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Tesla offers Musk a $1 trillion pay package

Sep 5, 2025, 8:20am EDT
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 Elon Musk attends the opening ceremony of the new Tesla Gigafactory
Patrick Pleul/Reuters

Tesla has offered CEO Elon Musk an unprecedented compensation package worth about $1 trillion to entice him to stay at the electric carmaker — a deal that could make him the world’s first trillionaire.

To unlock the full payout, however, the billionaire must meet ambitious targets, including scaling Tesla’s robotaxi business and taking the company’s market value to $8.5 trillion within a decade — nearly nine times its current worth.

The additional shares on offer could boost Musk’s stake in the carmaker to at least 25%, Bloomberg reported. Musk had threatened to walk if he didn’t get more stock.

The massive compensation offer comes as Tesla faces one of its worst sales streaks, with its stock falling 16% this year, driven by rising competition, government cuts to EV subsidies, and Musk’s polarizing politics.

Musk has sought to shift the company’s focus from affordable EVs to robotaxis and humanoid robots, repositioning the automaker as an AI and robotics powerhouse.

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