Tesla shareholders agreed to give Elon Musk a $1 trillion salary

Tesla shareholders have overwhelmingly approved a bonus package for CEO Elon Musk that could be worth as much as $1 trillion in company stock. More than 75 percent of shareholders who participated in the poll voted in favor of the plan, which is in line with the level of support Musk has received for his past pay packages. With the announcement of the result, the shareholders present at the Tesla factory in Austin, Texas, started chanting “Elan! Elan!” they did

“What we’re about to start is not just a new chapter of Tesla’s future, it’s a whole new book,” Elon Musk said Thursday, flanked by dancing Optimus robots. According to the agreement, Musk will not receive his $1 trillion bonus immediately, nor will he receive a base salary. However, if he helps Tesla achieve a number of its goals and increase its profits along the way, he will receive hundreds of billions of dollars in revenue and gain more control over the company.

Some of these obstacles will be difficult to overcome. However, many of them are simply simplified versions of promises Musk made years ago. The salary package of this famous billionaire is divided into 12 parts, including operational goals, adjusted profit and market value, in each part, he will be given more shares if the specified goals are met. For example, Tesla’s market value today, which is about $1.5 trillion, should increase steadily and reach $8.5 trillion within a decade.

The vote came after two months of serious campaigning by Tesla, its board of directors and many of its executives. The company has repeatedly asked shareholders through public appeals to approve Musk’s pay package. Tesla CEO Robyn Denholm, who usually avoids the media, has given several interviews with major news outlets and was almost speechless before speaking at Thursday’s investor meeting. Tesla even used TV ads for the poll, something it doesn’t do for its cars.

“Tesla is at an inflection point, I think I’ve said that 3,000 times over the last few decades. Last year was one of the most pivotal years in our company’s history,” Denholm said Thursday. Musk encouraged shareholders to approve his $1 trillion pay package, claiming it was the easiest way to give him more control over the company. The famous billionaire now owns about 15% of Tesla’s shares, but has repeatedly threatened to leave the company if this figure does not reach about 25%.

Elon Musk has said that this level of control will keep him from being sidelined and losing control of the army of robots that Tesla is building. To support Musk’s salary package, Tesla presented “Master Plan 4” as a vision statement for the direction Musk could lead. The document, released in September, was vague and non-specific, a criticism even Musk accepted. He claimed that Tesla would add more details to the plan in the days after the document was released, but nothing has changed in the past months.

Tesla’s board proposed the legal package in large part because a previous 2018 plan (worth about $56 billion) was rejected last year by the Delaware Supreme Court after the judge ruled the company had not been transparent about the negotiation process. Of course, Tesla has protested this decision. Earlier this year, Tesla gave Elon Musk $29 billion in stock to make up for the loss of his 2018 bonus package, but said the package would be invalidated if Tesla wins an appeal.