The clause that could hand Musk his $824bn payday without the milestones
Buried on page five of the 16-page CEO Performance Award Agreement is a change-in-control clause: if Tesla is acquired or merges, the operational milestones get disregarded and only the market-cap hurdles remain, as the Wall Street Journal reports. Full payout still needs Tesla at roughly $8.5 trillion, more than six times its current value, delivering Musk 424 million shares. But a Tesla-SpaceX combination, following SpaceX's $1 trillion absorption of xAI at a combined $1.25 trillion valuation per Reuters, would reset the maths entirely. Shareholders approved the package with 75% support, but they voted on operational targets Musk would have to hit. A merger lets him hit a valuation number instead.
Sources
- See How a Tesla-SpaceX Merger Gives Musk a Shortcut to His $1 Trillion Payday — The Wall Street Journal
- Musk's SpaceX to merge with xAI, combined valuation $1.25 trillion — Reuters
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