Here’s How Elon Musk Could Become the World’s First Trillionaire
Elon Musk is already the richest person alive with a net worth of about $436 billion, but Tesla’s new pay plan could push him into trillionaire status. The deal would pay him entirely in Tesla shares if he can raise the company’s value from roughly $1 trillion today to $8.5 trillion by 2035. To qualify, he must also remain with Tesla for the next decade. If the company’s value doesn’t at least double, Musk receives nothing.
The package is divided into 12 tranches tied to performance milestones. The first milestone is unlocked when Tesla hits a $2 trillion valuation. Other milestones include selling 20 million vehicles, deploying one million robotaxis, and delivering one million humanoid robots. Each milestone grants Musk an additional 1 percent of Tesla’s shares, with the final awards also requiring him to lay out a succession plan for Tesla’s leadership.
The Giant To-Do List
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This isn’t Musk’s first extreme pay package. In 2018, Tesla approved a $56 billion plan tied to performance goals that many considered unrealistic. Musk met those targets early, but the deal was later struck down in court. The new plan is far larger, and unlike the last one, it adds goals beyond cars, which requires Tesla to scale new business lines like AI robots and robotaxis.
By the end of the 10-year period, Musk will be 64, which is why Tesla’s board included the succession requirement. Investors will decide whether to approve the plan in a shareholder vote scheduled for November 6. While the board stresses that retaining Musk is critical to Tesla’s future, some shareholders remain skeptical about his ability to focus while running several other companies.
Debate Over Musk’s Pay
The package has drawn criticism not only because of its size but also because of Musk’s polarizing role as Tesla’s CEO. Some shareholders argue that his political activity and outside ventures, like running SpaceX and X, pull attention away from Tesla. Legal experts also expect possible challenges, especially since a Delaware judge struck down the 2018 award twice.
The scale of Musk’s potential payday has reignited debates over wealth inequality. Wealth in the U.S. is heavily tied to stock ownership, and the richest 1 percent hold nearly half of all shares. Musk’s fortune, built largely on Tesla stock, highlights how the ultrawealthy accumulate wealth differently than middle-income workers whose earnings are taxed as wages. For Musk, the package is structured so that his payout grows only if Tesla’s shareholders also see extraordinary gains.
Can He Really Do It?
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Tesla’s past growth shows why some think Musk could succeed. At the start of 2020, his net worth was just $28.5 billion. By the end of that year, it had jumped to $167 billion as Tesla’s stock price soared from about $30 to nearly $300 a share. Still, reaching $8.5 trillion would mean Tesla becomes more than twice as valuable as Nvidia, currently the most valuable company in the world.
The goals ahead are enormous, but Musk has a track record of achieving what once looked impossible. If he delivers, he could become the first person on Earth with a trillion-dollar fortune