Musk could scoop $1trillion under a new pay deal at Tesla

Elon Musk could scoop $1trillion (£750billion) under a new pay deal at Tesla. The billionaire, already the world’s richest man with a fortune of £280billion, will hit the jackpot if the electric car giant hits certain targets over the next decade.

The ten-year package is thought to amount to the largest pay deal in corporate history. It comes after a previous package worth close to £40billion was struck down by a US court.

While Tesla is appealing that decision, the board is looking to incentivise Mr Musk to lead the company for years to come. The firm hopes the deal will convince its chief executive to focus on Tesla amid fears he has been distracted by his other business interests as well as his foray in politics with Donald Trump. ‘If Elon achieves all the performance milestones, his leadership will propel Tesla to become the most valuable company in history,’ said Tesla chairman Robyn Denholm in a letter to investors.

She said the package is ‘designed to align extraordinary long-term shareholder value with incentives that will drive peak performance from our visionary leader’. The board is now seeking shareholder approval for the plan. Under the terms of the deal, Mr Musk will receive no salary or bonus and instead be handed shares in the company in instalments as certain targets are hit.

This includes reversing the decline in Tesla’s share price and boosting the company’s market value to over £6trillion from around £750billion today. It also includes expanding Tesla’s self-driving autonomous robotaxi business and its use of artificial intelligence.

While maintaining an almost iron grip on Tesla, Mr Musk has also bought Twitter, which he renamed X, and runs rockets company SpaceX, his xAI start-up, tunnelling group The Boring Company and Neuralink, which implants computer chips in the brain.

But he courted controversy with forays into politics and was hired by President Trump to run his cost-cutting Department of Government Efficiency, which was known as Doge. The pair fell out and Mr Musk left the administration in May.

Mr Musk’s political manoeuvring coincided with a slump in Tesla sales amid a backlash from opponents and fierce competition from Chinese competitors. Tesla is now attempting to reverse the decline – and tying down Mr Musk to the company is seen as crucial to that.

Ms Denholm said: ‘We believe that Elon’s singular vision is vital to navigating this critical inflection point. We also recognise the formidable nature of this undertaking and as a result, the importance of having a leader who is not only willing and capable but eager to meet this challenge. Simply put, retaining and incentivizing Elon is fundamental to Tesla achieving these goals and becoming the most valuable company in history.’