Tesla and SpaceX CEO Elon Musk arrives to the inauguration of U.S. President-elect Donald Trump within the Rotunda of the U.S. Capitol on Jan. 20, 2025 in Washington, DC.
Chip Somodevilla | By way of Reuters
A model of this text appeared in CNBC’s Inside Wealth e-newsletter with Robert Frank, a weekly information to the high-net-worth investor and shopper. Enroll to obtain future editions, straight to your inbox.
Tesla mentioned it wanted to incentivize CEO Elon Musk with a record-breaking pay bundle with a view to compete together with his personal corporations, in line with a proxy the corporate filed final week.
The submitting outlines a share award that might be value $1 trillion if all of it pays out. Tesla additionally mentioned Musk’s different corporations — primarily SpaceX and xAI Holdings — now account for many of his wealth and due to this fact will command most of his consideration except Tesla pays him extra.
“A majority of Mr. Musk’s wealth is now derived from different enterprise ventures exterior of Tesla, and he has extra enticing choices as we speak than ever earlier than,” the proxy mentioned. The pay bundle of as much as 423 million shares is important, it added, to forestall Musk from “prioritizing different ventures.”
It will likely be as much as shareholders to approve the bundle, after all. However the proxy highlights the surging valuations of Musk’s personal corporations and the competing pursuits of xAI, SpaceX and Tesla.
Till final 12 months, the overwhelming majority of Musk’s wealth got here from his Tesla inventory. The Bloomberg Billionaires Index pegs Musk’s wealth at about $385 billion, whereas Forbes estimates his wealth is at $436 billion. The distinction is probably going tied to his 2018 pay bundle, which remains to be in dispute and is valued at between $60 billion and $100 billion. If the compensation plan is restored, and/or he receives an interim comp bundle proposed within the proxy, Musk’s web value is nearer to $436 billion.
Right now, lower than half of that fortune comes from Tesla inventory.
Based mostly on his present possession of 13% of the corporate, Musk’s Tesla shares are value about $140 billion. Musk has argued that he wants at the least 25% of voting management of Tesla to forestall the corporate from being taken over because it develops extremely delicate and highly effective synthetic intelligence know-how and robots.
At SpaceX and xAI, he has extra voting management, with 42% of SpaceX and a majority stake in xAI. SpaceX is planning an insider share sale that might reportedly worth the corporate at $400 billion, almost double its valuation final 12 months. On the $400 billion valuation, Musk’s stake can be value about $170 billion — greater than the worth of his present Tesla stake.
xAI’s valuation has grown even quicker, from $80 billion at the beginning of the 12 months to a possible $200 billion in a brand new fundraising spherical. Musk owns greater than 50% of the corporate, placing his stake nicely over $100 billion.
Collectively, Musk’s stake in xAI and SpaceX are actually value almost twice as a lot as his Tesla shares. Added to his stakes in Neuralink — valued at round $9 billion — and his different corporations, his personal firm wealth eclipses his Tesla wealth.
In fact, that will not be for lengthy. If he’s awarded the 423.7 million shares of restricted inventory within the new 2025 compensation plan, and if Tesla hits its goal valuation of $8.5 trillion, Musk’s Tesla shares can be value over $2 trillion.
