Tesla shareholders have approved a $1 trillion compensation plan for Elon Musk, giving the world’s richest man the largest potential payout in corporate history if he can hit a series of massive targets.
The announcement came during Tesla’s annual shareholder meeting in Austin, Texas, where more than 75 percent of investors voted in favor. The crowd erupted in chants of “Elon” as Musk took the stage, thanked the audience, and danced briefly with Tesla’s humanoid Optimus robots.
Musk described the robots as “the biggest product of all time” and suggested they could be used in areas ranging from healthcare to prisons. “You now get a free Optimus and it’s just going to follow you around and stop you from doing crime,” he joked.
The package, which rivals the GDP of several countries, is meant to reward Musk for turning Tesla into a robotics and artificial intelligence powerhouse. To earn it, he must lead Tesla to a market capitalization of $8.5 trillion, roughly eight times its current value, and hit a range of performance goals over the next decade.
Those goals include selling 20 million vehicles, launching one million robotaxis, producing one million humanoid robots, and maintaining Tesla’s earnings at $400 billion across four consecutive quarters. For perspective, Tesla earned about $4.2 billion in the third quarter of 2025, down nine percent from the year before.
The plan divides the payout into 12 parts linked to specific milestones, similar to Musk’s 2018 compensation plan that was struck down by a Delaware court earlier this year. That earlier $56 billion deal was invalidated after a shareholder lawsuit claimed Tesla’s board was overly loyal to Musk. Following the ruling, Tesla relocated its corporate headquarters from Delaware to Texas, where shareholders re-approved a new version of the plan under local law.
Critics say the award concentrates too much power in Musk’s hands. The advocacy group Tesla Takedown called it “the world’s most expensive participation trophy,” citing Tesla’s declining sales, rising safety issues, and Musk’s divisive politics.
Supporters, however, see it as a bet on his long-term vision. “This is about keeping Elon focused on Tesla’s transformation,” said one investor. “It’s not just a car company anymore. It’s a robotics and AI company in the making.”
If Musk meets every goal, he would own roughly a quarter of Tesla’s stock and become the world’s first trillionaire. Whether he gets there or not, investors appear willing to gamble that his vision of autonomous cars and robot workers will pay off.