full self-driving subscriptions, develop and sell 1 million bipedal machines, and launch 1 million self-driving cabs in revenue-generating use.

Musk will additionally be obligated to bring the corporation to $400 billion in real profits for a full year. Tesla's actual earnings for the July-September 2025 were $4.2 billion, down 9% from the same period last year.

In November, Musk's net worth was estimated at $460 billion, the top in the planet, according to wealth indexes.

Reinstating a Revoked Plan

Stockholders are also considering a proposal that would remunerate Musk after his 2018 compensation plan was overturned by a judicial body in Delaware. The pay plan, estimated to be $56 billion, was contested by a single stockholder who prevailed in court. The Delaware court of chancery denied Musk's compensation plan on two occasions. If shareholders approve the plan in the shareholder meeting, Musk is expected to be awarded the substantial payout irrespective of whether Tesla and Musk win an appeal of the lawsuit.

Subsequent to Musk's earlier remuneration deal was initially invalidated, he transferred Tesla's business registration out of Delaware and into Texas. He repeated the action with SpaceX and other companies' headquarters. In the previous year, under Texas law, shareholders again approved the remuneration deal.

But Delaware's so-called "judicial body" for a second time ruled against one of the most substantial CEO pay deals in contemporary business. In the wake of that adverse judgment, Musk took to social media to express dissatisfaction with the state and its "influential presiding justice", possibly fueling a series of corporate exits that Delaware lawmakers have sought to curb with regulatory measures.

In evaluating whether Musk had undue influence in being given that previous compensation plan, a respected law professor remarked that the judicial authority noted that other "superstar CEOs" like Facebook's founder and the e-commerce pioneer were not awarded this sort of performance-linked deals.