Musk secures trillion-dollar payout from Tesla shareholders

The richest man in the world might be getting significantly richer, and nobody is happy but him.

Techno-billionaire Elon Musk secured a possible trillion-dollar payout from Tesla shareholders on Friday after a promise to further the company significantly.

On Friday, Tesla's majority shareholders voted with a 75 percent majority to offer Musk the pay package, given that he meets a set of criteria outlined by the shareholders.

The sheer magnitude of the payment has drawn criticism, but Tesla defended the move, claiming it was necessary to keep Elon involved in the company. According to Tesla, the company cannot afford to lose Musk.

‘A new chapter'

Musk took the stage in Austin following the announcement.

“What we're about to embark upon is not merely a new chapter of the future of Tesla, but a whole new book,”

-Elon Musk

He added that “Other shareholder meetings are snoozefests, but ours are bangers. Look at this. This is sick.”

A list of requirements

Elon needs to achieve everything on the following list within the next 10 years to secure his absurd payout.

These are the milestones Musk will need to achieve:

Delivering 20 million Tesla vehicles and one million robots

Getting 10 million subscriptions to Tesla's Full Self-Driving feature

Bringing one million self-driving Robotaxi vehicles into commercial operation

Earning up to $400bn in core profit

Eventually lifting Tesla's overall market value to $8.5tn, currently $1.4tn

Per the agreement, Musk will not be receiving a salary during this time, but the stocks he would receive as compensation for completing the list are currently valued at nearly $1tn USD.

Can Musk hit the goals?

The laundry list of milestones Musk needs to hit will be no easy task, specifically raising Tesla's market share from 1.4tn to 8.5tn.

Musk would need to raise Tesla stock by 466% in the next ten years, something experts claim is a long shot.

Self-driving disasters

US regulators are currently looking into hundreds of incidents involving self-driving cars, including the Waymo taxi service.

Right now, there is a debate regarding the transparency and honesty of Tesla regarding its Autopilot features. Multiple reports have been released claiming Tesla cars will disengage autopilot mode seconds before an impact, relieving the company of any responsibility for the accident.

Scale of wealth

WASHINGTON, DC – MARCH 5: White House Senior Advisor to the President and Tesla and SpaceX CEO Elon Musk departs the U.S. Capitol Building on March 5, 2025 in Washington, DC. Musk was meeting with Republican senators at a closed door lunch. (Photo by Andrew Harnik/Getty Images)

A trillion dollars is an almost unimaginable amount of money, so let's try to break it down.

If you earned 5 million dollars per day, it would take you just under 550 years to make a trillion dollars.

There are only 20 countries with a GDP of at least a trillion dollars, the number that Elon could earn in 2036.

At $4,350/acre, Elon Musk could buy a quarter of America's farmland with $1 trillion.

Estimates from the Washington Post and economic experts say that America's 90% hold a combined net worth of approximately $45 trillion USD. According to the Federal Reserve's data, the median net worth of an American household (not individual) is $192,000. This means Musk could have the equivalent wealth of 5,000,000 working-class families.

And finally, we'll use a classic example. If you counted to one trillion one number per second, it would take you about 31,600 years to reach one trillion. Try now, see how high you can get!