Topline
SpaceX’s filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission to take the company public added to a growing list of compensation rewards for CEO Elon Musk, whose record-breaking fortune could add even more billions after establishing a colony on Mars and a robot fleet, among others.
A new filing from SpaceX outlined how much more Musk could add to his record-breaking fortune.
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Key Facts
SpaceX, in its S-1 filing on Wednesday, disclosed a compensation package for Musk that could award its chief executive nearly 1 billion additional shares should the company achieve several market valuation milestones
For those stocks to be vested, SpaceX said the company must also establish a “permanent human colony” on Mars with at least 1 million inhabitants.
SpaceX will separately award some 302 million shares to Musk should the company develop “non-Earth-based” data centers capable of delivering 100 terawatts of compute each year—about 29 times the electricity generated globally in 2023.
That could add an estimated $1 trillion that Musk could earn from his new compensation package as Tesla’s CEO: The automaker could award Musk more than 423 million shares, upping his stake from 13% to about 25%, should Tesla achieve one dozen operational milestones through 2035.
Tesla requires the company to achieve a market valuation of $8.5 trillion and $400 billion in core profits, or increases of about 436% and more than 2,600% from a $1.5 trillion valuation as of Friday and $14.6 billion in core profits as of 2025, respectively.
Tesla said the full stock award would be vested after the company delivers 1 million of its Optimus robots, has 1 million active robotaxis over three consecutive months and has 10 million active autonomous cars, which requires drivers to have a subscription to Tesla’s Full Self-Driving software.
What Else Is Included In Elon Musk’s Pay Deals?
Some of the requirements in Musk’s compensation packages are likely more attainable: Tesla said some shares would be awarded if the company delivered 20 million cars by 2035, in addition to lower market valuation milestones. Tesla has delivered about 8.6 million vehicles since 2016 and would need to average about 1.1 million each year over the next decade to hit the milestone, after delivering 1.6 million cars in 2025, 1.7 million in 2024 and 1.8 million in 2023. Musk would be awarded an additional 35 million shares if Tesla reached a $2 trillion market capitalization, with further rewards of 35 million shares for every $500 billion added to its market value.
Forbes Valuation
Musk is the richest person in the world with an estimated net worth of $810.8 billion as of Friday. He is expected to become the first person to be chief executive of two companies valued at $1 trillion or more after SpaceX’s stock debut, which will all but guarantee him becoming the first person with a fortune above $1 trillion. Forbes estimates Musk’s SpaceX stake at nearly 40%, and if SpaceX is valued at $1.5 trillion, that would value his equity at about $600 billion, increasing his net worth to just over $1.4 trillion. His fortune could be pushed above $1.6 trillion if SpaceX is valued at $2 trillion, valuing Musk’s stake at roughly $800 billion.
Key Background
Musk has publicly declared several goals for his companies in recent years, including ambitions to establish a colony on Mars and deliver millions of AI-powered robots. He made several claims about Tesla’s Optimus robots, suggesting they could “eliminate poverty,” “give everyone amazing health care” and could be “bigger than cell phones, bigger than anything.” Musk also claimed the robots could be used for “containment of future crime.” His pay packages have come under criticism: The manager of Norway’s sovereign wealth fund and proxy firms Glass Lewis and Institutional Shareholder Services said they would oppose Tesla’s compensation package for Musk, arguing the deal had a “lack of mitigation of key person risk.” Jay Ritter, a finance professor and director of the University of Florida’s market research program, the IPO Initiative, warned that SpaceX could rely on its Starlink profits to send people to Mars at “enormous cost.” Should Musk continue to have a “great desire” to colonize Mars, shareholders likely couldn’t oppose it, as Musk controls 85% of SpaceX’s voting power, Ritter said.