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Tesla shareholders assembled on Thursday to decide on a enormous pay deal for the company's leader valued at nearly $1 trillion. If approved, this plan would showcase investor confidence that the entrepreneur can lead the car company into an age shaped by AI technology and advanced machinery. Should it fail, Tesla could confront the loss of a key figure who historically built the company name equivalent with EVs.

Historic Goals and Company Valuation

Should Musk achieve the lofty objectives specified in the pay package introduced at Tesla's annual meeting, he could emerge as the pioneering person with a trillion-dollar net worth. For this to happen, he must lead Tesla to a monumental $8.5 trillion in market value, which is eight times its current valuation. Moreover, he will be required to roll out millions autonomous vehicles and bipedal machines, while maintaining the company's bottom line in the hundreds of billions of dollars throughout the coming ten years.

Reward System

The key aims of the compensation plan, split into twelve stages, delineate a roadmap for Tesla to achieve its colossal market capitalization. Upon achievement, Musk would be eligible to realize gains on an further 12% of the company's stock. To be eligible, he must remain vested with the corporation for at least 7.5 years. Furthermore, he is required to help develop a long-term succession plan for the enterprise he has managed for more than 20 years. The stock options offered by the new compensation plan, in addition to shares promised in his earlier deal, would result in Musk with 25 percent equity of Tesla's equity. By the start of November, Tesla shares were valued close to its yearly maximum, at approximately $450 each share.

Ambitious Targets

Over the course of a ten-year period, Musk will be tasked to deliver 20 million electric vehicles to consumers, sell 10 million live FSD memberships, develop and sell 1 million humanoid robots, and deploy 1 million self-driving cabs in commercial service.

Musk will also be required to increase the company to $400 billion in tangible revenue for four straight quarters. Tesla's actual earnings for the third quarter of 2025 were $4.2 billion, 9 percent lower from the previous year.

In November, Musk's net worth was estimated at $460 billion, the leading in the globe, according to market tracking.

Reinstating a Revoked Deal

Stockholders are furthermore reviewing a arrangement that would remunerate Musk after his 2018 compensation plan was voided by a court in Delaware. The remuneration deal, estimated to be $56 billion, was contested by a single stockholder who prevailed in court. The state court dismissed Musk's pay package twice. Upon stockholder approval the plan in Thursday's vote, Musk is expected to be granted the huge sum regardless of if Tesla and Musk overturn the ruling of the lawsuit.

Subsequent to Musk's previous compensation plan was initially invalidated, he relocated Tesla's business registration out of Delaware and into Texas. He did the same with the rocket firm and other companies' headquarters. In 2024, under Texas law, shareholders again voted to approve the pay package.

But Delaware's often referred to as "judicial body" for a second time rejected one of the largest CEO pay deals in modern history. After that adverse judgment, Musk took to social media to show frustration with the jurisdiction and its "prominent judicial figure", possibly fueling a series of corporate exits that Delaware lawmakers have tried to stop with new laws.

In reviewing whether Musk had excessive control in being granted that previous compensation plan, a prominent legal scholar remarked that the court acknowledged that other "superstar CEOs" like the Meta chief and the Amazon founder were not awarded this kind of goal-oriented agreements.