Sep 5, 2025 - Business

Elon Musk's potential $1 trillion Tesla payday comes with a huge asterisk

Ben Berkowitz

Tesla CEO Elon Musk, in a black hat, t-shirt and jacket, standing in front of flags in the Oval Office. — Tesla CEO Elon Musk in the Oval Office. Photo: Kevin Dietsch/Getty Images

Elon Musk stands to become the world's first trillionaire if he fully earns a new pay package at Tesla — which comes with an astronomical series of goals for increasing the company's market value.

Why it matters: Achieving those goals would make Tesla the most valuable company in history, and Musk, already the world's richest person, massively wealthier still.

Driving the news: Tesla filed a preliminary proxy statement with securities regulators on Friday morning, laying out a "2025 CEO Performance Award" that it wants shareholders to approve.

By the numbers: The award lays out a series of milestones to hit, essentially steps to unlock the full compensation package for Musk.

At the highest end, if he takes Tesla's market capitalization by 2035 to $8.5 trillion — roughly 8 times where it is today, and about double the world's current most valuable company, Nvidia — he could unlock the full award.
Tesla said the fair-market value of the award was $87.75 billion and would let Musk acquire up to 12% of Tesla's outstanding stock.
If the company's market cap grows eightfold, that would make him the founder of the trillion-dollar club.
In trading before the market open, shares of Tesla were up 2%.

This is a developing story.

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Elon Musk's potential $1 trillion Tesla payday comes with a huge asterisk

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