$1 trillion bonus package

In a vote earlier this month, Tesla shareholders approved the largest compensation package in world history for CEO Elon Musk, with a total value of $1,000 billion, not including the more than 15% of the shares he currently holds.

Specifically, Elon Musk will receive an additional 423.7 million Tesla shares over the next 10 years if he achieves the following goals: producing 20 million cars, operating 1 million robotaxes, selling 1 million humanoids, and achieving a maximum of 400 billion USD in core profits. Tesla's capitalization must also increase sharply from the current 1.37 trillion USD to 8.5 trillion USD in the next decade.

Achieving each operational milestone and corresponding market value will give Musk an additional 1% of shares, up to a maximum of 12%, equivalent to 1,000 billion USD. At that time, Elon Musk's assets will reach about 2,400 billion USD, not including assets from other companies such as SpaceX, xAI, Neuralink, The Boring Company...

As of November 17, according to Forbes, Elon Musk has a fortune of nearly 468 billion USD, ranking number 1 in the world. Of which, Musk owns 15.7% of shares, worth about 215 billion USD.

The figure of 1,000 billion USD is equivalent to 10 car manufacturers behind Tesla, including: Toyota (262 billion USD as of November 17), Xiaomi (141 billion USD), BYD (128 billion USD), Ferrari (73 billion USD), General Motors (67 billion USD), Mercedes-Benz (66 billion USD), BMW (62 billion USD), Volkswagen (57 billion USD), Maruti Suzuki India (56 billion USD) and Ford (52 billion USD).

xedienthegioi2025Nov17.jpg
Tesla's capitalization is greater than the total capitalization of the next 10 automakers combined. Source: CMK

Getting a $1 trillion payday from Tesla shareholders is extremely difficult. Elon Musk must increase Tesla's market capitalization from the current $1.37 trillion to $8.5 trillion amid increasingly fierce competition in the electric vehicle manufacturing sector.

Tesla's electric car sales and profits fell sharply in the first half of 2025 and are being threatened by Chinese car companies such as BYD and Xiaomi, not only in China but also in many parts of the world such as Europe.

Not only that, the future of electric vehicles remains unclear.

China recently removed electric vehicles from its list of strategic industries in its 2026-2030 five-year plan, marking the end of an era of heavy subsidies. The decision comes amid overcapacity and fierce price competition in China’s electric vehicle industry.

The Trump administration also reduced subsidies for electric vehicles.

Tesla shares have increased very slowly since the beginning of the year, from 380 USD/share to 414 USD/share as of November 17, equivalent to an increase of 8.9%.

Vision - Elon Musk's greatest advantage

So what can help Elon Musk push Tesla to break out?

It can be seen that vision is the greatest strength of the world's richest billionaire Elon Musk. Instead of focusing on promoting the production of cheap commercial electric cars as before, Elon Musk boldly shifted his strategy to the self-driving car business and bet on robotaxis and humanoid robots.

Tesla is testing a self-driving robotaxi service in Austin, Texas, using Full Self-Driving software, a key step in its autonomous vehicle ambitions.

Optimus humanoidsdaily.jpg
Optimus robot dancing at Tesla's 2025 annual shareholders' meeting. Photo: HML

At the same time, Elon Musk is pushing ahead with the development of Optimus, Tesla's humanoid robot, with the goal of producing tens of thousands of them a year. He believes that robotics will be Tesla's true source of value in the future, even stating that 80% of the company's value could come from Optimus, not electric cars.

It’s a bold bet. Musk is using self-driving technology as a springboard into high automation, and if successful, Tesla will become not just a car company, but also a pioneer in physical artificial intelligence.

At this year's annual shareholders' meeting held at Tesla's factory in Austin, Texas, Tesla's robots danced on stage to the cheers of supporters of Elon Musk's vision.

According to plan, in 2026, Tesla will produce the Optimus robot, the Semi heavy-duty truck and the Cybercab steering-wheelless robot taxi model.

The billionaire said that robots require three most difficult factors: hand technology, real-world artificial intelligence (AI), and large-scale production. According to the SpaceX boss, most companies lack one of the three factors, while Tesla is the only company with the capacity to develop a new generation of robots.

Tesla's humanoid robot Optimus will not only work in factories but is expected to become a "super surgeon", helping to erase the gap in access to high-end medical care for people around the world.

Musk has shared a long-term vision that goes beyond Tesla’s current roadmap, believing that Optimus will completely transform the global healthcare system. However, Optimus is currently focused on factory and general-purpose tasks, with no medical-specific version yet. In addition, the robot still requires close human supervision; legal and ethical hurdles remain huge challenges.

Tesla’s AI division has been working at an unprecedented pace recently to meet its 2025-2026 goals, which Musk says will be “the toughest year of my life.” Tesla is racing to deploy Robotaxes across the US and accelerate the production of humanoid robots – two areas where Musk has placed his biggest bets for Tesla’s future.

Elon Musk loses the title of world's richest person, the race for a $1,000 billion fortune is heating up Larry Ellison - co-founder of Oracle and close friend of US President Donald Trump - suddenly took the title of world's richest person from Elon Musk, with his fortune skyrocketing by more than $100 billion in just one day.

Source: https://vietnamnet.vn/ty-phu-elon-musk-tung-ra-at-chu-bai-san-goi-thuong-lon-nhat-lich-su-the-gioi-2463723.html