Elon Musk's Net Worth Nears a Trillion: Tesla Shareholders Approve a Billion-Billion Payout

Elon Musk could become the first man on the planet with a personal net worth of over $1 trillion .

The South African-American entrepreneur has seen Tesla , the famous electric car manufacturer, approve a compensation package worth a trillion dollars in company shares .

Musk, Tesla's CEO, will increase his ownership from 13 percent of the company's shares to 25 percent, if all the conditions set out in the agreement are met. This is a necessary move for Tesla's other shareholders: Musk had in recent months indicated that he might resign or focus more on his other companies , such as SpaceX, if the board of directors did not grant him greater control over the automaker.

This is how shareholders approved the deal with Musk, with the green light coming with 75 percent of the vote. This agreement comes at a difficult time for Tesla , partly because of Musk himself: his political overexposure , with his support for Donald Trump but also for various far-right movements around the world, has in some ways made owning a Tesla "unpopular" among progressive voters, who before Musk's rightward shift were particularly attracted to electric cars also for a political reason: support for the green agenda.

Tesla's difficulties have also been increased by some of Musk's business decisions that have turned out to be failures : first and foremost the Cybertruck, the car manufacturer's latest model in which Musk invested heavily but which turned out to be a resounding market flop.

Yet shareholders preferred to "secure" Musk's role as CEO. He had already attempted this in 2018, when Tesla was in its infancy: the company had approved a $56 billion compensation package, which, however, was deemed unlawful and overturned by a Delaware court at the end of 2024.

In any case, Musk won't pocket the trillion right away. The payment will be structured in 12 phases , subject to the achievement of various company goals, some of which are currently very distant.

The amount decided by the shareholders remains incredible, however. Musk's guaranteed compensation is greater than Switzerland's GDP : only 19 countries in the world exceed $1 trillion in gross domestic product.