The world’s richest man, Elon Musk, stands to get a lot richer in the decade ahead—perhaps. That’s because his largest and only publicly traded company has put together a proposal that, if approved by shareholders, would see Musk granted nearly $1 trillion worth of shares. This would not only make Elon Musk the world’s richest individual by a long shot, but the world’s first trillionaire, too.
However, for Musk to get this massive payout, there are plenty of conditions attached. Here’s what you need to know about Tesla’s $1 trillion offer to Musk.
What’s happened?
Today, Tesla, Inc. (Nasdaq: TSLA) announced its proposal that would see its CEO, Elon Musk, awarded nearly $1 trillion worth of TSLA shares if the company hit significant milestones over the next decade. The massive compensation package would be the largest for any single individual in history and make Elon Musk the world’s first trillionaire.
In an interview with CNBC, Tesla chairwoman Robyn Denholm said the motive behind the compensation plan for its billionaire CEO was to keep him “motivated and focused on delivering for the company.”
Musk has been criticized by Tesla investors this year for diverting his time and attention away from Tesla to his political activities, which have included supporting far-right parties in Europe and serving as the head of the Department of Government Efficiency (DOGE) under the Trump Administration.
This political involvement has turned off a number of Tesla customers and, in part, contributed to a decline in Tesla sales across various countries in 2025. Tesla’s compensation package for Musk, worth around $975 billion, aims to get the CEO focused on the car company again.
“If he performs, if he hits the super ambitious milestones that are in the plan, then he gets equity—it’s 1% for each half a trillion dollars of market cap, plus operational milestones he has to hit in order to do that,” Denholm said. Musk currently owns about 13% of Tesla.
But for Musk to get the whole of this massive compensation package, which includes a total of more than 423 million additional shares, several milestones need to be reached—including ones no company in history has ever achieved.
The terms of Elon Musk’s trillion-dollar Tesla compensation package
There are several caveats attached to the potential historic compensation package Tesla is suggesting.
First, the compensation consists of 12 tranches of shares that will be paid out if certain milestones are hit. This means Msuk would receive some compensation, but not the total proposed amount if not all the milestones are reached.
CNBC reports that the operational milestones of Musk’s compensation package include:
- 20 million Tesla vehicles delivered
- 10 million active FSD subscriptions
- 1 million robots delivered
- 1 million Robotaxis in commercial operation
- A series of adjusted EBITDA benchmarks
They also include an ever-increasing Tesla stock price, with the company needing to achieve a market capitalization of $8.5 trillion for Musk to receive the complete pay package.
Tesla would need to become the world’s most valuable company—by a long shot
To achieve the first milestone in the compensation package, Tesla would need to reach a market cap of $2 trillion. Currently, the company is about $1.1 trillion, which means its stock price would need to nearly double from today’s price of $350 per share.
That in itself is a big ask, considering Tesla sales have suffered declines in markets around the world in 2025.
But for Musk to receive the full nearly $1 trillion compensation package, Tesla’s value would need to reach a market cap of $8.5 trillion. This would by far make it the most valuable company in history.
Currently, the most valuable company ever is Nvidia, with a current market cap of around $4 trillion. The company had a market cap of $4.4 trillion in August—making it the most valuable company in history.
Tesla would need to more than double Nvidia’s current market cap to hit the $8.5 trillion valuation demanded by the compensation package. Or, to put that in another way, Tesla would need to become more valuable than the two most valuable companies today—Nvidia (worth $4 trillion) and Microsoft (worth $3.7 trillion)—combined.
Musk’s historic pay package isn’t a certainty
Before Musk even has a shot at becoming the first person to be awarded nearly $1 trillion in compensation, however, Tesla shareholders need to approve the proposed pay package.
It’s far from certain whether they will do that. The new package will be put to a shareholder vote on November 6.
As for Tesla’s current stock price, as of the time of this writing, TSLA shares are currently up around 3.9% to almost $352 per share after the compensation package proposal was made public.
However, year to date, the company’s share price is still down. TSLA shares have fallen more than 12% since the beginning of the year, and they remain well below their peak of $488 in December 2024.
