Tech billionaire Elon Musk has alienated legions of potential automobile patrons, rattled buyers, and drawn deserved scrutiny for his political antics—and now he’s asking for a payday that might make him the world’s first trillionaire.
When Tesla shareholders meet Thursday in Austin, Texas, they’ll vote on whether or not to grant Musk a compensation package deal that might very nicely make him the world’s first trillionaire. If the proposal fails, Musk has threatened to stroll away from the electrical automobile firm.
Musk’s supporters say the inventory award would reward efficiency. In actuality, it’s an obscene show of wealth in a rustic the place hundreds of thousands face shedding federal meals help amid the GOP-led authorities shutdown.
A Tesla electric-vehicle charger in Georgia, proven in 2024.
Based on CNN, the plan would hand Musk as many as 423.7 million extra shares in Tesla over the subsequent decade, price roughly $1 trillion if Tesla hits an $8.5 trillion market cap, which is a requirement for Musk to qualify for that unfathomable sum of money.
Previously, Tesla shareholders have authorised Musk’s pay packages, however this one has drawn uncommon backlash. Tesla itself warned that Musk had “raised the possibility that he may pursue other interests” if denied. That menace looms giant over an organization whose inventory worth stays risky.
“If that is the only thing that has value anymore, then we’re in big trouble,” Pope Leo XIV stated.
Musk hasn’t taken the criticism nicely, unsurprisingly. He’s accused opponents of being “corporate terrorists.”
To safe the deal, Musk wants approval from a majority of Tesla’s voting shareholders—although he’ll get to forged his personal sizable vote, controlling about 15% of the corporate. The proposed plan was first disclosed in September in a 200-page submitting to federal regulators, which additionally detailed different agenda objects for the annual assembly, together with whether or not Tesla ought to spend money on Musk’s AI startup, xAI.
Demonstrators protest towards Elon Musk and the so-called Division of Authorities Effectivity exterior a Tesla dealership in Kansas Metropolis, Missouri, in April.
If his ludicrous payout is authorised, Musk received’t pocket all the cash directly—or presumably ever. He’ll should hit a spread of targets, together with the corporate producing its 20 millionth automobile. Nonetheless, even when he falls brief, he stands to realize billions.
The timing is awkward, to say the least. As of publishing, Musk is price over $490 billion, in keeping with Forbes’ real-time knowledge. That places him far forward of anybody else on earth. And whereas Tesla’s market worth has soared to $1.5 trillion, the corporate’s financials have softened—gross sales and income dropped within the first half of the yr, and the lack of federal EV subsidies has created new headwinds.
Tesla’s rise has rested primarily on buyers’ religion in Musk. However his latest monitor document—political distractions and impulsive public feedback—has rattled even longtime believers.
“He frequently teeters on the edge of disaster,” Tesla investor Nancy Tengler instructed ABC, “and then pulls back just in the nick of time.”
Whether or not he’ll pull it off once more stays to be seen. For now, the world’s richest man is angling for what may very well be historical past’s largest payday—all whereas hundreds of thousands of Individuals brace for the subsequent missed paycheck.
