Elon Musk comments on Tesla bulls’ new compensation plan request

Elon Musk seemingly welcomed the idea of a new performance-based compensation plan for his work as Chief Executive Officer (CEO) at Tesla. Musk’s sentiments were shared in a post on X, the social media platform formerly known as Twitter, as a response to Tesla supporters who were highlighting that the CEO has been working at the EV maker without a salary for the last year or so. 

Musk’s current performance award was approved back in 2018, and it was intended to be a 10-year plan comprised of several milestones centered around Tesla’s market cap, revenue, and adjusted EBITDA. At the time of the pay package’s proposal, the terms of the performance award seemed ridiculous. For one, it called for Tesla to have a market cap of $650 billion when the company only had a valuation of less than $60 billion then.

Musk’s 2018 performance award was equally panned and mocked by critics, partly due to its ambitious nature and its high-risk, high-reward nature. As per Musk’s 2018 compensation plan, he either receives incentives by meeting his targets or he receives nothing at all. The CEO did end up meeting all of his milestones early, with Tesla confirming in early 2023 that Musk had received the last of his 2018 performance awards — with five years to spare.

With this in mind, TSLA bulls have noted that Musk has practically been working for free at Tesla for over a year now. Thus, Tesla bulls have suggested on social media that it may be time for Tesla’s Board of Directors to consider a new compensation plan for the CEO. One Tesla supporter suggested that Musk’s goals this time around should be far more ambitious, like Tesla exceeding Saudi Aramco and Apple’s market caps combined and the EV maker producing Optimus at scale. 

That would be nice

— Elon Musk (@elonmusk) January 14, 2024

Quite surprisingly, Elon Musk responded to a Tesla advocate’s suggestion, noting that having more goals and a new compensation plan “would be nice.” Musk doubled down on this point in a later post responding to another Tesla bull, who had highlighted that the CEO’s 2018 compensation plan was considered far too ambitious when it was proposed. 

Thanks

— Elon Musk (@elonmusk) January 14, 2024

Tesla CEO Elon Musk currently stands as the world’s richest person today with a net worth of $206 billion, as per the Bloomberg Billionaires Index. But while one could argue that Musk is in no way, shape, or form lacking in funds, perhaps it may indeed be a good idea to give the CEO a new set of targets that he could work on for the next years. Such targets certainly helped accelerate Tesla’s growth the last time. 

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