Sept. 5 (UPI) — Tesla is preparing to offer Elon Musk a new pay and incentives plan that would give him more control, more shares and up to nearly $1 trillion in compensation.
Musk is already the world’s wealthiest person, and this new plan is worth about $975 billion.
In order to cash in on the full amount, Musk would have to multiply Tesla’s stock value by eight times over the next decade. All of his compensation would be in Tesla shares. Stockholders will vote on the package at a Nov. 6 annual shareholders’ meeting. Tesla also said in the filing Friday that it will ask shareholders to vote on whether to invest in Musk’s new xAI.
“Retaining and incentivizing Elon is fundamental to Tesla achieving these goals and becoming the most valuable company in history,” Robyn Denholm, chair of the Tesla board, and Kathleen Wilson-Thompson, a director on the board, said in a letter to shareholders.
Musk’s net worth is more than $400 billion, according to Forbes. This compensation plan would add around $900 billion. If he raises Tesla’s stock value from $1.1 trillion to $8.5 trillion, it would be the highest compensation in history.
He would also have to stay at Tesla for 7.5 years to cash in his shares, and 10 years to get the full amount. He would also have to deploy 1 million autonomous taxis and humanoid robots, plus see a more than 24-fold increase in profits.
“If he performs, if he hits the super ambitious milestones that are in the plan then he gets equity — it’s 1% for each half a trillion dollars of market cap, plus operational milestones he has to hit in order to do that,” Denholm said on CNBC’s Squawk Box.
As companies around the world work to create electric cars, self-driving cars and robots, these milestones will be an enormous challenge.
Many shareholders are disillusioned with Musk over his recent performance. Tesla has seen profits slow in the past year as his behavior and his foray into politics hurt the company’s stock prices.
In January, a Delaware Chancery Court judge ruled against Musk’s 2018 compensation package and ordered him to return what he’d already earned from it.
Each of the 96 million shares received in the deal trades at just over $300. Musk would have to pay $23.34 for each of those shares, equal to the amount he was expected to pay when he was first awarded his 2018 compensation package. Tesla is appealing the ruling.
In early August, Tesla’s board gave Musk a $29 billion pay package.
The new package was a “good faith” award designed to keep Musk at the helm of the company.
It would give him 96 million shares of the company that he could take after two years of service in a “senior leadership role” at Tesla. Musk hinted last month that he wanted more ownership at Tesla beyond his 13% stake to prevent his ouster by “activist” shareholders.