Tesla shareholders overwhelmingly approve Elon Musk’s trillion-dollar pay package

Elon Musk
On November 6, 2025, Tesla shareholders overwhelmingly approved a groundbreaking compensation package for CEO Elon Musk, potentially worth up to $1 trillion in stock—positioning him to become the world’s first trillionaire if ambitious milestones are met.
With over 75% voting in favor at the company’s annual meeting in Austin, Texas, the plan underscores investor confidence in Musk’s pivot toward artificial intelligence and robotics as Tesla’s next growth engine.
Central to the package’s rationale is Tesla’s Optimus humanoid robot, a bipedal machine designed for factory labor and eventual home use, with Musk envisioning “one for every person on Earth.”

The deal ties Musk’s rewards to hitting audacious targets, including delivering 1 million Optimus units, deploying 1 million robotaxis, and scaling Tesla’s market cap to $8.5 trillion over the next decade—milestones that hinge on robotics breakthroughs to offset slowing EV sales.
Musk has called Optimus “the future of the company and of humanity,” arguing it could propel Tesla’s valuation to $25 trillion by addressing labor shortages and revolutionizing daily life.
This trillion-dollar pay package approval comes as tech giants race into the humanoid market, projected to reach nearly one billion units by 2050.
Apple, long rumored to be exploring robotics post its canceled car project, is reportedly developing a humanoid robot capable of household tasks like folding laundry, with analysts forecasting up to $133 billion in annual revenue by 2040 through seamless integration with its 2.3 billion-device ecosystem.
Starting with tabletop assistants in 2026-2027, Apple’s push — bolstered by its hardware-software synergy — could directly challenge Optimus in consumer homes, intensifying a rivalry that blends AI innovation with ethical questions around privacy and job displacement.
As Tesla accelerates Optimus production toward one million units annually by 2029, the stage is set for a transformative showdown in embodied AI.
Gene Munster for GeneMunster.com:
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Going into the shareholder meeting, I felt the pay package would be approved, but not by the wide margin of victory it enjoyed. I was expecting the vote to end 55-60% in favor, well below the actual result of more than 75% support. While highlighting the percentage of support may seem like an irrelevant detail of the meeting, I believe it’s important because it speaks to the buy-in that both retail and institutional investors have regarding Musk’s mission.
The vision investors are buying into is largely based on Optimus, as evidenced by Elon’s opening remarks focusing on the humanoid’s potential, marking the start of a new book in the Tesla story rather than just a new chapter. My take is Elon has articulated perhaps the boldest target yet: making Optimus the majority of their business. That’s a smart move given it’s so far out there that it’s hard to be held too accountable for near-term progress, and there’s little chance any company has both the guts and balance sheet to challenge Tesla in building the same vision.
The timing of the Optimus ramp, which I put at 500k or more a year, is still in my book three or more years away.

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MacDailyNews Take: We know one company that has the balance sheet to challenge Tesla in humanoid robots. Whether it has the guts to do so given its current, aging leadership is the main question.
Regardless, betting against the visionary and daring Elon Musk remains a fool’s errand.

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