Tesla shareholders overwhelmingly approved a compensation package for CEO Elon Musk that could be worth up to $1 trillion in company stock.
More than 75% of participating shareholders voted in favor of the plan, according to the amount of support Musk has received for previous pay packages. As the result was announced, shareholders in the room at Tesla’s Austin, Texas factory began chanting, “Elon! Elon!”
Flanked by dancing Optimus robots, Musk said Thursday that “what we’re about to start is not just a new chapter of Tesla’s future, but a whole new book.”
Under the deal, Musk will not receive $1 trillion immediately. He won’t get a salary either. But he stands to earn hundreds of billions of dollars and gain more control of Tesla if he helps the company hit certain milestones and boost profits along the way. Some of these obstacles will be difficult to overcome. Many, however, are simply watered-down versions of promises Musk has made over the years.
The pay package is divided into 12 installments — covering operating, adjusted profit and market capitalization goals — each giving Musk more shares if those goals are met. For example, Tesla, which currently has a market capitalization of about $1.5 trillion, will need to steadily increase that valuation to reach $8.5 trillion in a decade.
The vote followed two months of aggressive campaigning by Tesla, its board and many of its executives. The company has repeatedly rejected public appeals to shareholders to approve the package. Chairman Robyn Denholm, who is usually media shy, did several interviews with major news outlets and had lost some of her voice before addressing investors at Thursday’s meeting. Tesla even ran TV ads about the vote — something it doesn’t even do for its cars.
“Tesla is at an inflection point — I think I’ve said it 3,000 times in the last few weeks — and this last year has been a critical one in our history,” Denholm said Thursday.
Techcrunch event
San Francisco
|
13-15 October 2026
Musk encouraged shareholders to approve the package because, he claimed, it was the easiest way to give him more voting control over the company. He currently owns about 15%, but has threatened (multiple times) to leave Tesla if he doesn’t end up with about 25% control. That amount would insulate him from being pushed out and losing control of the “army of robots” Tesla is building, Musk said.
Tesla balked at the package in part by holding up the company’s “Master Plan 4” as a visionary statement of where Musk might take it. That document, released in September, was vague and unspecified — a criticism even Musk agreed with. He claimed that Tesla would add more details to the “Plan” just days after its release, but nothing has changed in the intervening months.
Tesla’s board pushed this pay package in large part because the previous plan from 2018 (worth about $56 billion) was struck down by Delaware’s Chancery Court last year after a judge ruled the company wasn’t transparent about its bargaining process. Tesla appealed the decision.
Earlier this year, Tesla handed Musk $29 billion in stock to make up for the loss of the 2018 package, but said he would effectively cancel that amount if Tesla wins on appeal.
