Tesla shareholders approved a $1 trillion (€856 billion) compensation plan for chief executive Elon Musk on Thursday, awarding the world’s richest person what would be the largest corporate payout in history if he meets the goals necessary to receive it.

The pay package, which several high-profile investors opposed, demonstrates that shareholders still believe Mr Musk can lead the automaker in an era dominated by robotics and artificial intelligence.

The result of the vote was announced at the annual shareholder event in Austin, Texas, with more than 75 per cent of investors voting in favour of the plan. Chants of “Elon” erupted in the room at the news of its approval.

“Thanks, guys,” Mr Musk said, after briefly dancing on stage alongside the company’s Optimus robots.

Mr Musk described the Optimus robots, which have not gone into mass production, as the future of the company and of humanity. He reiterated a claim that it would be “the biggest product of all time”, and suggested they could be used in everything from healthcare to prisons.

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“You now get a free Optimus and it’s just going to follow you around and stop you from doing crime,” Mr Musk said. “You don’t have to put people in prisons and stuff. It’s really wild to think of the possibilities.”

Mr Musk had previously said he wanted the pay package for more control over the company and to exert “strong influence over this robot army” that he vowed to build as the company branches into robotics.

Mr Musk’s staggering compensation is comparative with the GDP of entire countries, exceeding that of Ireland, Sweden and Argentina. It vastly exceeds federal funding for entire government programmes and dwarfs that of other tech moguls such as Mark Zuckerberg.

Critics of the package, including some investors, argued that awarding Mr Musk concentrated power in the hands of one erratic leader, and ignored the challenges the company has faced.

“Elon Musk just got $1tn for failure. Sales are down, safety risks are up, and his politics are driving customers away. This isn’t leadership – it’s the world’s most expensive participation trophy,” the protest group Tesla Takedown said in a statement.

If Mr Musk delivers on the lofty milestones in the pay package laid out at the annual meeting, he could become the world’s first trillionaire. To do so, he would need to guide Tesla to $8.5 trillion in market capitalisation, eight times what it’s worth today. He would also be required to deploy millions of autonomous vehicles and humanoid robots, and sustain the company’s bottom line in the hundreds of billions over the next decade.

The major goals of the compensation plan, split into 12 tranches, lay out a path for Tesla to reach that enormous market capitalisation. If he brings the company to that financial height, Mr Musk would be able to cash in on an additional 12 per cent of the company’s stocks. To do so, he has to be vested in the company for at least seven and a half years.

He would also have to help develop a long-term succession plan for the company he has led for more than 20 years.

The stock options provided by the new compensation plan, on top of shares guaranteed to him in his 2018 package, would leave Musk with 25 per cent ownership of Tesla’s stock. As of November 5th, Tesla stock was trading close to its 52-week high, at about $450 per share.

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Over the course of a decade, Mr Musk is required to deliver 20 million of Tesla’s electric vehicles to buyers, sell 10 million active full self-driving subscriptions, develop and sell 1 million humanoid robots, and deploy 1 million robotaxis in commercial service.

Mr Musk will also be required to bring the company to $400 billion in actual earnings for four consecutive quarters. Tesla’s actual earnings for the third quarter of 2025 were $4.2 billion, down 9 per cent from the year prior.

As of November, Musk’s net worth was $460 billion, the highest in the world, according to Bloomberg’s Billionaire Index. – Guardian