Musk Wins $1 Trillion: Tesla Shareholders Approve World’s Largest-Ever CEO Pay Package

Muskan Saini

Published on November 13, 2025

Tesla shareholders have approved Elon Musk’s record-breaking $1 trillion pay package, tied to ambitious performance and valuation milestones. While seen as key to retaining Musk amid Tesla’s AI and robotics pivot, critics warn of governance risks and excessive executive power concentration.

On Thursday, shareholders of Tesla, Inc. approved a compensation package for its CEO, Elon Musk. This could award him up to $1 trillion in company stock over the next decade, making it possibly the greatest executive compensation arrangement in business history. Each of the twelve tranches in the package is linked to operating as well as valuation benchmarks.

Staked Musk’s pay on long-term performance, the strategy covers objectives including delivering millions of vehicles, introducing robotaxis, and expanding Tesla’s market value from approximately $1.5 trillion to as much as $8.5 trillion. Musk is crucial; he won’t get the whole amount up-front; the prizes are conditional on performance, and his real compensation could be reduced according to stock price swings.

Tesla’s board contended that keeping Musk, especially given his great impact and participation in defining the future of the company in artificial intelligence and robotics, required this kind of compensation. Shareholders approved by over 75% at 2025 Annual Shareholder Meeting. Also, the Tesla Board approves a new $29 billion stock award for Elon Musk in aug 2025. Some experts claim that Tesla regards its future change, from electric cars to AI-powered services and humanoid robots, as so vital that connecting Musk’s pay to ambitious goals is a tactical step. Notwithstanding the majority vote, the project generated major criticism. Big institutional investors raised governance alarms, noting that such a big payout might devalue shareholders and concentrate power in one individual.

Norges Bank Investment Management, which administers Norway’s sovereign wealth fund and has a stake in Tesla, has publicly opposed the proposal. It cited that the proposal is ‘key-person-risk’ and worries that the corporation would be too reliant on Musk’s continuous presence. Watchers of governance claim the agreement calls to mind earlier disputes; Musk’s prior $56 billion reward package from 2018 was later contested in court for want of openness.

Elon Musk must meet both the production and valuation criteria included in the agreement for the firm to realise its whole value; failure to fulfill the pledges could cost Musk far less than $1 trillion.