Elon Musk just became the first CEO to land a $1 trillion pay deal

Elon Musk just got a trillion-dollar vote of confidence.

Tesla shareholders on Thursday approved a record $1 trillion pay package for the CEO — the largest ever awarded to a corporate executive — at the company’s annual meeting in Austin, Texas. AFP reported that more than 75% of investors backed the deal, which Tesla says is designed to keep Musk leading its push into artificial intelligence and robotics.

The historic package locks Musk in at Tesla for at least seven and a half more years, boosting his ownership stake from roughly 12% to potentially more than 25%.

“I’d like to just give a heartfelt thanks to everyone who supported the shareholder votes. I super-appreciate it,” Musk told attendees, smiling as cheers broke out on the Austin factory floor, revealed multiple media reports. 

Tesla’s board argued that keeping Musk in the driver’s seat is critical to the company’s future. Chair Robin Denholm warned before the vote that Tesla’s stock could fall sharply if Musk ever walked away.

But the decision has already sparked fierce backlash. Activist group Tesla Takedown slammed the outcome, saying, “Elon Musk just got one trillion dollars for failure. Sales are down, safety risks are up, and his politics are driving customers away.”

The plan follows a long history of headline-making compensation. Musk’s previous $55.8 billion award in 2018 — then the largest in corporate history — was later struck down by a Delaware court after shareholder lawsuits claimed it was excessive. Tesla’s board regrouped this year, first approving a smaller $29 billion package in August, then dramatically upping it to the trillion-dollar proposal in September.

With an estimated net worth topping $500 billion, Musk remains the world’s richest individual, according to Forbes. To unlock the full payout, he must hit 12 performance targets, starting with pushing Tesla’s market capitalisation from $1.5 trillion to $2 trillion.

Other milestones tie his reward to profitability and production — including the ambitious goal of delivering 20 million vehicles.

Musk has long tied his future to Tesla’s — but also used his leverage to signal he could walk away. “Tesla will be the most valuable company in the world by far,” he told investors in July, “if we execute on AI and autonomy.”

Now, with shareholder backing and control over a quarter of Tesla’s stock, Musk’s grip on the company is stronger than ever.

Whether investors will see a trillion-dollar return on that faith is the question Wall Street — and the world — will be watching.