Musk Secures Votes for $1 Trillion Tesla Package

Tesla shareholders approved CEO Elon Musk’s pay package. It could be worth nearly $1 trillion if the company meets a series of targets over the next decade.

The proposal passed with more than 75% support at Tesla’s annual meeting in Austin, Texas. Musk appeared on stage alongside dancing robots, telling investors: “What we are about to embark upon is not merely a new chapter of the future of Tesla, but a whole new book.” The package, marking the largest in corporate history, ties Musk’s payout to a series of performance and valuation milestones over the next ten years. Those include delivering 20 million vehicles, deploying 1 million robotaxis, and achieving a market capitalisation of $8.5 trillion, up from $1.4 trillion today.

If Musk meets all the targets, his stake in the company would rise by up to 12%, giving him control of roughly a quarter of Tesla’s shares. He will not draw a salary but could receive more than 400 million shares under the plan. While critics, including Norway’s sovereign wealth fund and proxy advisors Glass Lewis and ISS, opposed the move, Tesla’s board argued the package was essential to retaining Musk, who threatened to quit if the pay vote fell through.

Musk also promised an acceleration of new projects, including a focus on an autonomous humanoid robot called Optimus, beginning production of Tesla’s steering-free Cybercab, and a next-generation electric sports car. He stated that the company would need a gigantic chip fab to support its AI plans and should consider partnering with Intel. During the meeting, shareholders also approved investment in Musk’s AI venture, xAI.