Elon Musk’s $1 Trillion Salary Package Under Fire: Tesla Shareholders Raise Alarm

A group of Tesla shareholders, including SOC Investment Group and several state officials, have voiced concerns over the proposed $1 trillion compensation package for CEO Elon Musk. They have urged other investors to reject the plan at Tesla’s November meeting.

In September, the American EV firm’s board announced that Musk could receive a pay package worth $1 trillion, contingent on achieving a series of ambitious targets over the next decade. Under the plan, Musk would earn the package if he boosts Tesla’s value eightfold, sells a million AI robots, delivers another 12 million Tesla cars, and meets several other goals.

Musk, already the world’s richest person, would be awarded shares gradually as he meets these targets, with no salary or bonus involved.

In a letter, the shareholder group criticized Tesla’s board for its “relentless pursuit” of keeping Musk at the helm, arguing it has slowed progress on key initiatives set at the previous annual meeting. They also cited concerns over declining operational and financial results and a “failure to provide meaningful real-time oversight of management.”

The group, which includes the state treasurers of Nevada, New Mexico, and Connecticut, also called on other shareholders to vote against the re-election of directors Ira Ehrenpreis, Joe Gebbia, and Kathleen Wilson-Thompson.

On the compensation plan, Tesla said in a post on X (formerly Twitter) that the performance-based package aligns Musk’s pay with shareholder value creation of “trillions of dollars,” adding that “if Elon Musk doesn’t deliver results, he receives nothing.”