ELON Musk is one step closer to becoming the world’s first trillionaire after securing a record-breaking $1 trillion Tesla pay package – the biggest corporate deal in history.
The tech boss took to the stage and danced with one of Tesla’s humanoid Optimus robots after shareholders in Texas voted 75 per cent in favour of the deal.
Footage from the annual meeting showed a smiling Musk mirroring the robot’s moves as the crowd chanted “Elon! Elon! Elon!”.
The spectacle capped a dramatic week for Tesla, whose investors defied opposition from major funds and corporate governance watchdogs to hand Musk a deal that could double his stake in the company.
To cash in, he must grow Tesla’s market value from $1.4 trillion to $8.5 trillion, sell 20 million cars, and deploy a million robotaxis and humanoid robots over the next decade.
Calling the meeting a “banger”, Musk told shareholders after the vote: “I super appreciate it.
“Other shareholder meetings are snoozefests but ours are bangers. Look at this. This is sick.”
The billionaire, already worth just under $500 billion, has called Tesla’s humanoid robot programme the company’s “infinite money glitch”.
He claims the Optimus line could one day “eliminate poverty” and even perform complex surgery.
“I think there could be tens of billions of Optimus robots out there,” he said.
Supporters see the deal as a bet on Musk’s vision to transform Tesla from a carmaker into an artificial intelligence and robotics empire.
Critics, including Norway’s sovereign wealth fund and California’s massive public pension CalPERS, slammed the award as excessive.
They argue it offers “extraordinary pay levels without commensurately exceptional performance.”
The package survived despite a Delaware judge earlier striking down a smaller $56 billion deal, calling Tesla’s board too close to Musk.
The company has since reincorporated in Texas, where Thursday’s vote took place.
Musk had warned he might walk away if the package was rejected, a threat that loomed large for investors who still view him as Tesla’s biggest asset.
Even so, the road to the trillion-dollar mark is steep.
Tesla faces slowing car sales, intensifying Chinese competition, and ongoing regulatory scrutiny of its self-driving technology.
Yet Musk, ever the showman, seems undeterred.
“What we’re about to embark upon is not merely a new chapter of the future of Tesla, but a whole new book,” he told shareholders.
Elon Musk’s rise to wealth has been as fast as his SpaceX rockets.
The South African-born entrepreneur made his first fortune selling PayPal to eBay in 2002.
He then poured his winnings into Tesla and SpaceX, ventures many predicted would fail.
Instead, Musk turned Tesla the world’s most valuable car maker and SpaceX into a dominant force in private spaceflight.
His wealth exploded during the pandemic tech boom as Tesla shares soared and his other ventures – from Starlink to xAI – expanded his reach.
