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• Topic:Company News

4h ago4 hours agoFri 7 Nov 2025 at 2:59am

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At Tesla's Texas factory, shareholders chanted "Elon, Elon" as they overwhelmingly approved the largest-ever CEO compensation package for the company's controversial boss.

More than 75 per cent of the shares were voted in favour of the deal for Elon Musk, who walked on stage and dropped a few dance moves alongside a humanoid robot before telling the small crowd, "I super appreciate it".

If Musk delivers on the full terms of the deal he will take control of about a quarter of the company and increase Tesla's market value by trillions of dollars.

The vote has garnered huge attention, not just because of Musk's personal (often controversial) profile, or how unusual it is for a company board engage in such public lobbying, but because of the eye-watering fact that it puts Musk on track to become the world's first trillionaire in the next decade.

What is a trillionaire?

It's a tricky question, because in reality there hasn't been one before — Musk would be the first if he hits the milestones outlined in the pay deal.

A trillion is equal to a thousand-billion — that is a number with 12 zeros: $1,000,000,000,000.

And Tesla obviously operates in US dollars, so we're talking $US1 trillion, which would be $AUD1.54 trillion.

That's more than half the value of Australia's economic output last year, which was $US1.75 trillion ($2.7 trillion), according to the World Bank.

In October, Musk became the world's first half-trillionaire and, once again, its richest person.

As UTS Business School professor Carl Rhodes recently told ABC News Daily, it's simply "an unfathomable amount of money".

It likely makes very little difference personally to go from being a half-trillionaire to a full-blown trillionaire.

"No-one can spend that amount of money — there's no material benefit from having half a trillion dollars," Rhodes said.

"In many ways, this about power as much as it is about money."

More on that to come.

To try and put the mind-boggling number into perspective, if you wanted to spend $1 trillion in a year, you'd need to be getting through more than $19 billion every week.

What happened at the Tesla meeting?

The shareholder meeting was held Tesla's Texas factory, where several investors in the audience wore cowboy hats.

There was a lot of techno music and blue lighting, at 3pm in the afternoon, Austin time.

The meeting kicked off with an address from Tesla chair Robyn Denholm, who implored shareholders to vote in favour of the deal in order to keep Musk with Tesla in the long-term.

Shareholders were then talked through the range of proposals they needed to vote on — the pay package for Musk wasn't the only one.

There were also several shareholder proposals regarding the improvement of governance at the firm, including reducing director terms to require re-election every year.

In the end the votes went the way Tesla's board wanted, with shareholder proposals they hadn't endorsed being voted down and Musk's pay packet going through, leading to the brief chant of "Elon, Elon" from the small crowd.

Musk then took the stage, performing a dance alongside humanoid robots before he gave a lengthy presentation on his plans for the company and took questions.

What are the details of Musk's pay deal?

Tesla's pay proposal links Musk's potential payday to ambitious milestones for the company — or "aspirational goals", as the company put it in a letter to shareholders.

In order to receive the full award, Tesla's market capitalisation would need to increase by approximately $US7.5 trillion by 2035 — up from $US1 trillion currently.

That's alongside other thresholds — for example, Musk would need to deliver one million commercially operable robotaxis and one million AI bots.

If Tesla hits the valuation milestone required to give Musk an additional 12 per cent stake in the company, that stake would be worth about $1 trillion.

Musk's award would consist of more than 423 million Tesla shares, available in 12 tranches, subject to the stock hitting a particular market capitalisation goal, and operational milestones.

He would also need to stay with the company for at least seven and a half years, and up to a decade to receive the full value.

Tesla's chair, Ms Denholm, an Australian who was formerly an executive at Telstra, conducted a media blitz in the lead-up to the meeting, warning Musk could quit if his pay package wasn't approved.

The company's official filing on the CEO compensation package outlined Musk's desire to exert his influence over the company by increasing his shareholding.

"Mr Musk is independently wealthy and has consistently demonstrated that he is motivated by more than just conventional forms of compensation," the letter read.

"Rather, he is driven by bold, high-stakes challenges that allow him to fundamentally reshape industries and society, while [maximising] long-term shareholder value."

Musk would gain the voting rights to stocks earned under the deal as soon as he achieved particular milestones, but then be required to continue serving at the company longer in order to gain ownership — known as shares "vesting".

Was it expected to go through?

Wedbush analyst Dan Ives, a noted Tesla bull, had been confident shareholders would approve the deal.

He said it would send "a loud and clear message to Elon being 'wartime CEO' during this most important chapter of growth in Tesla's history, as the AI revolution is here".

However, there was public opposition from some major investors as well as proxy advisory firms — that is, groups institutional investor assign to vote on their behalf, or take recommendations from on how to cast their vote.

Norway's sovereign wealth fund, which is Tesla's sixth-largest outside investor, for example, warned it would vote against the deal earlier this week.

However, Tesla has a very large base of retail investors and the firm targeted them directly through advertising and with a dedicated "Vote Tesla" website.

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In one video, an Optimus humanoid robot urged shareholders to follow the board's recommendations and vote in favour of the compensation package.

"To continue to realise extraordinary shareholder value, we need to put in place the adequate incentive structure for our CEO and ensure the stability of our board of directors," the Tesla robot said.

Musk himself was allowed to vote on the pay deal, also, and given he owns about 15 per cent, it was no small piece of the pie.

Over the last few years his political views and volatile relationship with Donald Trump have created headlines and led some investors to question whether Musk's public intertwinement with the Tesla brand is more liability than asset.

The backlash against Musk has coincided with sales slumping in some markets, as other electric vehicle players gain a foothold.

And that hasn't been without its effect on the Telsa share price — although it's recently been riding the broader stock market rally.

Musk took a step back from his involvement with the Trump administration's White House amid investor questions about his focus on Telsa.

"He seems to spread himself pretty thin, but the shareholders of these companies seem to have a lot of faith in him and reward it incredibly handsomely," Carl Rhodes told ABC News Daily.

Rhodes, the author of Stinking Rich: The Four Myths of the Good Billionaire, speculated that part of Musk's drive to increase his shareholding was to give him the power to override activist shareholders.

Didn't a US court strike down a Musk payday?

Yes — and that's a key motivator in this potential trillion-dollar pay package.

A Delaware judge blocked Musk from receiving a $US56-billion compensation package from 2018 and determined that he had controlled the pay negotiations.

The court ruled that the pay packet was excessive and did not allow it to be reinstated despite shareholders supporting it.

The case remains before the Delaware Supreme Court on appeal.

"We have no clear timeline for resolution, as we are still waiting not only for a ruling, but a hearing date," a letter to shareholders from board directors read.

After the Delaware debacle Tesla moved its corporate holding to the state of Texas.

"Here, we benefit from a corporate governance framework that enables boards to listen to, and act in accordance with, the will of shareholders, keeps them accountable to shareholders, and facilitates the bold decision-making necessary to drive extraordinary innovation," the company said in a letter to shareholders.

In addition to the trillion-dollar 2025 pay deal approved at the shareholder vote on Thursday, US time, Musk was also given an interim stock award, valued at about $US29 billion, as a "good faith" payment while the 2018 award remains the balance.