Tesla Motors chief executive Elon Musk is set for an unprecedented $1 trillion pay package, provided he can drive the company towards a valuation of $8.6 trillion within the next decade.
The pay-for-performance plan revealed by Tesla on Friday sets up Mr Musk for more clout as he delves into technologies beyond electric vehicles and amid a legal battle over a previous salary package worth $56 billion.
The $8.6 trillion valuation would be more than eight times Tesla's market capitalisation, which on Friday stood at about $1.06 trillion. If it is achieved, Mr Musk's would be granted up to 12 per cent of Tesla shares – equivalent to about $1.03 trillion.
He is already the world's richest person, with an estimated wealth of about $378 billion, according to the Bloomberg Billionaires Index.
The move, revealed in a filing to the US Securities and Exchange Commission, comes after Tesla in early August approved an interim stock award worth about $30 billion to Mr Musk. At that time, the company said it would put forward a longer-term compensation plan to a vote at its annual meeting on November 6.
Tesla also argued that it structured Mr Musk's pay package unlike its corporate peers, saying traditional benchmarking analysis is “irrelevant” in his case, based on his success at the company.
The decision was particularly based on Mr Musk's achievements for its 2018 performance award and the “magnitude” of the milestones for this year, according to the filing.
“[Tesla's] Special Committee was aware of the size of the compensation packages provided to chief executive officers at Tesla’s peer group companies and public companies with a similar market capitalisation, but expressly declined to recommend setting the amount of Mr Musk’s incentive compensation opportunity by benchmarking to these chief executive pay packages,” it said.
“Mr Musk is being asked to transform Tesla and, in so doing, provide transformative technologies to better society as a whole.
“Accordingly, traditional compensation packages granted to executives at other companies were determined to not be appropriate for designing Mr Musk’s incentive compensation.”
Mr Musk has long sought more voting power within Tesla. He will be granted this if he achieves Tesla's goals, raising his 13 per cent voting stake to give him more say on governance and key corporate issues.
This “provides Mr Musk with the opportunity to earn voting influence while challenging him to meet a series of extraordinary performance milestones”, Tesla said.
The compensation comes as Mr Musk continues to push his interests outside EVs, particularly in robotics and the booming artificial intelligence industry.
Tesla had already introduced its autonomous Robotaxis and Optimus humanoids, while xAI has been going toe-to-toe with generative AI majors including Google, Microsoft and ChatGPT maker OpenAI.
His SpaceX is also ramping up its operations, especially after its Starship carrier for missions to the Moon and Mars completed test flights last week.
Tesla's new plan overlaps a continuing legal fight involving a $56 billion pay package for Mr Musk, which some shareholders had challenged. Last December, Judge Kathaleen McCormick voided the pay, despite Tesla shareholders approving it in vote in June.
The company said in Friday's filing that Mr Musk’s $56 billion award has “helped lift the ceiling on CEO pay” while also acknowledging the widening the gap between workers’ and executives’ pay packages.
However, Tesla argued that “no company in the world has … compensation plans where pay for their most important executive is entirely contingent on achievement of such daunting and challenging goals”.
The specs
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Engine: 6.2-litre V8
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Transmission: 10-speed automatic
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- Wear the right fabric for the right season and occasion
- Always ask for the dress code if you don’t know
- Wear a white kandura, white ghutra / shemagh (headwear) and black shoes for work
- Wear 100 per cent cotton under the kandura as most fabrics are polyester
Don’ts
- Wear hamdania for work, always wear a ghutra and agal
- Buy a kandura only based on how it feels; ask questions about the fabric and understand what you are buying
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Trans fat is typically found in fried and baked goods, but you may be consuming more than you think.
Powdered coffee creamer, microwave popcorn and virtually anything processed with a crust is likely to contain it, as this guide from Mayo Clinic outlines:
Baked goods - Most cakes, cookies, pie crusts and crackers contain shortening, which is usually made from partially hydrogenated vegetable oil. Ready-made frosting is another source of trans fat.
Snacks - Potato, corn and tortilla chips often contain trans fat. And while popcorn can be a healthy snack, many types of packaged or microwave popcorn use trans fat to help cook or flavour the popcorn.
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€39 million: Liverpool agreed a fee, including add-ons, in the region of €39m (nearly Dh176m) to sign Salah from Roma last year. The exchange rate at the time meant that cost the Reds £34.3m - a bargain given his performances since.
13: The 25-year-old player was not a complete stranger to the Premier League when he arrived at Liverpool this summer. However, during his previous stint at Chelsea, he made just 13 Premier League appearances, seven of which were off the bench, and scored only twice.
57: It was in the 57th minute of his Liverpool bow when Salah opened his account for the Reds in the 3-3 draw with Watford back in August. The Egyptian prodded the ball over the line from close range after latching onto Roberto Firmino's attempted lob.
7: Salah's best scoring streak of the season occurred between an FA Cup tie against West Brom on January 27 and a Premier League win over Newcastle on March 3. He scored for seven games running in all competitions and struck twice against Tottenham.
3: This season Salah became the first player in Premier League history to win the player of the month award three times during a term. He was voted as the division's best player in November, February and March.
40: Salah joined Roger Hunt and Ian Rush as the only players in Liverpool's history to have scored 40 times in a single season when he headed home against Bournemouth at Anfield earlier this month.
30: The goal against Bournemouth ensured the Egyptian achieved another milestone in becoming the first African player to score 30 times across one Premier League campaign.
8: As well as his fine form in England, Salah has also scored eight times in the tournament phase of this season's Champions League. Only Real Madrid's Cristiano Ronaldo, with 15 to his credit, has found the net more often in the group stages and knockout rounds of Europe's premier club competition.
Director: Laxman Utekar
Cast: Vicky Kaushal, Akshaye Khanna, Diana Penty, Vineet Kumar Singh, Rashmika Mandanna
Rating: 1/5
