Elon Musk and the road to becoming the first trillionaire

(Dan Tri) - Tesla is playing a historic gamble: nearly 1,000 billion USD for Elon Musk, the target capitalization surpasses Microsoft and Nvidia, promising the CEO to become the first trillion-dollar billionaire.

In its newly released Master Plan IV, Tesla paints an ambitious vision of the future, an era of "sustainable prosperity" powered by solar energy, self-driving cars cruising the roads, and armies of humanoid robots replacing manual labor.

This dream, as far-fetched as it may seem, is the basis for the electric car company's board of directors to make a groundbreaking proposal: a "super compensation plan" that could make CEO Elon Musk the first person on Earth to own a fortune of $1,000 billion.

More than just a compensation package, this is a challenge, a contract that binds Musk's fate to Tesla for the next decade and also a test of shareholders' faith in the leader considered the soul of the company.

Decoding the "super bonus" package of the century

In essence, the plan is a purely performance-based bonus paid in Tesla stock. To receive the estimated $900 billion, Elon Musk would not only have to remain CEO for at least 10 years, but also have to lead Tesla through a series of milestones that have been described as “Mission Impossible.”

Central to the plan is the goal of raising Tesla's market capitalization from its current roughly $1.1 trillion to a whopping $8.5 trillion.

To put that in perspective, that’s more than the combined value of Nvidia (the AI ​​chip giant, around $4 trillion) and Microsoft (the software giant, around $3.7 trillion) at the moment. Tesla would have to become the world’s most valuable company by a wide margin.

The plan is divided into 12 tranches. Every time Tesla's market capitalization increases by $500 billion (from the $2 trillion mark), and simultaneously achieves parallel operating goals, Musk will receive a portion of the shares.

But capitalization isn't everything. The accompanying operating targets really show Tesla's ambition:

Delivering 20 million electric vehicles: This is many times the current production and would put Tesla in a giant position in the auto industry.

1 million robotaxis in operation: Realizing the dream of a fully autonomous taxi network, an area Musk has long pursued.

Delivering 1 million Optimus humanoid robots: A bet on a whole new industry where Tesla believes robots will transform global labor productivity. Analysts cited by Tesla estimate the market could reach $4.7 trillion by 2050.

10 million paid subscribers for Full Self-Driving (FSD) software.

Profitability metrics (EBITDA) are growing strongly, with the ultimate goal of operating profit increasing from $17 billion last year to $400 billion.

If this entire "contract" is completed, Elon Musk will receive an additional 423.7 million shares, increasing his ownership from 13% to about 25% (before taxes). His power at Tesla will be absolutely consolidated.

Elon Musk could become the world's first trillionaire by 2027 (Photo: Reuters).

The real motive: "Tie down" a genius or "correct" a distracted CEO?

In an open letter to shareholders, Board Chair Robyn Denholm and Board member Kathleen Wilson-Thompson wrote: "Retaining and motivating Elon is fundamental to Tesla achieving these goals and becoming the most valuable company in history."

That explanation sounds plausible, but analysts look deeper into the context. In recent years, Elon Musk has become an increasingly divisive figure. He not only runs Tesla, but also spends time on aerospace company SpaceX, artificial intelligence startup xAI and social network X.

Musk’s deep involvement in right-wing politics , including his time in the Trump administration, has particularly upset a significant portion of Tesla’s loyal, liberal customers. Tesla’s sales and profits have declined over the past year, with some analysts blaming Musk’s “distractions” for part of the problem.

Robyn Denholm, in an interview with CNBC, candidly admitted that the pay package is intended to "keep our billionaire CEO motivated and focused on making the company successful."

In other words, this could be seen as a giant “carrot,” an attempt by the board to bring Musk’s focus back to Tesla, after a period when he was caught up in the culture wars and other business projects. Notably, the plan does not place any limits on the time Musk is allowed to spend on political activities or his other companies.

"Ghosts" from the past and a sophisticated legal chess game

This isn’t the first time Tesla has offered Musk a controversial compensation package. The current plan mirrors the structure of the 2018 package, when Musk was promised tens of billions of dollars in bonuses if he met what seemed like unrealistic goals at the time. He did.

However, the 2018 “century bonus” was invalidated by a Delaware judge earlier this year after a shareholder sued, claiming the package was excessive and the board had not been adequately informed about the approval process.

The case is an important backdrop for the current legal game. Tesla is appealing the ruling to the Delaware Supreme Court. But more importantly, the company made a strategic move: it moved its registered office from Delaware to Texas. The move was no accident. Texas law is considered more corporate-friendly and places higher barriers for small shareholders who want to sue the company.

By letting shareholders vote on the new compensation package in their home state of Texas on November 6, Tesla is building a stronger legal defense that will make it much more difficult to challenge the package.

Where is Tesla in the midst of the competitive storm?

While management paints a trillion-dollar future, Tesla's reality isn't entirely rosy.

Their lead in the electric vehicle market is being severely shaken. Chinese automakers like BYD and Geely have surpassed Tesla in global sales. Even traditional giants like Volkswagen, General Motors and Hyundai are launching a series of new electric models, making Tesla’s Model 3 and Model Y obsolete.

Many analysts criticized Musk for wasting resources on the Cybertruck super pickup truck, a product with a poor customer base, instead of focusing on developing more popular models to compete.

In response, Musk appeared to downplay the importance of car sales. He repeatedly emphasized that Tesla’s future lay not in making cars, but in artificial intelligence, self-driving cars, and robotics. The new compensation package is the clearest expression of this vision: goals for Robotaxi and Optimus are on par with those for making cars.

Tesla, once a pioneer in the electric car market, is now lagging behind Chinese automakers such as BYD and Geely in global sales and is at risk of being overtaken by Volkswagen, according to data from SNE Research (South Korea) (Photo: Equilar).

The shareholder vote on November 6 will be the first chapter in the fate of the trillion-dollar gamble. If passed, it will set an unprecedented precedent in corporate governance.

The plan is fraught with contradictions. It is both a testament to the extraordinary vision of Elon Musk, who has always set goals far beyond the imagination of ordinary people. But it also exposes the risks of a public company relying too heavily on a single individual, an individual who is both a genius and a source of countless controversies.

Is this the push Tesla needs to break out, leave behind all competitors and reshape the future of humanity? Or is it just a desperate attempt to control an unpredictable CEO while Tesla faces the rough waves of a fiercely competitive market?

The answer will determine not only who will be the first trillionaire, but also the legacy of one of the 21st century's most influential companies.

Source: https://dantri.com.vn/kinh-doanh/elon-musk-va-con-duong-tro-thanh-ty-phu-nghin-ty-usd-dau-tien-20250906005155302.htm