How much can Tesla pay Elon Musk? Delaware's Supreme Court will decide
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On Wednesday, the Delaware Supreme Court will hear the latest set of arguments in a yearslong legal drama over Tesla CEO Elon Musk's record-setting compensation package.
The pay package, worth tens of billions of dollars, was laid out back in 2018 . It didn't give Musk a salary, but instead, promised him more and more Tesla shares the better the company did. The goals laid out for the highest awards — which called for Tesla's value to grow tenfold — seemed somewhere between audacious and utterly impossible at the time. Back then, the board told shareholders Musk could stand to gain $55.8 billion if he met all the goals.
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The company grew incredibly quickly, and Tesla says that Musk unlocked the full suite of shares in 2022.
The exact value of the pay package depends on when and how you count; Tesla's share price is volatile. But as of mid-October 2025, with Tesla stock at $429.24, the pay package could hypothetically be worth well over $100 billion.
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