Tesla Could Pay Elon Musk Up To $1 Trillion – But It Comes With A Catch

At times the richest man alive, Elon Musk isn't exactly strapped for cash — but the billionaire stands to become a whole lot wealthier. As the CEO of electric auto maker Tesla, Musk is practically synonymous with the company, for better or worse. After buying the company from its founders, Musk used his gift for garnering attention to make the company one of the most visible brands of the 2010s. He ingeniously marketed Tesla as a tech company, which helped its valuation soar in an era of big tech ascendance.

If that were the end of the story, Musk's new pay package, approved this year by Tesla's board, would still be shocking. No person has ever received a trillion dollars, but that's the stock amount the company awarded its CEO, though it must still be approved by shareholders. Stranger still, the package was approved as the halo around Musk finally began to dim. After donating nearly $300 million to his campaign, Musk joined President Donald Trump's administration as the head of a bizarre new franken-agency, the Department of Government Efficiency (DOGE). After a chaotic several months in which he tore agencies apart from the inside and left a trail of bad press, Musk's stint as the president's hatchet man ended with a public spat on social media. After publicly accusing Trump of being "in the Epstein files" in a now-deleted X post, the Tesla head had burned bridges on both sides of the political aisle.

But Musk's trillion-dollar payout seems unlikely to come to fruition despite soaring Tesla sales. The sum is contingent on several targets Tesla must hit. Even so, the CEO could make tens of billions. Here's what we know about how the deal is structured.

When Tesla approved a trillion-dollar pay package for Elon Musk in early September, it was after a truly wild year, even by his standards. After the DOGE debacle and a New York Times report alleging he had developed a concerning drug habit, Musk returned to his sprawling business empire, most notably Tesla and X (formerly Twitter). Though he raged against anti-Tesla protests breaking out globally, Musk didn't rehabilitate his public image. 

He instead became obsessed with "fixing" X's AI chatbot, Grok, which users claimed was "woke" due to its consistent contradiction of bigoted opinions. The fix turned Grok into an antisemitic conspiracy machine that called itself MechaHitler. It doesn't call itself that anymore, but it does make explicit and non-consensual fake content. That's hardly the kind of improvement to society Musk once championed, and many called the Tesla board's judgment regarding his pay into question. Despite the huge headline figure, though, Musk is unlikely to get the full amount.

First, shareholders must vote on the pay package in November 2025. If it passes, much of the money will be tied to milestones for Tesla's success. Among them, Tesla must sell 1 million vehicles. That's doable  — sales are already at 1.2 million this year  — but Tesla must also sell 1 million Optimus robots, an expensive product for which demand is unknown. Other milestones include selling 10 million FSD subscriptions and 1 million Robotaxis, which look like smoke and mirrors. Musk would cash out around $93 billion if those milestones are hit with a valuation of $3.5 trillion. That's a massive amount of money, but nowhere close to the full $1 trillion in stock, which won't be paid out unless the company reaches $8.5 trillion.