Elon Musk: The Future of Tesla and the Path to Becoming a Trillionaire

Elon Musk and Tesla's Goals

Elon Musk could lead Tesla to a valuation of 8 trillion USD within the next decade, making him the world's first trillionaire. However, for this to happen, shareholders need to approve the latest proposed compensation plan for Musk. This vote will take place at the annual shareholder meeting scheduled for this Thursday in Austin, Texas.

As stated in Tesla’s annual proxy statement, if Musk meets all the performance targets outlined under the 2025 CEO Performance Award, he will lead the company to become the most valuable company in history.

In addition, aside from the forward-looking proposals for Musk's 1 trillion USD compensation, shareholders will also consider an alternative payment route of 56 billion USD remaining from the 2018 compensation plan. The company is also requesting shareholders to vote against several other shareholder proposals. The previous payment package was invalidated twice by a Delaware court, and an appeal process is currently ongoing in a higher court, so Tesla wants to ensure that Musk receives his payments.

The 2025 compensation package includes targets beyond just increasing the company’s market value. The required targets are divided into twelve "tranches," each defined by its own growth goals. The first tranche requires the market value to reach 2 trillion USD. The following nine targets demand an additional 500 billion USD in growth each, with a goal of reaching 8.5 trillion USD by 2035. In addition to each financial target, there are product development requirements.

Musk must sell 20 million Tesla electric vehicles, provide 10 million active autonomous driving subscriptions, produce 1 million humanoid robots, and deploy 1 million robo-taxis for commercial use in order to earn 12% of the company’s shares over the next decade. Additionally, he is expected to deliver 400 billion USD in actual earnings across quarters. In the third quarter of 2025, the actual earnings were 4.2 billion USD, reflecting a 9% decrease from the previous year.

As a result, Musk needs to increase Tesla’s market value from 1 trillion USD today to 8.5 trillion USD. He must also maintain ownership for at least seven and a half years and help develop a long-term succession plan. As the company’s value increases, the value of the shares will also rise, thereby increasing his own wealth.

The company emphasized that the proposed targets would be "extraordinarily difficult and a highly challenging process for both Tesla and Musk." If these financial targets are achieved, Tesla will reach a value that is nearly greater than the combined value of Meta, Microsoft, and Alphabet.

Some commentators suggest that even if Musk does not reach all these goals, he could still earn billions. Tesla's Chairwoman Robyn Denholm stated that voting "no" on the 2025 compensation plan could risk losing Musk as CEO. Denholm noted that Musk has not received significant compensation in the last eight years due to legal battles over the 2018 compensation plan. In a note signed by Denholm and board member Kathleen Wilson-Thompson, they emphasized that Musk's accomplishments during this agreement have led to the increase of Tesla's 735 billion USD market value.

If the new compensation plan is awarded alongside the 2018 package, Musk will be able to own more than 25% of Tesla’s shares. As of November 5, Tesla shares were trading around 450 USD and were approaching their 52-week high.

On November 4, SEC filings indicated that Musk and others planned to vote against the 1 trillion USD compensation package based on social media postings. However, within hours, the situation changed. Schwab announced, "We believe supporting this proposal will align management with shareholder interests and provide the best outcome for all parties."

Meanwhile, Norges Bank Investment Management (Norway's sovereign wealth fund) and Tesla’s seventh largest shareholder announced this week that they would vote against the proposed compensation package, stating, "We are concerned about the total size of the award and believe that key person risk has not been mitigated."

Despite Musk’s posts related to the voting on his own '__X__' social media platform and the support from existing board members, at least three investment firms have committed to supporting the proposal.

As the largest individual shareholder of Tesla, Musk technically has the right to vote in favor of his own compensation package with ownership of more than 500 million shares. Lawrence Hamermesh, a retired professor from Widener University Delaware Law School, stated, "If a controlling shareholder can vote to approve their own compensation, that would be a rather sad commentary on accountability."

Tesla aims to motivate its CEO through compensation plans that offer stock options in exchange for specific targets. However, the last compensation package established in 2018 was challenged by a shareholder in Delaware court, resulting in its invalidation. Musk, expressing his discomfort with the court rulings, sought to move Tesla's headquarters from Delaware to Texas. His publicly stated discomfort with Delaware court rulings has fostered a corporate trend known as #DExit, where leading companies like Dropbox and Meta have threatened to move their corporate headquarters out of Delaware as well.

It is noted that Elon Musk possesses significant pulling power that extends even to corporate law. Eric Talley, a professor at Columbia Law School, expressed that Delaware's title as the "corporate home" has largely gone unchallenged at least until 2024, but Elon Musk has taken steps to challenge that status.