> Tesla-SpaceX Merger Gives Musk a Shortcut to $1 Trillion Payday

Deep in a $1 trillion pay package approved by Tesla’s shareholders is an escape clause that could pay off for Elon Musk in several ways if he folds the automaker into his SpaceX empire.

Tesla shareholders voted to adopt the pay package last fall. Under ordinary circumstances, it would deliver to Musk as many as 423.7 million shares if Tesla hits a series of 12 market-value targets and the company also meets just as many cash-flow and operating goals. Among them: delivering Tesla’s 20-millionth vehicle, selling one million robots and putting one million robotaxis on the street.

Yet tucked into the bottom of the fifth page of the 16-page 2025 CEO Performance Award Agreement, a single sentence declares half the targets are as good as accomplished if Tesla is acquired or otherwise taken over.

“This $1 trillion—that was supposed to be a stretch,” said Mary Ellen Carter, a Boston College accounting professor who studies executive pay. “It turns out it isn’t really that hard. All you have to do is be bought.”

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