Musk could become history's first trillionaire as Tesla shareholders
approve giant pay package
[November 07, 2025] By
BERNARD CONDON
NEW YORK (AP) — The world’s richest man was just handed a chance to
become history’s first trillionaire.
Elon Musk won a shareholder vote on Thursday that would give the Tesla
CEO stock worth $1 trillion if he hits certain performance targets over
the next decade. The vote followed weeks of debate over his management
record at the electric car maker and whether anyone deserved such
unprecedented pay, drawing heated commentary from small investors to
giant pension funds and even the pope.
In the end, more than 75% of voters approved the plan as shareholders
gathered in Austin, Texas, for their annual meeting.
“Fantastic group of shareholders," Musk said after the final vote was
tallied, adding “Hang on to your Tesla stock.”
The vote is a resounding victory for Musk showing investors still have
faith in him as Tesla struggles with plunging sales, market share and
profits in no small part due to Musk himself. Car buyers fled the
company this year as he has ventured into politics both in the U.S. and
Europe, and trafficked in conspiracy theories.
The vote came just three days after a report from Europe showing Tesla
car sales plunged again last month, including a 50% collapse in Germany.
Still, many Tesla investors consider Musk as a sort of miracle man
capable of stunning business feats, such as when he pulled Tesla from
the brink of bankruptcy a half-dozen years ago to turn it into one of
the world’s most valuable companies.
The vote clears a path for Musk to become a trillionaire by granting him
new shares, but it won’t be easy. The board of directors that designed
the pay package require him to hit several ambitious financial and
operational targets, including increasing the value of the company on
the stock market nearly six times its current level.
Musk also has to deliver 20 million Tesla electric vehicles to the
market over 10 years amid new, stiff competition, more than double the
number since the founding of the company. He also has to deploy 1
million of his human-like robots that he has promised will transform
work and home — he calls it a “robot army” — from zero today.
Musk could add billions to his wealth in a few years by partly
delivering these goals, according to various intermediate steps that
will hand him newly created stock in the company as he nears the
ultimate targets.
That could help him eventually top what is now considered America’s
all-time richest man, John D. Rockefeller. The oil titan is estimated by
Guinness World Records to have been worth $630 billion, in current
dollars, at his peak wealth more than 110 years ago. Musk is worth $493
billion, as estimated by Forbes magazine.
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 Musk’s win came despite opposition
from several large funds, including CalPERS, the biggest U.S. public
pension, and Norway’s sovereign wealth fund. Two corporate
watchdogs, Institutional Shareholder Services and Glass Lewis, also
blasted the package, which so angered Musk he took to calling them
“corporate terrorists” at a recent investor meeting.
Critics argued that the board of directors was too beholden to Musk,
his behavior too reckless lately and the riches offered too much.
“He has hundreds of billions of dollars already in the company and
to say that he won’t stay without a trillion is ridiculous,” said
Sam Abuelsamid, an analyst at research firm Telemetry who has been
covering Tesla for nearly two decades. “It’s absurd that
shareholders think he is worth this much.”
Supporters said that Musk needed to be incentivized to focus on the
company as he works to transform it into an AI powerhouse using
software to operate hundreds of thousands of self-driving Tesla cars
— many without steering wheels — and Tesla robots deployed in
offices, factories and homes doing many tasks now handled by humans.
“This AI chapter needs one person to lead it and that’s Musk,” said
financial analyst Dan Ives of Wedbush Securities. “It’s a huge win
for shareholders.”
Investors voting for the pay had to consider not only this Musk
promise of a bold, new tomorrow, but whether he could ruin things
today: He had threatened to walk away from the company, which
investors feared would tank the stock.
Tesla shares, already up 80% in the past year, rose on news of the
vote in after-hours trading but then flattened basically unchanged
to $445.44.
For his part, Musk says the vote wasn’t really about the money but
getting a higher Tesla stake — it will double to nearly 30% — so he
could have more power over the company. He said that was a pressing
concern given Tesla’s future “robot army” that he suggested he
didn’t trust anyone else to control given the possible danger to
humanity.
Other issues up for a vote at the annual meeting turned out wins for
Musk, too.
Shareholders approved allowing Tesla to invest in one of Musk’s
other ventures, xAI. They also shot down a proposal to make it
easier for shareholders to sue the company by lowering the size of
ownership needed to file. The current rule requires at least a 3%
stake.
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